359 - Turning the Tables
When the dome of black crystal that Lex Legis had conjured around himself failed to crumble after her and Luna’s second strike upon it, Celestia broke off her attack, considering.
Luna, however, had no such restraint, and threw down another augmented blast of magical energy. The massive beam slammed into the dome, but while the earth around it was pulverized by the hit, the hemisphere of black crystal stubbornly refused to fall, having only a few more cracks to show for her effort. Undaunted, Luna reared her head back, the aura around her horn already glowing brightly in preparation for another assault, when Celestia flew toward her. “Luna! Enough!”
Her admonition was enough to draw her sister’s ire, and Luna glared at her, teeth bared. “What are you saying, Sister?! Just a little more and we’ll break through!”
But Celestia shook her head. “I think that’s what Lex wants us to think!”
She’d chosen her words for maximum effect, and her gamble paid off a moment later as Luna managed to swallow her wrath, the prospect of doing anything that Lex wanted being repulsive enough to make her sister calm down. “Explain,” demanded Luna bluntly.
Celestia wasted no time in doing just that, knowing that even if she’d mastered her rage for the moment her sister’s patience was likely to be extremely short. “Other than his initial attack, Lex has yet to take any offensive action,” she pointed out. “Why do you think that is?”
Luna’s eyes narrowed. “Celestia, if you’re implying that you think his claims of innocence have any merit to them, then so help me…”
“No, I know now that I was wrong to give Lex the benefit of the doubt,” admitted Celestia, before pointing at the dome below them. “That’s why I think this is a ploy on his part. He wants us to exhaust ourselves trying to bring down that shell he raised around himself, and then when we have he’ll launch his counterassault against us.”
“But we’re almost through!” retorted Luna angrily. “A few more shots will bring it down, and then we’ll have him!”
“It looks that way now, but I think that’s a feint on his part.” Celestia looked at the dome again. It was pitted and lined with cracks, and did indeed seem to be on the verge of falling apart. But… “Remember when we fought King Sombra? How much of that dark crystal he could create?” She gave Luna a knowing look then. “Remember what those mares, Nosey and Sonata, told us about how Lex created a huge wall of that same black crystal when he fought that dragon? And yet he’s only made such a small barrier around himself now?”
Luna scowled, but didn’t reply immediately, her eyes thoughtful as she turned her gaze back toward where their enemy was hiding below.
“Lex can repair that dome whenever he wants,” insisted Celestia. “Trying to break through with brute force will likely deplete us far faster than it will deplete him, and when it does he’ll come at us with all of his evil magic.”
Seconds passed before Luna spoke again. “Then what do you suggest we do, Sister?” She glanced around, and her eyes stopped on the scythe that had struck down Silhouette, still twisting in the roiling purple aura a short distance away. “Assail his weapon, perhaps?”
Celestia didn’t answer, not wanting to venture a course of action when she wasn’t sure what they were up against. The aura surrounding the scythe was clearly Lex’s, so why hadn’t he attacked them with it? Doing so would have been tactically sound on his part, since a physical assault would have allowed him to conserve stamina that spellcasting would otherwise have drained. Not to mention what Nosey and Sonata – to say nothing of Mihr – had said about the weapon’s destructive potential, something Celestia had seen personally when the weapon had effortlessly punched through the protective spell Luna had cast on Silhouette. There was simply no reason for Lex to be holding something so potent in reserve, and yet he was doing exactly that. But why?
The question was enough to raise a flicker of doubt in her mind. Mihr had confirmed that the artifact was capable of self-direction; it had attacked his brethren angels without anyone directing it, according to what he’d told them. And, she suddenly remembered, Lex’s aura hadn’t been around it during the attack that had wounded Silhouette. The realization made Celestia bite her lip. Had Lex been telling the truth after all? Had the scythe attacked of its own accord, against his wishes? If that was so, then-
Lex isn’t trustworthy.
Celestia put a hoof to her head, a grunt escaping her lips as her thoughts suddenly reversed course. What had she just been thinking? She already knew that Lex had betrayed them; doubting herself now would only result in more ponies being hurt, her sister likely foremost among them. The incongruities surrounding Lex’s use, and non-use, of his scythe were likely part of some byzantine stratagem on his part and nothing more. In fact, her uncertainties were quite likely exactly what he was attempting to evoke; he’d hold his strongest weapon back for seemingly no reason, and when she faltered because she thought it was a gesture of peace, he’d swoop in and attack with it. Scowling as she realized she’d almost fallen for it, Celestia glared at the weapon. No, she vowed silently. I let you deceive me once, Lex Legis. There will not be a second time.
“Sister?” called Luna. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” answered Celestia curtly, angry at herself for having very nearly been taken in despite having just witnessed one of her little ponies being cut down right in front of her barely a minute ago. Instead, she turned her attention back to the battlefield. Lex still hadn’t emerged from his damaged shelter. Everypony else was in the process of fleeing the battlefield, save for the guards that had tried to surround Lex only to have been knocked back when the treacherous unicorn’s black crystal stalagmites had erupted from the ground, proof of his rage when his surprise attack on Luna had been foiled by Silhouette’s sacrifice.
Taking it all in, Celestia turned back to Luna. “I have a plan…”
Having changed back to physical form, Lex hastily dug through his saddlebags, not knowing when the alicorns would resume their assault on the dome he’d raised.
When they did, he knew, he’d be in trouble. He simply didn’t have enough dark magic necessary to continuously restore its structural integrity in the face of a dedicated bombardment, not without channeling additional magic into it, which wasn’t an option so long as he needed to maintain his grip on Severance. Instead, he’d focused on using what spells he could to bolster his defenses, and had changed back into his corporeal self in order to access the items in his possession.
Changing into shadow caused everything on his person to make the transition with him. While magic items that were functioning at the time of his transformation would continue to operate normally, everything else was rendered inaccessible, including possessions that were stored or otherwise not in active use. Including these, noted Lex as he withdrew the five gemstones he’d recovered from Xiriel. All the more reason to put them to use now.
Changing back into his shadow form, Lex levitated each of them in turn, allowing them to begin rotating around his insubstantial body. Two of them had little to offer him in his current state: the iridescent spindle’s ability to let its user ignore the need to breathe was pointless when he was in this form, and the scarlet and blue sphere’s stored knowledge of magic item manipulation was even more useless, but Lex didn’t care. If nothing else, they would present more targets for the princesses to waste their attacks on if they decided to try and attack the gemstones or remove them from him. While Lex didn’t relish the thought of losing any of his magical gear, that couldn’t be a consideration now.
Having completed his preparations, Lex glanced at the dome. Even with the damage dealt to it, the thickness was enough that it muffled sound fairly well; anything short of more screaming would have been difficult to hear, making it hard to tell what was happening outside. This is a bad tactical position, Lex knew. His enemies knew his location, while he couldn’t pinpoint theirs without exposing himself. But there’s nothing to be done about it now.
With no more reason to delay, Lex mentally ordered the dome to dissolve into nothing, immediately surging straight upward as soon as it did. An elevated position would give him the best vantage point to note his enemies’ positions, and-
“LEX LEGIS!” screamed Luna, the cry accompanying a beam of magical energy lancing at him from his left.
The beam would have struck him, but a combination of quick reflexes, luck, and magical protection caused it to strike him off-center, his defensive enchantments managing to repulse the ray and send it careening harmlessly into the distance. Idly noting that she’d used an unenhanced spell for some reason – the beam having been thin rather than the massive shots she’d been throwing before – Lex immediately rattled off the words to a spell. An instant later, a trio of red rays shot towards Luna.
Or rather, toward her horn.
Fighting the alicorns, Lex knew, was ultimately no different than fighting a powerful unicorn wizard. If their horn was damaged, they’d be unable to cast spells until it was healed, nor could they physically attack him while he was in shadow-form. Then, with the princesses powerless to threaten him, he’d be able to turn his full attention to Severance.
For her part, Luna quite clearly knew what Lex was attempting, as she ducked her head and fell into a controlled dive, but Lex had anticipated exactly that move, angling his rays accordingly. The first went harmlessly over her head, and the second almost grazed one of her wings…but the third struck her horn directly, causing Luna to let out a scream of pain as she struggled not to plummet. That’s one down, Lex knew. While there was a slight chance that Twilight Sparkle had shown the Royal Sisters how to cast spells without using their horns – a trick that was common to unicorn spellcasters on Everglow, and which Lex himself had mastered a long time ago – he found that unlikely. The fact that they don’t use gestures or chants strongly implies their using native Equestrian spellcasting, he thought as he turned around to scan the rest of the battlefield. Which means that all I need to do now is hit Celestia’s horn…
Except Celestia was gone.
Confused, Lex turned in a full circle, rising higher upward, but there was no sign of Luna’s sister anywhere. For a moment, Lex struggled to make sense her absence, running through a laundry list of possibilities in the span of a second. Then the answer came to him, and he hurriedly started to cast another attack spell, knowing where he had to aim-
But it was already too late.
“Got you!” Celestia’s smirked to herself as she flew directly downward.
Having positioned herself high overhead, Celestia had made sure to keep herself directly in front of the sun, an easy feat for her since she was able to adjust its position. With Luna’s attack commanding Lex’s attention – she’d guessed right that Lex would go for her horn – he hadn’t been able to examine his surroundings as carefully as he doubtlessly would have otherwise, giving Celestia time to get the drop on him.
Let’s see how you like this! she thought as she focused as much of her alicorn magic as she could into her next spell. According to what Nosey had told Luna, that monster named Xiriel had used this tactic to great effect against Lex during their fight, and with any luck it would work again now. I hope, she added silently. Lex’s dark magic would surely be harder to dispel than Twilight’s “want it, need it” spell…
Focusing with everything she had, Celestia cast her spell, trying to strip away the dark magic that kept Lex a shadow. For a moment there was a sensation of intense resistance, and she could almost feel the sickening presence of his evil magic rebelling against her spell, fighting her attempt to unravel it. Closing her eyes, Celestia poured more of her alicorn magic into it, reminding herself of all of the innocent ponies who would suffer if Lex defeated them here. I won’t let that happen! she swore to herself as she concentrated as hard as she could. I’ll stop him here!
And then she felt the dark magic come undone.
Gasping in relief, Celestia opened her eyes in time to see Lex change back into a pony, a shocked look on his face as he began to plummet. At least, until Luna collided with him in mid-air, wings flapping heavily as she drove them both toward the ground at high speed, far faster than if he’d been falling normally. His hooves flailing, Lex didn’t have a chance to react as Luna released him less than a foot above the ground, letting him slam into it even as she swerved and veered off, avoiding the same fate.
For anypony else, that hit would have been crippling, if not fatal. But Celestia could already see Lex, lying on his back in the center of a large blood spatter, nevertheless struggling to get up. Worse, his horn was still glowing, somehow still holding onto his scythe even though he wasn’t using it. Not wanting to give him a chance to do so – or enact whatever other counterattack he was doubtlessly planning – Celestia pointed her horn at him again, sending another huge blast of augmented energy at him. This should put him down for the count! And even if it didn’t, she could already see Luna circling back around, ready to do with her hooves what she couldn’t with her horn…along with a half-dozen members of the Royal Guard who had recovered and were eager to join the fight.
Except suddenly Lex wasn’t alone. There was a foal – a pegasus colt – hovering just above him. The sight made Celestia’s eyes widen in horror, realizing that the child was going to take the attack she'd intended for Lex!
Then the massive beam of energy hit…and was deflected, being knocked up into the air and almost hitting Celestia on its path. Gawking, she could only stare blankly at where the colt was looking upward at what he’d done in awe, his jaw hanging open before he gave a loud whoop of joy. “I can’t believe that worked! Oh wow, did you guys see th-, er, I mean, that’s one problem solved,” he smirked, clearly trying to clamp down on his enthusiasm.
“That’s great, but Lex is still really hurt here!” came another voice, this one a filly, and suddenly there was a yellow pegasus filly crouching over Lex, putting her hooves to his chest, a snake by her side. “Buy me a few seconds!”
“We’ll buy you more than that, Dust Bunny!” Another colt’s voice, and suddenly one of the Royal Guards that had been closing in on Lex suddenly stumbled, only to be knocked off his hooves a moment later, stumbling backward into two of his fellows, all three of them going down in a heap in front of an earth pony foal who was suddenly there, with a wolf next to him. “Go get ‘em, Fiddleface!”
“Don’t call me that!” The angry shout came from an earth mare as she appeared on the colt’s other side, along with a badger. Her cry was accompanied by her picking up one of the fallen guards and flinging him at Luna like he was a hoofball, the guard giving a trailing yelp of fright as Luna barely managed to avoid the collision, the guard sailing over her head to collide with the remaining guards in a heap as she flapped her wings and veered off, trying to evaluate this new threat.
“You guys,” muttered another colt, this one a unicorn who was suddenly standing near the two pegasi foals. “You do realize we’re not invisible anymore right? I mean, we were, but we’re not now.”
“Don’t need it!” announced the earth colt. “When you make a grand entrance, you’re supposed to make it big and flashy,” he grinned. “Like this!”
Looking up at Celestia, the colt pointed a hoof up at her. “We’re the Night Mare’s Knights!” he announced, smiling broadly.
“And now that we’re here, you’re so going down!”
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stand and fight
The city is burning
This just keeps getting worse for Lex.
Resist verses Sleep effects?
Celestia doing the classic blind spot is classic, especially when she can put the blind spot whereever she wants.
Cue the princesses jumping to conclusions and more zapping but I will applaud them for their teamwork. Then again, with the Knights entering the impromptu battle, the princesses would likely try to take them away to safety with a simple use of their telekinesis. But given the abilities from the Knight's summons, that might not work.
Still, with foals involved and hopefully Sonata and Nosey undoubtedly on the way, things could be de-escalated though given how Aria's magic is affecting Celestia, I wonder if she might end up causing more damage than Lex will before she snaps out of it. Aria must used a lot more magic than usual to make Celestia like this.
Oh boy, now would be a actually be a good time for twilight to return before Lex and the sisters somehow manage to make things worse.
this is going to be so good old fat ass and sister going down to foals. yep that is going to look so good??
time for root beer and popcorn.
So Aria DID do something to escalate this. Yeah a simple suggestion like that pretty much ensured that things would have gone south even without Severance deciding to go jihad on Luna.
And now the Night Mare knights are involved. This is both good and bad for Lex. Good because it means he has backup, and backup that the Sisters are unlikely to willingly attack. Bad because the presence of foals on the battlefield is just going to worsen Celestia's opinion of Lex and make it harder to overcome Aria's magic.
9642183
Oh please, Twilight is just as likely to instantly take Celestia's side.
Well that was unexpected.
Good plan for Lex to buy time to buff, there is nothing more dangerous than a sufficiently prepared wizard.
Wow, it takes a lot for kids to attack the Regal Sisters. Hopefully the prospect of fighting children, even with nonlethal measures, will give Celestia pause. I mean, what is she going to do, send children to Tartarus?
9641920 Well, I wouldn't say it's that bad.
Yet.
9641949 Well, I doubt he'll be happy with the Knights joining the battle, but they're definitely giving him a hoof when he needs it!
9642171 It seemed appropriate for her to be good at pulling off that particular trick, and I was grinning when I wrote the bit about her adjusting the sun's position so that she was directly in front of it from Lex's point of view.
9642175 Celestia and Luna always struck me as having good coordination in those times when we see them working together in the show. Admittedly, that's not very much, but it was the impression that I got; even so, I made sure to note that they took time to work out their plan ahead of time. It's one thing for them both to realize that it's best to try and catch Lex in a crossfire without needing to signal each other. It's another to come up with a multi-part strategy.
As for how they'll react to the Knights taking to the field, well...that might serve to de-escalate the conflict, but it might not. I doubt the alicorns are eager to fight foals, but Luna is still mad with grief over what happened to Silhouette, and Celestia doesn't seem to be in her right mind at the moment. Hopefully Sonata and Nosey are on their way to back Lex up as well, but I suspect that he wouldn't want them (or the foals) anywhere near what's happening. Of course, that doesn't mean that he wouldn't need their help. After all, he judged himself to be stronger than Celestia and Luna, but when the Knights arrived he was quite clearly on the losing side of the battle. He got Luna's horn, but it cost him rather badly, after all.
We'll just have to see how it goes from here on out.
9642183 I wonder if Twilight coming back would make things better. After all, her opinion of Lex, last I checked, was rather mixed, where she quite clearly idolizes Celestia.
9642294 Heh, I somehow suspect that Fruit Crunch is looking forward to this quite a bit. Even if it is against Celestia and Luna, he seems to be itching for a chance to show off in front of Lex, especially when his hero is in a pinch.
9642319 A very insightful breakdown of the current situation! The commonality between everything that's happened, of course, is that none of it is within Lex's expectations. It never occurred to him that Severance would attack Luna, and yet it did. He didn't think that the alicorns would initiate an attack against him, and now they have. He didn't want those foals on the battlefield, and here they are. He didn't think that Aria would try and use her magic on the alicorns, and she did. This situation could very well be said to be happening as a direct result of his lack of understanding of the people around him.
One has to wonder if he realizes that at all, and what he'll do about it going forward (if he makes it out of this in one piece).
9642572 But I hope not unpleasant!
9642601 Well, Lex did his buffing before leaving that dome he'd made. But it's questionable how much that helped him; a wizard's strength, in terms of preparation, comes from having correct information, a very diverse selection of spells, and enough time to both prepare and utilize them all. Lex only has some information on the alicorns (and clearly not enough, given how good their tactics have been so far), and a fairly decent array of spells from what we've seen, but that last point is a tough one; he simply hasn't had much time to prepare many spells, as he noted a few chapters back.
Also, I admit, I snickered at that last line of yours. Well played.