Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

412 - Lovesickness and Health

Lex could only stare at the smirking mares in front of him, utterly aghast. “What?!”

“If you don’t agree to keep us,” answered Aria, speaking slowly to make sure the message got across, “then we will kill ourselves.”

“What she said,” added Sonata helpfully.

For a moment Lex couldn’t even bring himself to respond, simply looking back and forth between the two of them. After their ludicrous plan to try and secure their relationship with him by staging a fake coup, he’d thought they’d learned their lesson. The three of them had started a dialogue about what they were up against and what to do about it, and even if they hadn’t been able to come up with any viable strategies, they had at least been going about exploring ideas in the proper manner. And yet now, with no preamble, Sonata and Aria had gone back to another absurd scheme! “Your bluff is in exceptionally poor taste,” he spat, voice filled with disdain. “A lot of ponies have died here, and-”

“There’s going to be two more unless you figure something out,” finished Aria.

“Because it’s, like, totes not a bluff,” chimed in Sonata. “If you don’t make us your slaves or pets or call girls or whatever, then schlk!” The last exclamation was accompanied by her drawing a hoof across her throat.

Despite her nonchalance, the gesture sent a visceral rush of anger through Lex. If it had been anyone else talking that way about Sonata, he would have thrown himself at them in a rage. Only the fact that the ones holding her and Aria hostage were themselves kept his ire in check. That, and the fact that he had no practical measure for stopping them; their magic would make using what mundane restraints the camp could supply an exercise in futility, and the only magic he had that might have prevented them from harming themselves was a curse. But a quick check of his circlet indicated that the spells they'd used to bolster their resistance to his magic was still active. Worse, Lex had used his dark magic enough to know that a malediction of that degree would require him to channel additional power through his body, and he had exhausted his ability to do that until he’d rested again…which there was no time for now, leaving him gnashing his teeth in impotent fury. “The two of you,” he hissed, “are not serious! This is nothing more than a ploy!”

“Maybe,” shrugged Aria, before giving him a devious grin. “But are you really willing to bet on that?”

But rather than sharing her sister’s taunting demeanor, Sonata actually looked a little upset by Lex’s accusation. “You don’t think we’re being serious?”

“I know you’re not!” snapped Lex. “The idea that you’d take your own lives just because we couldn’t continue our relationship isn’t just preposterous, it’s unthinkable!”

“Maybe for you,” huffed Sonata. “I mean, yeah, when I broke your heart back when we were headed for Tall Tale, you were still able to pick yourself up and go do what you knew you needed to do, but we’re not like that.”

Aria nodded, giving Lex a standoffish look. “Unlike you, some of us-”

But Sonata wasn’t finished. “Did I ever tell you that I don’t even remember most of my time on Earth? I mean, I do; it’s not like I have that thing from those stories where you hit your head and forget your entire life. But it’s all just sort of blurred together. And you know why?” She gave him a pointed look then, not waiting for him to try and answer. “Because it was boring! Actually, you know what? That’s not even the right word for it. It was like…” She twirled a hoof in the air. “Empty. Like watching the same movie over and over again, and not even a good movie! But you can’t fall asleep because you were already asleep, and so there’s nothing to do but just watch it again, you know?”

“I can assure you I don’t,” answered Lex, his incomprehension written all over his face.

Pouting, Sonata tried again. “I’m saying it was like having waffles every morning, but never any syrup. Like every day was Tuesday, and the weekend never rolled around. Like…Like…” Concentrating with visible strain, Sonata finally looked over at Aria. “A little help here?”

To her credit, Aria only spent a second rolling her eyes. “You’re trying to say that the time we spent on that world was meaningless.”

“Right!” Relieved to have been put back on track, Sonata flashed her sister a grateful grin before turning back to Lex, her expression turning serious. “We were there for, like, more than a thousand years, and that entire time was totes meaningless. And you know why?” Her ears folded back then, grimacing as though it hurt to even think about that part of her life. “Because over there absolutely nothing mattered. At least, not to us. We could get just enough power from the people in that world to make anyone who came near us fall under our spell, which meant that we could do anything to anybody. And if you think that sounds fun, trust me, it got real old real fast. Just putting an enchantment on people isn’t the same as having them really adore you.”

“And don’t ask ‘why didn’t you just not enchant them and talk to them like normal?’” added Aria. “When you have the power to make people do whatever you want, you can’t help but use it whenever someone does something you don’t like. And since we could only recharge our powers – which we needed to do all the time – by making people upset, that’s what we used everyone there for when we weren’t making them fawn over us. Throw in the whole ‘immortality’ thing, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that no one in that awful world ever really made an impression.”

“And it just went on and on,” groaned Sonata. “And even when things finally changed, all that happened was that everything got worse! We lost the Battle of Bands and ended up with no magic at all for a while, then we went to Everglow and got our butts kicked for the second time in a row, and then…” She paused, shooting her sister a guilty look. “And then we split up.”

Aria frowned, but didn’t say anything.

Licking her lips, Sonata turned her attention back to Lex, giving a helpless shrug. “And that’s how it was. Things were either long and boring and filled with nameless nobodies, or there were a bunch of super-strong enemies slapping us around and not caring how unhappy they made us.” Despite how dreary her story was, she smiled then, stepping forward and placing a hoof on Lex’s chest. “That was just how life was for us…until we met you.”

Suddenly feeling awkward, Lex shifted in place. “Sonata…”

“Everything about you was different,” she continued. “Instead of a world where nothing mattered, you saw a world where everything did. Everyone we’d ever met who had magic used it to fight us; you used it to fight for us. You want to be adored by everyone, but only if you’ve actually earned it. You’re too strong to be enchanted, too tough to be intimidated, and too smart to be tricked. And you never, ever give up.”

She slowly slid her hoof up, until she was gently caressing his cheek. “I don’t just want to be adored. I know that now. As much as I like it when everyone smiles and cheers and claps when they see me, that’s not enough for me anymore. I want to be loved, and I want to be loved by you, Lex. Because I know that when you smile at me, when you kiss me, when you touch me, it’s not because of my magic, or because I’m pretty, or because you think it’s funny when I say the wrong thing. It’s just because I’m me, Sonata Dusk. The girl who makes you happy. And that’s…” She had to stop then, wiping her eyes. “And that means so much more to me than even if everyone in this world, and that world, and that other world all adored me. And if that can’t happen…if you can’t be with me anymore…then yeah, I don’t want to go on living.”

A moment after Sonata finished, Aria stepped forward. In contrast to her usual bravado, her face was bright red, eyes downcast. Even as Lex watched, she risked a quick glance up at him, and when they made eye contact she immediately lowered her gaze, her face burning even more. She didn’t look at him again as she crept forward, staying silent as she meekly pressed herself against his side.

Lex was silent as well, having no idea how to respond to such a heartfelt statement. A cascade of emotions ran through him, ranging from joy that Sonata felt so strongly for him to fear that she really would take her own life if he didn’t find a way out of their current predicament. But with no solid foundation on which to ground his thoughts, he couldn’t even begin to formulate a response, let alone a plan.

It was in an effort to stabilize his feelings that he bent his thoughts toward the data points that Sonata had outlined, focusing on them in hopes that focusing on something rational would let him regain his equilibrium. But even those were more emotive than informative. Just the thought of spending over a thousand years in a state of perpetual ennui, brought on by being trapped in a realm with no magic of its own and populated by nothing but humans, was so maddening that…that…

Suddenly everything fell into place.

“The full scope of the hardships the two of you have endured is clear to me now.” Neither mare missed the tone of finality in Lex’s voice, causing them to share a nervous look before turning their attention back to him. “The mutated forms you were born with,” he continued. “Being thrown into that alien world. Enduring over a millennium with only each other for meaningful contact. What you went through on Everglow. I didn’t fully appreciate the effect that it all had on you before. But I do now, which is why I can confidently say…” He paused then, looking each of them in the eye to make sure they fully understood what he was about to tell them.

“The two of you are not of sound mind.”

“…huh?”

“…what?”

“What you’ve gone through has clearly compromised your mental competence, leaving you with a diminished capacity to function as rational beings,” explained Lex. “As such, your personal agency can therefore no longer be recognized as being sufficient to allow you to function as autonomous agents in Equestrian society.”

Aria frowned. “Wait…are you saying we’re crazy?”

Sonata scratched her head. “Okay, not exactly the ‘I love you too’ that I was expecting, unless-” Her eyes widened. “Ooh! Does this mean you’re throwing out the whole ‘turn you to stone someday’ thing?!”

Lex grimaced slightly at that. “No. Despite your impaired faculties, both your magical capabilities and your actions to date have made it clear that you present a danger to the ponies around you. Hence, your sentence – though suspended – is still in force.” That was a standard that had to be upheld. While diminished mental capacity could be grounds for leniency when administering a criminal sentence, doing so here could lay the groundwork for establishing that that same leniency should have been granted to Luna, since it was possible that her millennium-long imprisonment in the moon could have had a similarly deleterious effect on her mind. That was speculative, of course; Lex had previously heard rumors that she had spent that time in stasis, similar to what had happened to him and the rest of the Crystal Empire under King Sombra’s curse. But even if that wasn’t the case, Lex had no intention of creating even the flimsiest basis for Luna, or some representative of hers, to argue that he had been too hard on her.

“Then what exactly are you saying?” asked Aria impatiently.

“I’m saying,” replied Lex with a pointed look, “that the two of you are hereby placed under the care of the state – as represented by myself – until such a time as you’re able to function autonomously again.” He allowed himself a thin smile then. “Though given the duration of the torment you went through, that will likely be a long time indeed.”

Sonata’s eyes widened. “Oh my gosh! So you mean you’re, like, going to take charge of us? Like, even if we can’t be boyfriend and girlfriends?” She gave him a toothy grin, eyes sparkling. “We’ll still be able to fool around though, right?”

Lex raised a brow. “It would be unseemly for the person in charge of your well-being to take advantage of you in that way.” Sonata’s face had just started to fall when Lex continued. “However, rehabilitative instructions on carrying out relationships will be necessary.”

Sonata let out a whoop of joy at that, and she wasn’t the only one. “So we’re going to be playing doctor instead of harem girls?” snickered Aria. “I can go for that.”

Lex opened his mouth to reply, but couldn’t get anything out as a fresh wave of agony suddenly went down his foreleg. Looking down, he could see that the wire had contracted again. Now the barbs weren’t just wrapped around his leg to the point of scraping on the bone, but were beginning to gouge it. Despite that, he still made himself bear the pain, refusing to cry out. But even as he forced himself not to let on just how badly it hurt, he knew that it was futile. Regardless of whether he expressed it or not, the Night Mare’s patience was almost up.

It was time to go ahead with the ceremony.

Author's Note:

Sonata bares her soul to Lex, who finally finds a way for them to be together despite the Night Mare's ultimatum!

Now he just needs to complete the ceremony to the goddess's satisfaction...

Comments

[Not so New Brony]

Lex 'Loophole' Legis strikes again but not without the aid of his lovely ladies

Seriously though, Sonata's words on her experience had actually left me a bit emotional for a bit...well, until Lex's initial response left me gobsmacked (along with the urge to shout 'Come on!') Then his following decision and reasoning, while so thinly veiled that it might as well been gossamer, is still sound and logical.

Plus, Lex can use the same excuse with Nosey too considering her trauma though I still wonder if the Night Mare will be satisfied with this outcome.

[Booster Spice]

Les uses certification?

Next, the main trick when trimming isnt an option.

[Alzrius]

9927533 And it's super effective!

[Alzrius]

9927272 This one really was a team effort.

Mental healthcare isn't something you really see in Equestria, because it's never really needed. The closest I think we've ever seen was Twilight putting Rainbow Dash on a stereotypical psychiatrist's couch and sitting down to take notes in Lesson Zero (season two, episode three), and that struck me as more of a sight gag than anything else. So there wasn't much basis for Lex to work off of here; it took Sonata and Aria going so far as to tell him how empty their lives were before they met him, and that they didn't want to live if they couldn't be with him, for him to start thinking that they were – quite literally – talking crazy.

Once he had that idea, he was able to run with it, and simply declare them to be insane and placed under the care of the state, i.e. himself. That was the loophole that Aria had previously asserted must be there, the one that would allow him to assume control over their lives (and even continue their physical relationship, even if that part was a stretch...having no established precedent for how to treat individuals declared mentally incompetent was a good thing for him there) without violating his moral code. It's a justification that's quite clearly self-serving for all three of them, but it works for what they're trying to do.

As for the Night Mare...my suspicion is that she'll accept it. After all, declaring yourself to have power over others (and being able to back it up) is kind of a big deal to her. This might not be slavery in the technical sense, but in a very real way that's a distinction without a difference. Lex will now end his relationship of (romantic/emotional) equals with Sonata and Aria, and instead assume a position where he controls their lives, regardless of how they feel about it. I think she'll be pleased...at least, depending on how the rest of the ceremony goes.

[Maxemilien]

The soup of chaos is ready, time to see how the Night Mare reacts to it, and whether Lex has a good dessert to go along with it...

[Treforce]

The Devil's Dictionary: Technicality

TECHNICALITY

-n.

In an English court a man named Home was tried for slander in having accused his neighbor of murder. His exact words were: "Sir Thomas Holt hath taken a cleaver and stricken his cook upon the head, so that one side of the head fell upon one shoulder and the other side upon the other shoulder." The defendant was acquitted by instruction of the court, the learned judges holding that the words did not charge murder, for they did not affirm the death of the cook, that being only an inference.

Although Lex seems to have found a loophole... I have a strong feeling that The night mare does not like being cheated by a technicality.

[Alzrius]

9929188 One can only hope she finds it appetizing.

[Alzrius]

9929316 Well, to be fair Lex is still rather upset that she just demanded a sacrifice from him. True, it was in response to him wanting Severance removed from Equestria, but it's fairly obvious that he's not pleased with what he has to give up. So this is his way of sticking it to the Night Mare. The question now is whether or not that's going to be a sore point for her.

Amusing anecdote, though.