Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

249 - The Unquiet Dead

Seventeen hundred ghouls.

By Lex’s estimation, that was how many Severance had cut down so far, and they were still coming. But now, at last, their numbers were thinning out, the undead ponies no longer pressing against each other in a tightly-packed mob as they rushed forward. The earth no longer seemed to shake under the press of innumerable hooves, and the horde’s shrieks and snarls and mad laughter was an unpleasant din rather than a deafening cacophony. Although the creatures were still charging out of the darkness, they were no longer the seemingly-unstoppable wave of certain death that they had been when the battle had started.

The army of ghouls was almost depleted.

Two thousand altogether, Lex decided, fighting to at least sit up as he surveyed the situation, comparing the current numbers charging at Severance with how numerous they’d been a few minutes ago and calculating an approximation from that. It was a staggeringly huge number, one that outlined the scope of just how far Vanhoover had fallen, but at the moment he found it encouraging. We just need to destroy a few hundred more of them! Fortunately, the ghouls seemed willingly complicit in their own destruction; despite their depleted ranks, they continued to charge Severance blindly, their eyes locked onto Garden Gate in naked hunger.

But his optimism was dashed a moment later as he saw another pair of ghouls slip by Severance, the scythe’s attack pattern not having changed. The undead ponies immediately launched themselves at Garden Gate, who had only just managed to finish off her current opponent, wrenching her knife out of the unmoving body’s eye socket as she turned to face the latest threats. Even from a distance, Lex could see her panting, and knew that it wouldn’t be long before she reached her limit the same way he had. If that happened, then even the remaining trickle of ghouls could conceivably still kill them all.

Without preamble, Lex gave Sonata – who had let her song end when Aria had arrived – a sharp look. “Keep singing!” he snapped. “Reinforce Garden Gate immediately!”

But Sonata just blinked at him uncomprehendingly. “Why? It’s not like it wore off or anything.”

Lex’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What?”

“The magic in a Siren’s voice doesn’t quit working the instant we stop singing,” explained Aria bitterly, sending another hateful glare at her sister before looking back at where Garden Gate was still fighting. “It goes on for at least a few minutes, even if we’re not trying to make it last longer.”

“Yep!” chirped Sonata, completely missing the dark look from Aria as she favored Lex with a cocky grin. “And I used two different tunes on Garden, one to get her totes pumped up and another to, like, super inspire her to do her best! That’s pretty much pushing the limit for how much I can make someone into a super-awesome fighting machine with my singing.” She couldn’t help but glance back at the big hole behind them, hoping that the audience there was enjoying everything that had happened so far. Everyone had gotten to show off pretty good now, and Lex said the ghouls were starting to run out, so all that was needed was a big dramatic finish!

“What about the actual spells you cast on her?” pressed Lex. He was fairly confident at least one of them had to have given out. “Are they still active?”

“Um…” Sonata paused then, pursing her lips as she concentrated for a moment. “I used two, one to make her feel brave and the other one to make her mad. The brave one should still be going. The other one-, oh! It ran out!” She raised a hoof and lightly bopped herself on the head sheepishly. “Wow, I completely forgot! Talk about embarrassing, huh?”

“Can you cast it again?” asked Lex through gritted teeth. On his other side, Aria shook her head in disgust.

“Yep!” Oblivious to the others’ reactions to her admission, Sonata nodded her head before singing a brief tune, turning to concentrate on Garden.

Lex didn’t bother to wait for the results to take effect, instead turning to look at Aria. “I gave Garden Gate three magical gemstones to help her fight. Use your tracking spell and locate them immediately.”

“That won’t work,” shot back Aria without missing a beat. “That spell is designed to locate people, not things.”

“Then use your magic to enhance her, or at least attack the ghouls attacking her!” hissed Lex. “Do something useful!”

This is the thanks I get for saving your life? Baring her teeth at what sounded to her like an implication that Sonata was more helpful than she was, Aria forced herself to swallow the bile she felt. “Fine, but like I said, you made me use most of my strongest magic already, so don’t complain if what I’ve got left isn’t exactly impressive.” A moment later she raised a hoof and whispered the words to a spell, sending out four small darts of light out to slam into the ghoul closest to Garden Gate. The creature’s body shook as each hit struck home, and turned its head to send an angry howl at Aria…which proved to be its last mistake, as Garden slammed her knife into the back of its neck, causing the thing to shudder before collapsing.

But the hit left her open to the other ghouls surrounding her, one of them sinking its teeth into the back of her right hind leg, causing her to stumble as a cry of pain escaped her lips. The second one didn’t hesitate to capitalize on the opening, lashing out with a hoof that landed heavily across her ribs. Even from his poor vantage point, Lex could see her body quivering as she fought off being paralyzed, managing to wrench herself away from the undead ponies, limping and favoring her back leg as she brought her knife down in a brutal cut across the face of the ghoul that had just punched her. The creature barely seemed to notice the blow, moving to capitalize on Garden’s apparent weakness, even as two more ghouls survived Severance’s latest slash, rushing toward the injured mare.

Aria was already whispering the words to another spell, but Lex knew just from hearing it that it was another instance of the one she’d already used, which hadn’t been strong enough to bring down a single ghoul. Sonata was still concentrating on maintaining the anger-inducing spell she’d cast on Garden, but Lex was certain that the vermillion mare wouldn’t be able to fight off four ghouls in her current state. She was about to die, and once she did everypony else would as well, starting with him and the Sirens. And this time, he knew, no one else would swoop in to save them.

With one possible exception.

Going against every instinct he had, Lex averted his eyes from the battle, looking down at his shadow, which was huddled directly under him rather than falling away from the campfires. Do something! he silently screamed at it. I know you have magic, so use it!

Precious seconds passed and no response came, causing Lex to clench his jaw in anxiety, glancing back at Garden. She wasn’t so much fighting back now as she was just struggling to survive, desperately flinging herself away from two pairs of snapping jaws and raising a hoof to barely block a strike aimed at her head, using her knife to parry the fourth ghoul that was trying to attack her from behind. Worse, a fifth ghoul was on its way to her now, and Lex knew that would be more than she could handle. She’d last ten, maybe twelve seconds at best before she was overwhelmed and devoured. She had to know it too, and yet she didn’t even try to run away…and that knowledge made Lex feel even worse about how thoroughly he’d impugned her.

Forcing himself to concentrate, Lex shut his eyes as he focused all of his thoughts on his shadow-, no, on the tulpa that inhabited it. You’re a part of me! he mentally roared at it. This can’t be what you want! Garden Gate is going to die defending us even after I condemned her! Aria will die even though she came back to help us! Sonata will die despite how much I love her! Are you really alright with that?! Because if not then you need to DO SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!

For a heartbeat, nothing happened.

Two heartbeats…

Three…

Then, suddenly, he felt the sensation of magical energy moving through him. At the same time, he heard Sonata and Aria both gasp, and behind that a sudden shriek went up from several of the ghouls. Opening his eyes, Lex immediately looked back toward Garden...

…and turned pale at what he saw.

No…

There were a trio of figures surrounding the ghouls that had surrounded Garden Gate, their sudden appearance having startled both her and the undead ponies into momentary immobility. Each of them looked like a pony, but at the same time was quite clearly not one. Rather, they looked like living caricatures of ponies, their edges blurred and indistinct rather than being fully defined. Their sizes and proportions were subtly off, making them look as though they’d stepped out of funhouse mirrors. Their features were warped and distorted, as if they were wearing poorly-painted masks made up to resemble their real faces. Altogether, the figures looked like something out of a bad surrealist painting.

Or a nightmare.

“You’re an embarrassment to ponies everywhere, Lex,” sneered one of them – a unicorn mare with a cream-colored coat and a black mane and tail – as she raised a hoof and lashed out at a nearby ghoul, the blow caving in half its skull and sending it stumbling away. Dazedly, he recognized the voice of View Point, a magical ethics teacher than he’d known, and despised, during his brief time at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. She’d never actually said that to him, but it was a sentiment that, in his nightmares, she’d expressed many times.

“We’re ashamed to have been summoned by a gutless weakling like you,” jeered a pegasus mare with a grey coat and auburn mane and tail. Even before he heard her voice he recognized Brush Stroke, the first girl he’d ever had a crush on. His clumsy attempts to get closer to her still made him cringe to remember, and he barely reacted as she bucked a ghoul hard enough to knock it off its hooves.

“You were always a rotten child, and now you’ve grown up into an even worse stallion,” taunted his grandfather, because the elderly earth pony couldn’t have been anyone else. The close-cropped mustache was the same grey as the whispy mane and short-cut tail, both stark against his red coat. The words had barely left his mouth when he tackled a ghoul next to him with an agility he’d never had in real life, bowling the undead thing over.

The attacks were enough to snap the other ghouls, and Garden Gate, out of their stupor, and suddenly the fighting was raging again, much more evenly than before. Lex registered that, as well as the confused voices of Sonata and Aria asking what was going on, but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything. Not because he didn’t know what had just happened, but because he did.

The Night Mare had told him, when he’d made his pact with her outside of Tall Tale, that she had been responsible for the tulpa that haunted his dreams. Her “tantabus curse,” she’d called it. She’d also let it slip that it could be controlled, which had been a revelation to him at the time and a source of frustration thereafter, since he’d seen no evidence of that prior to his fight with Xiriel, when it had revealed that it could not only abet his spellcasting, but had somehow stored a few spells of its own as well. He’d been expecting something along those lines when he’d demanded its help just now, but instead it had done something completely beyond his expectations.

It had brought his nightmares into the real world.

Author's Note:

As it looks like his side will be the one to lose, Lex presses his shadow for help, and receives it! But not in the way that he expected.

Will he come to regret this development?

Comments

[harts fire]

do i see a candle at the end of a vary long tunnel.

[howard035]

Everyone had gotten to show off pretty good now, and Lex said the ghouls were starting to run out, so all that was needed was a big dramatic finish!

I hate to say it, but I feel like Lex and Sonata are not going to be given a lot of the credit for this fight by the civilians. Why, when they set up the battlefield, provided all the buffs and protections, and Severance killed most of the ghouls under Lex's commands?

Because Garden Gate and Aria both "saved the day" by bursting into the fight unexpectedly, and that is quite a memorable spectacle. It's dramatic, and I think a lot of ponies will think "oh poor Lex and Sonata, they were working so hard to fight the ghouls, but then suddenly Aria and Garden Gate showed up and saved everything like true heroes!" It's a bit like the difference between when the police apprehend a bunch of criminals, and Batman stops a criminal.

Also, can the civilians here what the trio of tulpas are saying? If so, that can't help Lex's reputation. I mean, this will still be a huge positive for Lex's rep if Sonata gets time and leeway, but she's going to have a bit of a challenge.

Hopefully Sonata can convince Lex to patrol with Severance and Aria for any ghouls that escaped, while she works the crowd over hard in their absence. (Aria would probably want to stop Lex from getting a bunch of good PR, both because she wants the credit, and because she's pathologically unable to let anyone say anything good about anyone else ever).

[Booster Spice]

the light at the end of the tunnel?

More like, Its the fuse has been lit on the Tantabomb.

[David Silver]

Your childhood bully agrees to help you, you are uncertain if you are grateful.

[Not so New Brony]

More reinforcements and while they'll prove crucial to keeping Garden Gate alive, their appearance and words are rather intriguing. Wonder if this is what happens when Lex forces the tulpa to obey. Or perhaps it's a part of the spell's effects though it would be weird for a spell to do that.

Anyways, like howard035, I also wonder if anyone aside from Lex had heard these 'phantoms' speak or the voices are actually of the tulpa's doing whilst the phantom remained silent. Still, like Aria and Sonata, everyone is going to have questions for Lex after this. Hopefully with no casualties in the aftermath.

Putting that aside, these phantoms could be clues for Lex to control the tulpa? The phantoms seem to represent his past failings and frustrations. View Point, to me, represents Lex's frustration with his lack of progress in his studies of magic in his youth. Though it could also be seen as how frustrated Lex is with his weakness...though I think a twisted phantom version of Lex would be more fitting.
Brush Stroke obviously represents his failure at love and likely his fears losing Sonata's as he has exhibited many times.
Lex's grandfather, I can't remember if he was ever mentioned prior to this but given his description he was likely a retired soldier or guard who Lex likely believed to be disappointed with him. Which is possible given Lex's inability to understand others.

While the tulpa is not the exact same as the tantabus Luna placed on herself, overcoming these inner demons could be key to gaining control of it. Of course that's just my two cents on the subject.

p.s:I'll admit that I had first thought the three figures were Cloudbank, Drafty and C.Shells due to Lex's guilt over their deaths. That is until I remembered Sandbar though it was probable that he wouldn't be used given how little Lex knew of the stallion.

[Alzrius]

9001346
9001404 At this point, either option could be correct!

[Alzrius]

9002034 That's a good way of summing it up. Lex wanted his shadow to help him, and it responded...but as the old saying goes, the surest way to damn someone is to give them what they want.

[Alzrius]

9001400 You might be right about how much everypony credits Lex and Sonata about what happened. But then again, remember that C. Shells' crew did overhear Lex telling Sonata to enhance Garden Gate, and see him give her those gemstones. I also suspect that they're quite cognizant of Garden's curses, which means that they'll likely be able to put two and two together regarding them not being there anymore (especially if they can get a good look at her face and see that the blood-mark of the scythe is gone). So maybe this won't be quite the PR letdown that you're thinking? Of course, some of that is going to depend on the post-battle stuff anyway, so Sonata might be able to help there.

That said, if everypony can hear what those nightmares of Lex's are saying...well, they already look frightening enough; I'm sure hearing them won't help his image.

[Alzrius]

9002418 You make some interesting suggestions regarding just how symbolic these nightmares are regarding Lex's thought process. There's certainly some meaning to them; after all, they're quite clearly going to be meaningful to him personally since they come from the bad dreams he has every night. Of course, Lex has known for a while now that it's possible for him to take control of the tulpa that the Night Mare inflicted on him, so why is it only now that it's starting to actually help him when he needs it? Hopefully he can figure that out soon, though at the moment helping to defeat the ghouls takes priority.

As for the nightmares themselves, I suspect that their voices are audible; their speech had no italics, and was in quotation marks after all. Though whether or not their voices carried as far as the camp ponies (the nightmares weren't yelling, after all) remains unknown, though it seems likely that Garden Gate, Sonata, and Aria overheard them. They were all as close (or closer) as Lex, after all. He might not care if the former or the latter have questions about this afterward, but I doubt Sonata will be so easily dismissed if she decides she wants answers.

Still, for now Lex has the reinforcements he wanted. Hopefully it will prove to be worth it.

[howard035]

9005512 Hey like I said Sonata could well make this a PR triumph, I'm just saying she's got a headwind.

[James Fire]

Well, he made it do something.

[Alzrius]

9220978 He's gotten what he wanted, but in a way that's extremely unsettling for him.