43 - Bad Moon Rising
The afternoon passed quickly for Lex. While he’d harbored some thoughts about finishing lunch quickly and then making preparations for going to Vanhoover, Sonata clearly had other ideas. While she’d found a restaurant easily enough, some small pasta place with low lighting and large booths that were semi-private, everything after that had proceeded at a leisurely pace.
First she’d taken her time ordering, telling the waiter more than once that they needed more time to make up their minds. Then she’d dawdled over her meal, taking small bites at a relaxed pace as she’d kept up a conversation, largely one-sided, about everything from her time on that “Earth” place (“seriously, it was the pits!”) to some of the friends she’d made since then (“I wonder what Pinkie is doing right now?”). And then she’d insisted on repeating the entire process over dessert.
To Lex, it was obvious that she was attempting to prolong their meal so that he could rest. If it had been anypony else doing that, he would either have ignored their procrastinating and proceeded at his own pace or simply castigated them for trying to slow him down. But having so recently reaffirmed his love for Sonata, the knowledge that she wanted to take care of him filled him with a pleasant warmth, and he couldn’t bring himself to do either of those things.
That wasn’t the only reason, however. The other one was that, once he’d curled up on his side of the booth and felt exhaustion wash over him, it became clear to him just how badly he was struggling just to keep himself going. While he wasn’t in agony any longer, the pain of his injuries was still lingering, and attempting to push through it was only depleting his stamina faster. As it was, it was only when the plate of food – some noodle, cheese, and tomato sauce dish that Sonata had picked out on his behalf – was placed in front of him that he even realized that he was hungry, not having eaten since yesterday.
Availing himself of the time that Sonata was buying to rest, it was only after they’d lingered over a finished dessert for what had to have been a half-hour that Lex reminded his girlfriend that they needed to join the mayor for her formal announcement of her abdication. Sonata had clearly been hesitant to leave, probably still concerned about him, but a kiss was all it took to silence her worries.
The actual statement had been a surprisingly brief affair. Once they’d arrived at the town square, where a massive party was in full swing in celebration of the recent troubles being over, a pair of burly earth ponies had escorted them to a stage where Ribbon and Lucy had been waiting for them.
After calling the crowd to order, Ribbon then told the citizens what she’d learned from Lex and Sonata, about how a dragon had orchestrated everything in an attempt to dupe the ponies of Tall Tale into becoming its unwitting source of food. She had also explained how the araneas that had attacked the city were victims themselves, and pleaded for them to be forgiven. Finally, she had explained her role in the entire affair, treating her having been magically beguiled as an explanation, but not an excuse.
When she announced that she was therefore resigning her office, the crowd had balked, with several ponies yelling their displeasure with her decision. But when Ribbon stated that she was turning her position over to Lex, going out of her way to emphasize how he had been the one who had not only discovered what was going on but had single-hoofedly defeated the dragon in a one-on-one fight, the crowd’s opposition had vanished entirely.
At that point, it had been Lex’s turn to speak. However, he had personally uttered only a few sentences to the crowd. “I am Lex Legis. At the insistence of Ribbon Cutter, and in consideration for all of you, I will be administrating Tall Tale from now on. My spokespony, Sonata Dusk, will now make a statement on my behalf.”
At that point, Lex had stepped aside in favor of Sonata taking center-stage, casting a cantrip that would let him whisper his words to her from a distance as he did so. He then read his part of the statement, letting Sonata translate it into more relatable speech.
Ribbon had initially objected to this arrangement, insisting that it would be best for him to personally appeal to the crowed, but Lex had refused to compromise on this point. The sudden applause that he’d received when entering city hall had driven home that the public was predisposed to like him, and he was determined not to squander that. To that end, he felt certain that it was better to let Sonata, with her natural charisma and overflowing personal appeal, speak for him…even if that meant her saying how he was “totes” going to work “really reeeally” hard to make things “super awesome” in Tall Tale.
The results were what he’d hoped for. While the assembled ponies seemed surprised at how briefly he’d spoken, they warmed to Sonata quickly. By the time she said that he’d be assigning Ribbon Cutter to act in his place while he “fixed up” Vanhoover, the crowd was applauding, happy that their new administrator was effectively keeping their beloved mayor in place with nothing more than a title-change.
After that the party had resumed, but although Ribbon had told Lex that there were several prominent individuals that wanted to meet him, Lex had declined, citing preparations that needed to be made for Vanhoover’s immediate disaster-relief. After that, they had returned to Sonata’s hotel room; for everything he’d told Ribbon, it was clear to him that Tall Tale was going to celebrate through the night. The only preparations he’d be able to make, he knew, would be alone.
Once they’d returned, Sonata had ushered Lex into bed, despite it only being late afternoon. At that point he’d protested her trying to coddle him, and a brief back-and-forth had ended in a compromise, with him getting into bed and her handing him one of the scrolls from the dragon’s hoard to look over.
After he’d determined that the scroll wasn’t trapped or otherwise equipped with any sort of defenses, he’d done just that. As it turned out, it was quite the find, outlining a powerful spell – within Lex’s abilities, though at the limit of what he could cast without needing to focus additional energy through his body – designed to pierce all magic that could fool the eye, letting the spell’s recipient see all things as they truly were.
Lex had been quite taken with the spell effect, and had already been mentally noting the spell’s usefulness and drawbacks – the duration was quite short, and a successful casting required a mixture of several expensive unguents to be spread over the eyelids – when he’d finally succumbed to his tiredness and fallen asleep.
It was the middle of the night when Lex awoke, snapping to alertness as his ever-present nightmares abated. As unpleasant as his perpetual bad dreams were, their awfulness was ameliorated by the sight of his lady-love sleeping next to him, apparently having crawled into bed at some point.
A smile crept over his face as he watched her sleep, and he couldn’t resist gently caressing her mane. Slipping out of bed, he made sure that he didn’t disturb her as he did so. She had made sure that he had rested during the day; he owed her the same consideration now.
Once he was up, it took only a thought to invoke the dark magic of his horn, enhancing his senses to allow him to see in the dark with complete clarity, though only in black-and-white. Still, that was sufficient for what he intended.
After she’d retrieved the scroll from the extradimensional space that she’d been using as a hair ornament, she’d left that space rolled up on a nearby table. Now, Lex unrolled it in the middle of the room, taking care not to let the coins shift as he lifted the small statuette out of the hole, rolling it back up after he’d done so.
Holding it in his telekinetic grip, Lex took a moment to examine the statuette up close. A moment of concentration was enough to confirm again, thanks to his circlet, that it had no magical properties. Still, it was quite clearly an impressive work of art, depicting a beautiful alicorn mare, her wings flared and her mane flowing. If Lex had to guess, he’d have ventured that it was of the Sun Queen – Everglow’s most popular goddess, who was said to move that world’s sun the way that Princess Celestia did Equestria’s – but as he’d paid only scant attention to that world’s gods, he wasn’t entirely certain. Still, the icon was likely to adequately serve for what he had in mind…
Placing the statuette, as well as the scroll he’d been perusing earlier, which Sonata had laid on the room’s single desk after he’d fallen asleep, inside his haversack, Lex prepared to depart. The sole remaining order of business was to leave Sonata a note, just in case she woke up.
Taking a piece of paper and quill from his haversack, Lex paused as he noticed what was underneath them. It was the newspaper that he’d bought on the train that had taken them to Tall Tale, the one with the headline about Princess Cadance dispatching clerics to Equestria’s major cities. Seeing it again made him grit his teeth, and confirmed that what he was about to do was the right decision.
Replacing the newspaper in his bag, he quickly scribbled a note saying that he had gone to run a late errand and would be back soon, placing it on the pillow next to Sonata. Then, with one last lingering glance at his beloved, Lex changed into a shadow and flitted out of the room.
Despite the late hour, Tall Tale was still active, and Lex saw that lights had been strung down the main thoroughfares as ponies continued to make merry. He avoided those, sticking to the darker side-streets as he sped towards the edge of town. Having no legs to carry him nor lungs to be filled in his form, he didn’t need to pace himself, and had soon left Tall Tale behind.
He slowed down only slightly as he entered the woods, checking to make sure that he was going in the direction that he remembered when he’d made this trip with the would-be evacuees less than a day earlier. Confirming that he hadn’t veered from his intended course, he kept going, and after a time reached the edge of the woods.
Overhead, the moon was nearing its zenith. Though not full, its gibbous form was waxing, bathing the open field in a pale light that illuminated the area. Most stark was the corpse of the dragon that Lex had killed, still lying where it had fallen, undisturbed.
Changing back into his solid body, Lex stalked towards the unmoving body, glancing around out of habit as he did so. Other than the area where the dragon’s breath weapon had scarred the ground, there was little evidence of the titanic battle that had been fought here. The black wall that he’d conjured had long since crumbled into nothing, as he’d known it would. Nothing that he’d ever made from crystallized darkness had ever lasted more than an hour before losing its cohesion.
Turning his attention back to the dragon’s body, Lex regarded it with undisguised loathing. Bad enough that it was a creature whose nature was to prey on others, but that it had tried to do so on ponies, the noblest of races, was unforgiveable. That it had dared to try and harm his beloved was far worse. Killing the creature had been the very least it deserved.
But at least it would do some good now…
Taking the statuette out from his haversack, Lex placed it on the ground in front of the dragon, and then stepped back. Standing up on his hind legs, he raised his forelimbs as he looked up at the moon and began to chant.
The central definition of spellcasting was that it involved shaping and directing internalized magical energies to produce external effects. This was true for every magical discipline that Lex had ever heard of. In all of them, without exception, the premise of casting a spell was to absorb energy into one’s self and then release it.
Early on in his attempts to create a new, superior form of magic, Lex had questioned that premise. Absorbing energy only to release it again had seemed, at the time, horribly inefficient due to how it limited the spellcaster to what they could take into themselves. Why not just shape the ambient energy directly, without having to incorporate it first, and directly produce the effects that way?
Experimentation had soon revealed the answer. While it was possible to try and shape magical energy without absorbing it first, doing so was monstrously difficult. Flowing freely throughout the environment, the magical energy writhed and whirled, constantly in motion. Attempting to forcibly direct it into specific patterns and shapes in its natural state, rather than with internalized pieces, was like attempting to build a sandcastle even as the tide came rushing in. It required significant effort not only to construct, but simultaneously had to be defended and reinforced lest it be toppled by the tumult of energy around it, quite possibly to disastrous effect.
Still, Lex had performed this ritual – he could not call it a spell – twice before. It had failed spectacularly the first time, resulting in the creation of the tulpa that had haunted his dreams ever since. The second time it had succeeded against all odds, allowing him to save Sonata from a situation where he had been powerless otherwise. And now he was using it again…
Lex shaped the energy even as he felt it struggling against his control, trying to collapse back into formlessness. Focusing harder, he continued to pile it onto itself, making it take the shape that he needed, directing it into the motions that he required. It surged back against his will, and for a moment he thought that it was going to escape his grasp, but he somehow held on and pushed the final aspects together, even as his chant reached its culmination, roaring an invocation aloud.
A moment later blue fire erupted around him.
The azure flames surrounded him completely, reaching so high into the sky that nothing else could be seen save for the moon shining down on him from above. The space they enclosed seemed small, only a few dozen yards across, but it was hard to be sure. Even with his vision enhanced, the fire seemed to create shadows rather than dispelling them, and the entire area looked murky. It took a moment for him to realize that both the statuette and the dragon’s body were gone. He hoped that that was a good sign.
Across from him, where the shadows were thickest, movement drew Lex’s attention.
“The first time you tried to summon me, I was amused,” spoke a voice. Its pitch was harsh, yet undeniably feminine. It was also brimming with power, enough that just hearing it sent a cold shudder down Lex’s spine, which he fought to keep suppressed. Whether he survived the next few minutes would depend on how well he presented himself, he knew.
“The second time, I was intrigued.” The voice continued speaking as its owner stepped out of the shadows.
A moment later, Lex beheld the imperious form of the Night Mare, Everglow’s ruthless goddess of the night and its creatures.
“But now…now you have made me angry.”
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Lex has made a God angry? Very Bad.
Lex is still alive by the time she started speaking? Very Good.
I have got to see what excuse he has his time. then again, seeing how he doesnt like the mention of Cadence and her Clerics, Lex is going to be offering the Night Mare, the city of Vanhoover as followers?
7735668 You know, I oftentimes find it difficult to follow what you're saying. But sometimes you make some very insightful comments.
I would assume that Lex is trying to counter Celestia's move to overshadow him with whatever he needs Night Mare for. Though Booster Spice's comment has made me curious whether or not an entire city would be willing to follow a Goddess. Especially one from the dimension that is the source of Equestria's recent upheaval.
Somewhat doubtful since Lex is an unknown pony, who wields 'dark' magic with Sombra's horn so gathering followers for Night Mare, even with Sonata's help, will be slow going. And coupled with possible misconceptions between Night Mare and Nightmare Moon, Lex would be at a major disadvantage.
Cadence, on the other hoof, is a well known princess and already has existing followers so she'd have an easier time spreading Lashtada's(Did I spell it right?) teachings and gathering more followers.
Regardless of his plans, everything hinges on how he speaks to Night Mare...well, here's hoping he's done his homework on her.
7735790 Lex clearly has some sort of plan in mind, since there was no impetus for him to summon the Night Mare otherwise. What it is remains to be seen.
I'm not sure I agree with your assumptions regarding how well things will go with regard to how well Lex's powers, and/or the Night Mare, would be received by the ponies of Equestria. Most of them have no idea what "Everglow" is, I would imagine, since even in the wake of the elemental bleeds (which weren't from Everglow, per se) there doesn't seem to have been any sort of formal announcement of exactly what happened and why. Similarly, while I would imagine that most ponies have heard of "King Sombra," and some news about how he was an evil unicorn who tried to conquer the Crystal Empire with dark magic, that would likely be it. It's not like we saw a lot of reporters there during the crisis, and the crystal ponies seem traumatized by the memory. Remember, Nosey had to consult notes from her interviews to put together that Lex had Sombra's powers.
As for the Night Mare, well...let's see how that goes.
On a personal note, I did some checking and found out that, as of chapter 43, I've hit my goal of another 50,000+ words within the month of November! Yay!
I'm not planning on letting this fic sit fallow for eleven months the way I did before, but there'll probably be some slow-down from the usual once-per-day updates.
7736220
So the Crown never made a formal announcement of the elemental bleeds from the other realities despite the severity of its effects on Equestria and its neighbours? I understand that if it Celestia's intention was to let the ponies form their own opinion on it but letting rumors run rampant in the face of such a disaster is irresponsible...though I suppose that could work in Lex's favor, ironic if you think about it.
Also, I'm working off of what I can recall of the events in the Everglow stories that I haven't read in ages so there are inaccuracies in my statement from time to time.
7736746 I try to fill in the gaps about certain things - largely (but not completely) political - based on what seems to reasonably mesh with what we see in the show, making as few assumptions as I can.
In this case, I don't recall ever seeing any instance of Celestia making an announcement to explain a disaster. Rather, all of her public addresses are to play up something good. She didn't make a statement about Tirek's rampage, for example, but instead made one about Twilight's formal assumption of the title "Princess of Friendship." She did hold a ceremony to laud Twilight and her friends defeating Discord, but that was more to commemorate their accomplishments (stained glass and all) than to explain what had happened.
There's also problems with explaining the elemental bleeds, especially to other nations. For one thing, there's no real mass communications that we've seen that would even let her get the word out easily. But even if she could, why would she? The elemental bleeds were caused by Twilight, with Princess Celestia's tacit approval. To be clear, they didn't know that such major disasters would happen, but Twilight was warned by Queen Iliana (and passed the warning on to Celestia) that planeshifting home from Everglow would likely bring Equestria closer to the wider multiverse, and so allow planar travelers in. Princess Celestia said that it was fine, and so Twilight went back to Equestria, and brought the elemental bleeds with her inadvertently.
Overall, there's little for Equestria to gain and a lot for it to lose by announcing that everything that happened was the princesses' fault. Far better to say nothing and let everypony treat it as a chance to grow closer in harmony.
...or at least, that's what I think. I'm certainly open to discussion and debate on the idea.
Typos have revealed themselves to my laser beam eyes!
I didn't know you could ask for times.
I think they were waiting. Tenses and all that.
You really reeaaallly like past tense, don't you?
Again, tense.
Is this a flashback? Or is the tense wrong again?
I'm starting to think I have a homicidal mania against "had".
I think Lex might be biased in regards to this.
Lex is undeniably stupid. You do not summon a god unless there are no other alternatives.
7738719
I was wondering where you had gotten to!
Fixed!
The thing about the past tense is that it isn't just the "past tense" per se. There are different types.
In this case, you're pressing for use of the past progressive tense, which indicates an action that was taken but is continuing into the present (e.g. "were waiting"), as opposed to the past perfect tense, which indicates an action that has since been completed (e.g. "had been waiting").
In the case of the first half of this chapter, the rundown of events is indicative of the latter. It's not a "flashback" per se, but it is outlining things that happened, as opposed to "are currently happening."
No doubt, but can you blame him? The dragons are brutes. The yaks are isolationist louts. The buffalo are primitives. The griffons are greedy boors. None of them have created a nation as powerful or as prosperous as Equestria. None of them have the secondary magic of a cutie mark to complement their innate racial magic. None of them have immortal leaders that can move the heavens.
To Lex's mind, it's simply a fact that ponies are better than other races.
I deny that. That rule is your own, and isn't one that's going to be true in all circumstances. It's notable that David wrote "Book and Stars" wherein Twilight does something very much like this with Princess Luminace, and I don't recall your being down on that.
7738817
Umm, what?
7738817
How dare you use David against me! Anyway, Twilight summoned for a chat. Lex is summoning for more power. And I did read that.
7738817
Also, this chapter title is the name of a song I enjoy, weird. Don't do that again, it's creepy.
7738824 Whoops, I meant "primitives." Typo fixed.
7738837 I couldn't help it. The title was just too perfect.
7738833 I know, and I couldn't resist bringing it up again.
consideration now -- consideration then
7768859 Is it? It seems right the way it is. After the break, the story has reached the "present" in its progression, so "now" seems more correct.