368 - Skewed Priorities
Sonata couldn’t help but smile as she and Nosey trotted toward where Lex was, humming a happy tune to herself.
Lex beat up the princesses! she sang in her head. He’s really made a mess of things now! Just the thought threatened to make her break out in a grin. Now that Lex had done something way worse than just get hot ‘n’ heavy with Aria, the fact that she had fooled around with Nosey was no big deal! Since he’s done the whole “I’m taking over the world, for justice! Mwahaha!”-thing all over them, I bet he won’t even care about anything else! I can be all “Hey, while you were slapping those two around, I did some slap-and-tickle with Nosey,” and he’ll be like “I don’t even care, ‘cuz I’ve gotta coagulate some new plans now, for justice!” And then I bet he’ll totes need his spokespony to help him out, and everything will go back to nor-
“Lex!”
Blinking as Nosey’s yell brought her out of her daydream, Sonata belatedly realized that they’d finally made it. Barely thirty feet ahead of them was Lex, struggling to his hooves as those foals from last night helped him up, Severance hovering nearby. Following behind Nosey as the blonde mare broke into a gallop, Sonata found herself slightly worried by how Lex looked like he was barely able to stand. Did he overdo it again? The thought sent a twinge of guilt through her, remembering that she and Nosey were supposed to be there to stop exactly that from happening, but she pushed it away. It’s good that Lex messed things up, she reminded herself, because now that makes what we did less bad. But for some reason the thought didn’t seem quite so reassuring now…
“Lex, are you alright?!” fretted Nosey as she reached his side. “What happened?! We saw that you were fighting the princesses, but-”
“He wasn’t just fighting them,” gushed Fruit Crunch – at least Sonata was pretty sure that was him; Nosey had mentioned those kids’ names a whole bunch this morning over breakfast – from where he was helping to prop Lex up. “He put a major smack-down on them! I mean, we couldn’t see too much of it,” he grinned, “since we were fighting the Royal Guard and all-”
“And we won, too!” chirped Feathercap, despite bashfully concealing the lower part of his face behind his binoculars.
“Not all of us,” added Fiddlesticks sadly. Walking over to Sonata, she sniffled as she threw a foreleg around her in a hug. “Our spirit animals didn’t make it,” she whimpered.
Sonata tilted her head, hugging Fiddlesticks back automatically. “Wait, your what now?”
But Nosey cut in before any of them could answer. “Listen, I want to hear all about what happened, I really do,” she began, her eyes sweeping over to the conspicuous sight of Princess Celestia’s unmoving figure a stone’s throw away. “But shouldn’t we do something about the princesses fir-” She came to an abrupt halt as she stepped around Lex to look at Princess Luna.
For a moment Nosey’s brow furrowed, quite clearly not sure who she was looking at. Shaking her head, she glanced around, but when she didn’t see any other defeated ponies, she looked back at Luna. Slowly, her confusion faded into understanding, and the blood drained from her face. “L-Lex,” she gulped, her voice a whisper. “What have you done?”
“It was really incredible,” answered Straightlace, his eyes wide. “It happened just a minute ago. Lex was talking to Severance about something, and then he – Lex, not Severance – said ‘I have no intention of showing her mercy.’” He growled the last part in a passable imitation of Lex’s own voice. “And then this black aura surrounded Luna, and when it vanished-”
“She looked like that,” added Cleansweep, who looked a bit unnerved by what she was saying.
Tilting her head, Sonata gently separated herself from Fiddlesticks and walked over to see what everyone was talking about, blinking as the unconscious unicorn came into view. “Wait a sec…so, Lex made whatshername’s wings vanish?” She tilted her head in thought, before smiling as she realized what was going on. “Ooh! So this is, like, one of those optimum illusions, right? Her wings are behind some mirrors somewhere?” Reached a hoof down, she poked Luna’s sides, looking for the trick that was keeping her wings hidden.
“No, Sonata,” moaned Nosey. At some point, Feathercap had gone over to lend her a helping hoof, patting her gently on the back, though she barely seemed to notice. “You don’t understand. Luna’s not an alicorn anymore. Her wings are gone.”
“They are?” Blinking, Sonata tried to figure out where a pair of wings would go, slowly turning her head to look up in the sky. “So…should we, like, get one of those nets with a really long handle and go try and catch ‘em?”
Despite herself, a giggle escaped Nosey’s lips, though it had a slightly hysterical tenor to it. “The Chronicle will never print this,” she muttered. “Even if they did, nopony would believe it.”
“All of you,” rasped Lex as he let go of Fruit Crunch, taking a step forward. “Be quiet.”
Everyone immediately fell silent, except for Sonata, who rolled her eyes as she walked over to him. “Aw c’mon!” she teased, eager to keep this particular topic going. After all, the more they talked about it the less chance there was that he’d ask where she and Nosey had been. “This is, like, a super big deal! Tell us more…” She trailed off as got closer to him, realizing that her initial impression had been more correct than she’d realized: Lex had overdone it again. Badly.
His face was pale, but unlike Nosey it was quite clearly from pain and exertion rather than anxiety, his jaw clenching as he forced himself to take another step. Even that seemed to require a titanic effort, his legs trembling as he shifted his weight forward, sweat already starting to run down his face. It was only when his foreleg touched down that he released the breath he’d been holding, exhaling audibly before taking several heavy breaths. “Hurry and…” he gasped, looking at Sonata, “fetch…the doctors…”
“R-right!” she nodded. “Just hold on, I’ll have them come here and fix you up in no-”
“No!” he snarled. Or at least, he tried to; his voice came out sounding more like a croak. “Not…for me! For the…princesses…and guards!” He moved his left foreleg – the one that looked like he’d stuck it in a shredder, being covered with cuts and dried blood – as though to point at the fallen ponies. But his leg only twitched a little, and Lex swayed dangerously as though about to collapse.
Sonata started forward, alarmed, but Fruit Crunch beat her to it, appearing at Lex’s side in an instant to steady him. “I’ve got you!” he called, worry having replaced his previous excitement. “Just…just hang on, okay? Dust Bun-, er, Cleansweep can’t heal you without her animal, but we’ll get the doctors here right away!”
Sonata’s eyes lit up then. “Hang on! Lex, you have healing magic, right? Like, when you cured whatshisname, when our ship was attacked by the sea-hooligans, or whatever they were called? That pony who kept bragging about the scar he got from that?”
“Sandbar,” muttered Lex, the reproach in his voice barely audible with how he was struggling just to speak. “His name…was…Sandbar…”
Sonata nodded. “Right, whatever, Sandbar! Go ahead and use that on yourself now!”
Despite looking like he was going to collapse at any second, Lex’s ears managed to fold back. “I can’t…” A look of shame crossed his face then. “Used it up…this morning…”
“No way!” Sonata couldn’t have looked more shocked. “Why?”
“Does that really matter right now?!” cut in Nosey, giving Sonata an incredulous look. “Look, I’ll go get the doctors, okay? Just stay here and don’t let him try to do anything else!” Her eyes were filled with worry as she looked at Lex then. “For once, let someone else take care of you, okay?” She didn’t wait for an answer as she turned and galloped off, heading toward the medical tents.
But Lex was intent on answering Sonata’s question. “After the three…of you left…I was getting ready…to meet the princesses,” he groaned. “I had decided…that I’d fight them…” A shudder went through him then, and Fruit Crunch had to adjust his stance to keep Lex from collapsing. “So I…used those…healing spells…on myself…” His jaw clenched as he kept going. “And then…a few minutes later…after I’d used them…I changed my mind…I decided that…fighting the princesses…was pointless…” He gave a sharp exhalation that might have been a self-deprecating laugh. “Those spells…were wasted…”
“Hang on!” protested Sonata. “That, like, doesn’t even make any sense! You were totes still hurting this morning, so fixing yourself up wasn’t wasted! If you hadn’t done that, you’d be even more hurt than you are now!” She looked at Fruit Crunch. “Tell him!”
Not sure what was going on, and slightly intimidated by the serious nature of the conversation, Fruit Crunch nevertheless nodded. “She’s right, Lex! I mean, so what if you decided that fighting Celestia and Luna was pointless? You still got into a fight with them anyway, so it’s a good thing that you healed up first!”
“…If I had…kept one…I might have…been able to…save him…” murmured Lex.
Feeling completely lost now, Sonata could only shake her head. “Huh? Who?”
“…Silhouette…”
Tilting her head, Sonata grimaced at the name of that awful black-and-white stallion. “That jerk? What’s he got to do with you using up your healing spells?”
But Fruit Crunch’s eyes had widened. “Oh geez, I forgot!”
His friends had similar looks on their faces. “Now I remember!” blurted Cleansweep. “When we got here, after I healed Lex he started trying to talk Celestia and Luna down, telling them that I could-”
“Go heal Silhouette,” finished Feathercap, starting to tremble a little.
Fiddlesticks nodded. “But it was too late then, because one of the Royal Guard ponies came back and said that Silhouette had died.”
“And the princesses blamed Lex for it,” finished Straightlace quietly. “But then he started to say something about bringing him back, and that’s when that wire around his hoof went crazy.”
“Yeah.” Fruit Crunch cringed at the memory. “What was up with th-”
“Whoa whoa whoa!” interrupted Sonata. “Time out! What happened to that Silhouette guy?! And why were those two blaming Lex for it?!”
“It was…my fault…” mumbled Lex.
He tried to take another step, and very nearly knocked Fruit Crunch over in the process, the colt grunting with the effort to keep him upright. “We’ve gotta get him someplace where he can lie down!” he grunted.
“Let’s go inside the train station,” suggested Straightlace.
“Nuh-uh!” Sonata’s reply was immediate. “I want the doctors to be able to go, like, right to him when they get here! Let’s, um…” She twisted her head to and fro, looking for someplace that wasn’t completely torn up from the fight. “Let’s go put him on the train station platform, next to all that food.” It was a little ways away, but better than being inside the building.
Fruit Crunch nodded, and started to guide Lex over there, practically carrying the stallion now. His friends and Sonata quickly moved to assist him, each of them working to bear some of Lex’s weight. It was an awkward procession, but it only took them a few seconds to reach the platform and gently lay Lex on it, making sure to spread his cloak out like a blanket under him. As soon as that was done, Sonata immediately settled down beside him, biting her lip. “Listen…I know I should have been here-”
Lex’s eyes, which had been turning unfocused, snapped over to her. “No,” he breathed, a little bit of vigor returning to his voice now that he wasn’t pushing himself just to stand. “Better that…you weren’t…”
That hadn’t been what she’d thought he'd say. She’d been sure that he’d have gotten mad at her for letting him talk to the princesses alone. The unexpected kindness was enough to kick her guilt into overdrive, and Sonata found herself floundering, suddenly wanting to make up for how thoughtless she’d been. “Is there, like, anything I can do for you now? For realsies, anything at all?”
Lex answered immediately. “Keep everypony…away from…Severance.”
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I assume that Equestrias magic can be used whenever right, can lex not use that magic?
Well, besides the task of getting the princesses and their retinue some medical attention, Nosey and Sonata are probably going to need to deal with the chaos that's likely spreading throughout the camp after Severance struck down Silhouette. Nothing an application of Siren magic can't solve if regular diplomacy falls through.
Still, going into the train station might not be such a hot idea considering Feather Duster is there, her views of Lex as a monster more than likely cemented in her mind. While I doubt she'd tried to smother Lex like Spit Polish did, she just witnessed Lex take down the princesses on his own and her foal along with her friends are right next to him under his 'thrall' or something else her imagination likely conjured up so she could try something really stupid.
Or she'll just try to convince Cleansweep to run away with her since she's not the type to do anything so malicious nor has she gone through the same thing Spit Polish did to change her to do so.
Regardless, Lex essentially has Luna's status as an alicorn and potential goddess hostage since Celestia does not have the ability to break curses like Cadence does. So unless she believes she can take Lex down on her lonesome, she'll need to either bargain with Lex or flee back to Canterlot and hope Cadence can break the curse but given how amped up the curse was in comparison to the one he cast on Cozy and Aisle, I somehow doubt it.
Now here's another question:
Since we know that alicorn Ascension in e
Equestria is a thing, would Luna not be able to just do it again? Even if Lex could curse her to be unable to, I doubt he had the power to do so.
That, and I'm not sure he even could block it. Even with what little we know of it, we do know it involves massive amounts of magic.
So basically, that isn't really permanent, is it?
9691036
What even is his cutie mark? I presume it's not healing, and there aren't very many other useful ones he could have, atm.
9691083
Is that even what happened? Sure, he could force the reversal of ascension, but do you really think he's powerful enough, and had enough at the moment, to do that, and curse her against just reascending?
9691175
Well, it's pure conjecture at this point but to the guards and Celestia, that may very well be the truth since they're basing his abilities off of what they know about Sombra's powers as well as the knowledge that Twilight brought back from Everglow.
And despite how quickly Lex came up with the curse's properties, which is largely unknown save for the loss of alicornhood, he probably thought of a failsafe to prevent her from regaining it.
Then again, Lex doesn't know about alicorn ascensions so Luna could potentially regain it and dispel the curse all in one go though even if that was the case, it doesn't mean she'll be able to do it easily.
9691198
Fair enough.
As long as teh train station doesnt have working telegraph and theres no handy message candles for the Guard for emergancy request for support, Lex will need days to even try and sort this out, otherwise he will have every armed force available dropping on him like an asteroid.
Silhouette if there is a body there is still a good chance he can be saved.
9691387
Well yeah. The princesses said they were going to take him to Cadance.
Even if Lex had had healing magic, I feel like Severance crit Silhouette and probably dropped him straight to perma-dead. I don't think Lex has a Breath of Life, he would not have been able to save him.
I also just realized: Is Luna no longer immortal? Because Lex is smart enough to realize that taking away a being's immortality is the same as killing them, just with a slight delay. Or maybe he expects her alicorn-ness to be healed later.
9688185 Normally I would be very hesitant to call someone's actions a rationalization, because you have to have a pretty good picture of their thought processes to do it. But you actually write a really well-crafted balance between dialogue of Lex and Severance, and Lex's own thoughts, so we can see how first Lex tries to declare Luna's defeat means nothing more needs to be done, then Severance pushes against him. Then when Lex sees Severance is ominously refusing to respond to his declaration that victory is insufficient, he suddenly declares she "will not be shown mercy."
We can see his thinking is motivated primarily by a desire to save Luna's life. Then he does his best to convince himself that it's what Luna deserved all along. Any time a character ends a paragraph of mental monologue with a sentence that starts with "Besides," they are rationalizing the heck out of things. He does literally nothing about Celestia, and he probably would have done the same to Luna if Severance had been disjointed.
Lex was able to use this new-found mental flexibility to save Luna's life, which is probably the most important thing. And the ability to compromise with himself will be immensely useful for a ruler. But I do suspect that Tulpa of his is going to be telling him something similar to what I've just said now that he's passed out.
9691036 It's not so much that Equestrian magic can be used at will. Rather, the Equestrian spellcasting that unicorns use is a physical process, and so requires physical exertion. Doing it too much will prove to be physically tiring, as we see with Starlight and Twilight in The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2 (season five, episode twenty-six). Lex created a new form of magic based around storing and utilizing energy via thoughts, rather than physicality, because the latter was limited by body mass, whereas the latter theoretically had no limit (though in practice he'd found it to have a major limit in actually getting the energy into his thoughts in the first place). He can still use magic through his body, of course, but at this point has abandoned doing so for anything other than retaining or augmenting his thought-based spellcasting.
9691083 Dealing with the camp ponies is doing to be something of a big deal, in all likelihood, and probably not something that Lex should work on. In that case, I suspect that Nosey and/or Sonata will have their work cut out for them, particularly since Lex isn't likely to approve of them using magic to change everypony's minds. In that case, they'll need to be very convincing, though it might help if Lex tells them what actually happened first.
As for Feather Duster...it's hard to say what she'll do. I suspect that with her last hope for escaping Lex (i.e. having the princesses defeating him) she'll have some sort of extreme reaction. But as for how that will manifest, well...it'll clearly be framed around doing what's best for her daughter, but other than that we'll just have to wait and see. She doesn't seem quite as brave (or foolish) as Spit Polish, but who can say for certain what someone will do in an extreme circumstance?
As for Celestia, my guess is that she'll rely on Cadance (since they were already going to take Silhouette to her anyway), but it's hard to say for certain. She's not likely to react very well to what Lex did to Luna, but will her first instinct be fear or indignation? That might very well set the tone for what happens next...
9691166 The problem is that there's never really been a standardized method for how ponies become alicorns. The ways that Celestia and Luna, Cadance, and Twilight are said to have ascended are all very different, and even then the first three were from secondary media, which I don't think of as being canon anyway. But even just looking at Twilight's ascension, we're told that she'd done something that was never done before, and Celestia was the one who said that. So it seems that each method is unique, and therefore likely unrepeatable. Even if you go by what's in the secondary media, it's not like Luna can earn her cutie mark a second time, now, is it?
9691167 If you look at the cover illustration for this story, Lex's cutie mark is a podium in front of an amphitheater. He's mentioned before that his special talent is "administration." (If that seems like an odd symbol for that talent, that's because abstract talents tend to have figurative pictures, which is why "magic" tends to be shapes that are vaguely reminiscent of astronomical phenomena.)
9691336 Insofar as I'm aware, Equestria doesn't really have long-range communications technology. Yes, I know we've seen the occasional phones in background pictures, but those strike me as being sight-gags (i.e. for a "ponified Mad Men" image) more than anything else (at the very most, I'd call them very localized party lines). After all, every instance of urgent long-distance communication that we've seen in the series has involved written correspondence, and I don't think that's coincidental.
9691387
9691643 That's the plan, but remember that Cadance has a time limit on how long someone can be dead before she's unable to bring them back, and that limit is measured in days. The alicorns will need to hurry if they want her to resurrect him.
9692139 You're most likely correct that Lex's use of infernal healing probably wouldn't have saved Silhouette. Even if Silhouette hadn't been slain outright, it doesn't seem likely that Lex was close enough to make it to him and use it all on his turn anyway. Not that Luna, Celestia, or the other guards would have let him in any case. So his guilt is at least somewhat misplaced here, though knowing Lex he doubtless thought he could have found a way to do it anyway.
As for whether or not this has made Luna mortal, well...that's uncertain. But if it did, I question if Lex would bear moral culpability for her death if she aged and eventually passed away. He has a commitment to save pony lives, but that doesn't mean that he's obsessed with providing everypony with immortality, you'll notice. Natural processes act as a sort of force majeure, even when the issue is someone having found a way to escape those processes and Lex decides to revoke said escape. Life is something that everypony has an inalienable right to, but eternal life is another matter altogether.
Finally, it's important to keep in mind the definition for what constitutes "rationalization," namely that it's where you provide a superficial reason for something that seems valid, but isn't the actual reason for doing something. That's not the case here: remember that Lex's initial desire to fight the alicorns was because he'd already determined that they deserved to be arrested for what they'd done. He backed off that because he came to the conclusion that he lacked any way of practically implementing any sort of punishment after he'd arrested them; he never admitted that they didn't deserve to be punished, just that he wasn't in a position to do it. Severance's insistence on killing Luna, however, changed the equation, to the point where he wasn't in a position not to. That forced his hoof, but it only changed his circumstances (and, by extension, his reaction to those circumstances), not his underlying reasoning.