360 - No Easy Answers
“Oh no!” croaked Nosey, her voice hoarse. “No no no!”
Sonata, by contrast, was much less concerned as she trotted up to where her best friend – or was she more than that, now? – was crouching, having almost collapsed after her brief sprint. In the distance, the tiny figures trying to zap each other had stopped for a moment, the sight making Sonata roll her eyes. “Looks like Lex did it again, huh?”
Still panting, Nosey gave Sonata a wide-eyed look, clearly horrified at how casual she sounded. “How can you be so calm?! Lex and the princesses are fighting! He could end up being sent to Tartarus, or banished to the moon, or…or even…” She couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud. “We have to get back there and make them stop!”
“Eh, it’ll be fine,” shrugged Sonata. If anything, she felt relieved by the fact that Lex had gotten into a fight with the princesses. It meant there’d be something else to focus on besides whether or not she needed to share him with Nosey and Aria now. And besides, it wasn’t like this was any big deal anyway. “Lex has, like, whooped a whole bunch of monsters up to now. Those two pampered princesses aren’t going to know what hit ‘em.” Of that much she felt certain; Lex had spent a lot of time ranting about how useless those two were.
But Nosey didn’t seem to agree. “Sonata!” she groaned. “You’re not hearing me! These aren’t like the monsters we’ve fought before! These are Celestia and Luna! They’re the protectors of Equestria! They defeated Discord when he tried to take over! They put Tirek in Tartarus! They’re the ones who sealed away King Sombra! You know, the guy whose horn Lex has now?! They’re not going to go down easy!” She glanced fearfully back at the camp as she spoke. It was still a considerable distance away, enough so that making out who was where was difficult. It looked like Princess Celestia was hovering above the field, and there was…something being held aloft in what looked like Lex’s aura, but it was impossible to tell what. Beyond that, other than what had to have been Princess Luna having flown low a moment ago, there wasn’t anything else she could make out for certain; although the camp’s furnishings were sparse, they were still enough to obscure the what was happening on the ground. “This is our fault,” murmured Nosey, her voice miserable. “We should have come back sooner!”
“Look, I’m telling you, you’re making a big deal out of nothing,” insisted Sonata. “I bet Lex has come up with, like, ten different plans for cutting those two down to size. Oh!” Her eyes widened as she remembered something. “And he has Severance with him! I bet they’re totes saying a bunch of tough-guy lines right now. ‘You go high, I’ll go low,’ or something like that, you know?” she chuckled.
But Nosey didn’t seem reassured, taking a deep breath as she stood up straight. “Sonata, we have to get there as fast as we can. We might still be able to stop this before it gets any worse.”
Sonata snorted. “The only way things could get worse is if we get back and find that Lex is playing kissy-face with those two, since he’s apparently got a thing for sisters.”
That was all Nosey could take, rounding on Sonata furiously. “What is wrong with everypony today?!” she shrieked. “Lex lashes out at Aria, she completely loses it as a result, and now you’re just going to sit back and act like this when I’M TELLING YOU HE’S IN DANGER!” She screamed the last few words, turning and pointing at her flank. “I’m a newsmare, my special talent is gathering information, so when I say-” She cut herself off abruptly, squeezing her eyes shut as she put a hoof to her face, visibly struggling to regain control of herself. It was several seconds before she won that particular fight, making herself remain calm as she looked at Sonata again. “Do you remember when Lex fought that dragon, back in Tall Tale?”
The question made Sonata frown, confused. “Huh? Yeah, sure. Why?”
“When that happened,” explained Nosey, “you were frantic with worry for Lex. You charged out to meet him even though Fireflower kept telling you that it was dangerous. But you couldn’t stay away, because you knew that Lex might get hurt and you wanted to help.”
Sonata winced a little, hearing the implicit accusation. “Hang on, that was because I knew that Lex was wrong about the dragon breathing fire-”
“And while you were doing that,” continued Nosey, as if Sonata hadn’t said anything, “all I did was set up a camera nearby and take pictures.” She paused, letting that sink in. “I was so wrapped up in myself, in what I thought I wanted, that I couldn’t bring myself to care about anypony else.” The expression on her face then was one of deep regret. “Lex was fighting to save everyone, you went out there to try and save him, Fireflower was looking for a way to save his family, and everypony else was struggling to save themselves…and I just took pictures of it all, because I was selfish.”
Sonata couldn’t meet her eyes, looking down as she flattened her ears.
After a pregnant pause, Nosey kept speaking. “When I think about how I acted back then, I feel ashamed of myself. And if you keep acting like this now – pretending that you’re not helping because you’re sure Lex will win, when you’re really just angry at him – then I promise you, you’ll look back on this, probably someday soon, and you’ll feel ashamed of yourself too.”
“Are you really in love with me and Lex both?” blurted Sonata.
The question caught Nosey visibly off-guard, her eyes widening and her mouth falling open, and even Sonata felt a little surprised. Why did I ask her that? She’d been trying to avoid thinking even thinking about that, so why was had she suddenly brought it up out of nowhere like that…?
“Ask me…” Nosey’s voice brought Sonata back to herself, blinking as she looked at the other mare. Nosey didn’t return the look, making a point to keep her eyes fixed on the camp ahead. Even so, Sonata could see that she was shaking a little. “Ask me again after we make sure Lex is okay.” Before Sonata could utter a word, Nosey galloped forward. But to Sonata, it didn’t look like she was rushing toward Lex so much as she was running away from her.
For some reason that made Sonata feel even worse, and she stomped a hoof in frustration. Love was supposed to be a super-terrific thing! All the movies she’d seen back on Earth had said so! So how come, now that she was finally living out her own love story, it was so freaking hard all the time?!
But Kara wasn’t here anymore, leaving her with no answer. Not that the goddess’s answers this last time hadn’t been very helpful anyway, and even just calling her had made things more complicated. It’s like there’s no easy way to figure all this stuff out, thought Sonata unhappily.
Not knowing what else to do, she started to gallop after Nosey.
Luna could only stare at the ponies that had come to Lex’s aid, horrified. Children. He’s actually using children to fight his battles!
They had to be mind-controlled. That had always been King Sombra’s preferred way of fighting, using innocent ponies to do his foul bidding, and now Lex was following in his predecessor’s hoofsteps. Or perhaps he’d had one of those Sirens he’d beguiled do it for him. But one way or another, those foals had to be his victims.
Except mind control didn’t explain the powers that those children had just displayed.
Luna looked each of the five foals over, her eyes lingering on the unicorn colt, Feathercap. She’d spoken to him just last night, when he’d insisted on accompanying Nosey Newsy. The child had looked adorable then, mustering up his courage even though he’d quite clearly been out of his depth, like a kitten fluffing up its fur in order to appear more fearsome than it actually was. And yet now, he had somehow made himself and his companions invisible, something only an accomplished wizard should have been able to do. And his friends had performed even greater stunts: flinging grown ponies away like toys, deflecting a magical attack that should have overwhelmed them utterly, healing Lex Legis…
That last one made Luna realize that she had no time to be surprised, and she flew forward, intent on separating the pegasus filly from Lex before she could finish mending his wounds. I don’t have to hurt her, I just need to get her away from Lex. The filly was laying her fore-hooves on his chest, and all of the healing magic that Luna had seen – both from the spells she’d granted to her own worshipers and in the miracles that Cadance had worked – required touching the pony being treated. I can grab her and pass her over to some of the guards, have them get her out of here until the battle’s ov-
“Dust Bunny, look out!” yelled the earth colt that had so brazenly declared his intent to gain victory a few moments ago. Nor was his warning idle, as he raced forward with speed Luna wouldn’t have thought a foal capable of, intent on intercepting her before she got to his friend.
But his charge was heavily telegraphed, and Luna was ready for it before he’d so much as closed half of the distance between them. Just as he’d committed himself to his leap, she flapped her wings hard, gaining a few feet of altitude and sending him careening harmlessly beneath her, a surprised cry spilling from his lips at the sudden miss. Despite herself, Luna felt the corners of her mouth turn up slightly as she lowered her flight path so she was just above the ground, at the perfect height for scooping up that filly. Inexperienced, she concluded. They might have these powers, but they’re not familiar with using them. That would explain why Silhouette hadn’t mentioned them before. But in that case, that would mean they’d only gotten them in the last few hours, which made no-
Her thought was cut off as a burst of pain erupted through her middle, driving the breath from her lungs and sending her sprawling into the dirt before she could get any closer to Lex and the filly. Instinctively tucking her wings close to her sides as she went tumbling, Luna tried to figure out what had happened. Something had struck her from below, but what-
“S-sorry Princess Luna!” fretted Feathercap, rubbing his sore horn. “I really didn’t want to do that, but I had to stop you somehow!”
Blinking, it took Luna a second to realize what he was talking about. Invisible. He turned invisible again and moved so I’d fly over him, then jumped up and headbutted me when I passed over him. Fortunately he was young enough that the tip of his horn was too blunt to cause more damage, but he’d still managed to knock the wind out of her. Groaning, Luna looked back at where Lex was already starting to sit up, the yellow filly still keeping her hooves pressed against him-
Just before she was surrounded by a golden aura, and lifted into the sky, causing her to yelp in surprise. The sight made Luna smile, looking upward. Celestia! Her sister had quite clearly figured out what Luna had been trying to do, and was taking action before Lex could be fully restored. Now they could-
“Oh no you don’t!” shouted another of the foals, the earth filly who had tossed the guard around before. “Let Cleansweep go!” she yelled as she picked up a rock, of which there were plenty thanks to how the ground had been cratered in the battle’s opening exchanges. The stone wasn’t very large, barely the size of a golf ball, but when the filly reared back and flung it, the makeshift missile flew upward as a fantastic speed. Fortunately, Celestia saw it coming, which was the only reason she was able to dodge it, tucking her head and rolling in mid-air as the stone streaked past her. Unfortunately, the near-miss rattled her concentration enough that when the other foal – the pegasus colt that had deflected Celestia’s attack before – yanked on Cleansweep’s tail, he was able to pull her out of the telekinetic aura, the two of them falling onto their bottoms before the filly rushed back to Lex’s side.
Grunting, Luna immediately got to her hooves, only to leap backwards as that earth colt that had tried to tackle her before jumped in front of her, barring her way. Meanwhile, the rock-throwing filly continued to take aim at Celestia, who was obviously unwilling to return fire as she dodged. And Lex was already starting to climb to his hooves again…
They’re actually holding us back, realized Luna uneasily. True, that was largely because neither she nor her sister could bring themselves to fight children, but it was still a sobering thought. A few foals shouldn’t have been able to have such an outsized effect on the course of the battle like this. It’s because of how prodigious their powers are, Luna knew. But how did they acquire such abilities in just a few hours? It wasn’t spellcasting; they weren’t gesturing and chanting the way Lex had to. Nor was it like his dark magic. Even their cutie marks didn’t match what they were doing now.
That left only one possibility that she could think of. The Night Mare’s Knights. Are they drawing power from their goddess directly, like how Cadance can call upon Lashtada for miracles? Except Cadance needed to use her alicorn magic to facilitate that level of power, something these foals didn’t have. If that’s so, then there has to be something else to it. Some secret behind how ordinary foals can use such extraordinary abilities.
Winning this battle, she knew, might very well depend on figuring out what that was in the next few minutes.
Stats
Page generated in 0.715 seconds
Total duration
827 users online
468,513 hits today, 1,822,946 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
furnishings?
Well, maybe Sonata will be able to do something. If nothing else, the sirens are able to tell if someone has been affected by their magic, right?
Despite the tense situation, I find it amusing how often Sonata and now Nosey, often act as your commenters' mouthpiece on the different situations in the story. i.e: Confidence in Lex having multiple plans for any given situation despite the reality, Fear of what trouble Lex's actions caused such a situation and so on so forth. Well, if things do get back on track, Sonata could probably put on a proper show of Lex's deeds in the future.
As for the chapter, I actually am surprised at how well the Knights are doing against the princesses. And while still disagree about giving children such powers, I can't argue against how effective and controlled they are with their powers though I suppose their spirit animals might have something to do with that given how they were able to use their abilities so quickly.
Still, if the parents were horrified with their actions against the royal guard, they're probably having a stroke at what they're doing now. Especially poor Feather Duster.
Now I'm wondering where the regular Royal Guards are. I get that Lex is the kind of threat where they are ordered to just leave and do crowd control because they won't be any use against him, but they would probably be useful in trying to hold back the Nightmare Nights. Trained, armored adults versus kids with superpowers they are not yet trained in sounds like a roughly fair fight. Are they observing those kids, and have they thought to step in?
This reminds me of the battle of Karánsebes
9647449
Given that Silhouette could barely deal with them, even with clerical magic, and BEFORE they had powers, I doubt the bumble brigade that is the EUP's normal rank and file would have a chance.
If Xiriel could be watching, he would be rubbing his tentacles in glee?
The children shouldnt be able to handle such power, so maybe they aint, just suggesting where it should be applied?
9647343
Doggone it! Typo fixed now.
Heh, I was wondering if anyone remembered that Sonata could tell when someone was enchanted, since we saw her do that way back during the incident with Tall Tale's mayor.
grin yep loving how this is going.
9647388 I do have a tendency to use bystanders to exposit what I think would be the most common reactions to a given situation. That said, while it was fun to have Nosey and Sonata going back and forth about how big of a deal this is (Nosey, having grown up in Canterlot, is much more inclined to think of the princesses as being forces to be reckoned with, even given how much Lex has done), I didn't expect it to take up quite as much of this chapter as it did. I suspect we'll get back to more action next chapter, though as always how things actually turn out are uncertain until I actually get the words on the page.
As for the Knights, they do seem to be doing shockingly well, don't they? Of course, we know that they have silent communication going on with their spirit animals, and given that the full range of powers that they've gained is currently unknown, and they outnumber the princesses, I suppose that's not too surprising. But as Luna noted, a large part of this is that neither she nor her sister can bring themselves to seriously fight children. That, and Luna's horn is injured, preventing her from using her full power.
And yeah, I fully expect that there will be some serious fallout from this battle after it's over. Poor Feather Duster might never recover!
9648037 I'm very happy to hear it!
9647449 Well, I said in the last chapter that only a half-dozen of those that had tried to surround Lex had recovered, and were charging with Luna. Three of those got knocked down by Fruit Crunch's invisible attack, one of which Fiddlesticks then flung away...but that does leave the other three unaccounted for, doesn't it? I'll admit that was an oversight on my part; I've gone back and made a quick edit to the previous chapter so that Fiddlesticks threw that one guard into the other three, knocking them down too. So at this point, they haven't really recovered yet. Though honestly, given how inept your average, nameless member of the Royal Guard is, I don't see them making much of a difference anyway except to soak up the Knights actions for another round or two.
9647566 An interesting reference! I didn't know about that, so I appreciate the link!
9647844 I suspect this sort of internal strife would be to that thing's delight. But even so, it's how the battle ends that decides how things will proceed.
As for how the kids can throw around that much power...well, we're not sure that Luna is right. But if she is, that means the kids have a weakness somewhere. But what?
9648045
9647844 Oh, I didn't think they would be able to beat the Nights, but as you said, they could soak up their actions for a round or maybe 2. And since they Nights themselves are basically trying to soak up the actions of the Sisters for a few rounds while Lex recovers, that could still be a big difference.