696 - Field of Black
“So, you can’t change into anything except mist?”
Woodheart tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice, but judging by the look on Toklo’s face, wasn’t completely successful. “In the Earliest Times, after we fled from Nuti-Amaguk and his war, we reached out to the spirits who inhabited the world alongside us,” he explained, and the tenor of his voice made it clear he was reciting something he’d been told.
“Like ourselves, the spirits lived as they wished to. They celebrated the lush new world that they found themselves in, and showed us how to reap its bounties. They cherished the beauty that each new day brought, and taught us to honor its glories. They expressed the wild natures in their hearts without shame, and inspired us to take pride in our freedom. And for this we honored them.”
“And for this we honored them,” murmured Woodheart, intuiting that the audience was supposed to repeat that line.
Apparently she’d guessed right, because Toklo gave her a surprised look. “You know the story of our people?”
Giving a self-conscious chuckle, Woodheart shook her head. She had made sure not to invite an animal spirit to possess her this morning so that she’d be able to talk to Toklo about his people’s spiritual practices, and now she was interrupting him when he tried to share them with her! “Sorry, no. I just got caught up in your story. Please, go on.”
Looking as though he wasn’t sure what to make of her answer, Toklo hesitated for a moment before continuing. “But the spirits had revealed only fragments of their knowledge when Nuti-Amaguk learned that we had defied him. His anger was terrible then. He howled so loudly that the moon hid its face. He drove his paws into the ground so heavily that the land shook. He swung his tail so wildly that the wind from its passage uprooted trees. And he threw back his head and shouted ‘As my most favored children have shown no devotion to me, so shall no others be devoted to them! For any who give them succor shall, once Ikumak-Amaguk’s fires have been quenched, become my enemy in his place!’”
Woodheart made a mental note to ask Solvei about that later. She hadn’t had a chance to speak with Lex’s winter wolf – the closest she’d come had been to bark at her a few nights previous, when Littleknight had bitten Solvei’s tail in a rather adorable display of bravado – and she wanted to rectify that as soon as possible. Learning more about how other creatures saw the natural world was the entire reason she’d left her forest, after all.
“And so many of the spirits, afraid of the Great Wolf, fled from us or refused to speak to us or even turned against us,” continued Toklo, huffing a bit now from having spoken for so long while also pulling his friend’s body behind him. Although she and Valor had both worked on whittling the collection of branches down to something reasonably approximating a sled, it was still a poor substitute for the real thing, and while Toklo didn’t look like he had an ounce of fat on him, it was clear that the constant exertion was beginning to wear him down.
“That’s why we only learned how to mimic a few of the spirits’ powers,” he concluded after taking a deep breath. “Until the day Nuti-Amaguk and Ikumak-Amaguk finally kill each other, and the spirits are free to live with us without fear, we won’t be able to learn any others.”
Woodheart cocked her head at that. “What about your people’s shamans? You made it sound like they still had a relationship with the spirits.”
The question managed to earn a smile from him. “Not all of the spirits were scared of Nuti-Amaguk’s threat. A few of them still communicate with the most gifted among us, but even then, they only-”
“Something just tried to attack my mind!” Lex’s voice, filled with tension, made both of them jump. “All of you, prepare for battle! There’s a hostile presence-”
“No!” came Mystaria’s panicked response. “It wasn’t an attack! I was just trying to talk to you privately!”
“What’s going on?” muttered Toklo quietly, looking behind them in trepidation.
Woodheart’s only reply was to shake her head again. Although she’d managed to get the adlet to open up to her, Toklo was still terrified of Lex, and seeing the unicorn’s anger now was enough to make him cringe.
Not that I can blame him, admitted Woodheart silently. Bad enough that Lex had killed his close friend right in front of him – she’d finally gotten Toklo to open up to her when she’d asked him about Panuk, coaxing several stories from him about how the slain adlet had been a beloved member of their community – but the curses the unicorn had placed on him had left Toklo stricken with anxiety, fearful of the possibility that Lex would never remove them.
Woodheart had promised him that she’d talk to Lex about that, and that had seemed to calm the adlet down a little bit, but in truth Woodheart had no idea how to broach the subject with the dour unicorn. Although she’d only known him for a few days, Lex had displayed only two attitudes during that time: sneering condescension and overwhelming rage. And while she could appreciate that he was apparently going through a hard time – at least according to what Spinner had said that Thermal Draft had told her – the sheer unpleasantness that Lex radiated at all times, along with the lingering memory of how he’d hurt Littleknight during their first encounter, made it easy for Woodheart to keep her distance from him.
Which is what Mysty should have done, she fretted inwardly as Lex stalked toward her friend, his ranting making it clear that she’d tried to contact him telepathically.
Why Lex was furious over that Woodheart had no idea – hadn’t Mystaria reached some sort of understanding with him just yesterday? – but the sight of him getting in her friend’s face was enough to make the druid tense up, causing Littleknight to shift uneasily on her back. “Meep?”
“I don’t think so,” she murmured, watching as Shadow and Valor put themselves between Lex and Mysty, only for the latter to wave them off. “But if he starts casting a spell, I want you to jab him. Not hard, just enough to disrupt his magic, okay?”
“Meep meep!”
“Is that wise?” whimpered Toklo. “If you defy him now, won’t it only anger him more?”
“It’s just a precaution,” she replied, keeping her voice soft and soothing. “Lex gets angry a lot, but Mystaria is good at talking him down-”
“This is your last chance!” hissed Lex, his horn glowing brightly. “State specifically what you tried to contact me about, or the curse I put on you will make you spend the rest of your life wishing that you had!”
“-usually,” she finished with a grimace, flicking Littleknight off of her back to race toward Lex as she threw off her robe.
But Mystaria’s next words caught everyone by surprise.
“I was going to say that I wanted to help you fix whatever it is that’s keeping you from replenishing your arcane magic!”
Lex froze at that, the aura around his horn fizzling out. Woodheart breathed a sigh of relief at the sight, only for puzzlement to overtake her a moment later. Something was wrong with Lex’s arcane magic? She shared a confused look with Spinner, and saw that Valor and Shadow were doing the same.
It was Thermal Draft who broke the silence first. Up until now, the pegasus had been watching the confrontation with an uncertain expression on her face, as though not sure whether to join Lex in chastising Mystaria or try and calm him down. Now, however, she flapped her wings and flew to her lover’s side, giving him a quizzical look. “Lex? What’s she talking about?”
But Lex’s only response was silence, still staring at Mystaria from behind his mask.
That seemed to unnerve the pegasus more than his ranting had, however, and she took a hesitant step closer to him. “L-Lex?”
Swallowing nervously, Mystaria licked her lips. “I hypothesized that was why you were so reluctant to utilize that method of spellcasting in the fights you’ve been in up until now, despite how effectively you use it,” she explained. “I wanted to talk to you about it because I thought maybe I could help with whatevAAAAAAHHHH!!!”
“LEX!!! STOP!!!”
Mystaria and Drafty’s voices rang out – one pained and the other horrified – as a forest of black crystals erupted from the ground around Lex.
It was the sheer amount of them, along with the suddenness of the attack, that left Woodheart momentarily stupefied. She’d seen him do something like this back at the inn, when they’d first fought. But then he’d only created smaller crystals, barely the size of a pony, jutting up at random around the common room.
Now, however, there were spikes of all sizes shooting up from beneath the snow around Lex. From splinters that were half the size of Littleknight to massive tors rising over fifteen feet in the air, the black crystals spread out in every direction. Emerging without warning, at angles ranging from completely upright to almost parallel with the ground, their points were sharp and their edges were jagged, and they made Mystaria scream in agony as her legs were pierced, collapsing to the ground. It was only because she frantically dragged herself away from him that her torso wasn’t perforated a moment later.
“LEX, PLEASE!!!” screamed Thermal Draft, barely having managed to avoid the same fate as Mystaria by leaping into the air, circling closer to the stallion. “YOU HAVE TO ST-, HNNNGH!!!”
She couldn’t finish as a sudden spike shot out, cutting a deep gash across her face. The pain made her cry out, but her expression was one of disbelief rather than agony as she managed to shakily flap away.
But Lex didn’t seem to notice what he’d done to his girlfriend. In fact, he didn’t seem to notice anything at all, still staring forward silently at where Mystaria had been, as though nothing had happened. Except that his eyes were glowing brighter than before. So brightly that the green light blotted out everything else, the purple flames at the outer corners whipping madly as though caught in a thunderstorm.
“He’s lost it!” screamed Shadow, whipping out a throwing dagger and hurling it at Lex. The projectile didn’t even make it halfway to its target before another black spike shot up from the ground, knocking it astray. “Valor, get Mysty out of there! Spinner, get a healing spell ready! Woodheart, help me give them some cover!”
No one replied to the masked mare’s instructions, having immediately taken up their assigned roles without bothering to waste any time on acknowledgment. Seeing that Valor was already halfway to where Mystaria was dragging herself away from the ever-expanding field of black crystal spikes, Woodheart turned her attention to Lex. Let’s see how you like it!
It took her barely two seconds to rattle off a quick series of syllables as well as the proper gestures necessary to activate her spell. A moment later, the snow at Lex’s hooves crystalized upward, forming a spear of glistening white to match the black crystals all around him. Lancing upward, Woodheart resisted the urge to cheer as its point struck Lex across the side of the head, just past the edge of his mask. She’d deliberately aimed it to wound, hoping that it would snap him out of whatever had happened to him.
A moment later her efforts bore fruit as Lex slowly turned to look at her, and Woodheart’s hopefulness died immediately.
His eyes were still solid green.
A moment later his head moved slightly, and although she couldn’t see his pupils, Woodheart realized that – for whatever reason – he was looking at Toklo now.
The sight was enough to break the adlet’s courage, and he dropped the rope tied to the sled carrying Panuk’s body as he turned and ran. His flight was one of pure panic, not heading for any cover or protection, only concerned with putting as much distance between himself and the horrifying figure whose otherworldly gaze was now solidly directed at him.
That was when Lex lifted a hoof up to touch his mask.
Having seen him do exactly the same thing yesterday, Woodheart suddenly knew what Lex was about to do. “NO! DON’T!”
Her words fell on deaf ears, as a moment later Lex let his mask fly toward the retreating adlet.
Woodheart’s hooves were in motion before she even consciously registered what she was doing. Turning and running toward Toklo, it was only because she had four legs compared to his two that she was able to close the distance between them. But the mask was already arcing toward its target, its trajectory magically propelled, and Woodheart pushed herself harder, trying to get there before it reached the poor creature she’d spent the morning befriending.
Behind her, she could hear voices raised in alarm, but she didn’t have a chance to pay attention to them as she strove to run faster, seeing that the mask was now within a few feet of Toklo. Throwing everything she had into one last burst of speed, she leaped forward, colliding with the adlet as she bowled him over, a sudden rush of exhilaration coursing through her as she landed on top of him.
Then she felt something brush across her flank.
Then she felt a moment of sudden, intense agony.
Then she felt nothing at all.
Stats
Page generated in 0.085 seconds
Total duration
977 users online
1,449,935 hits today, 2,561,572 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.®
That certainly escalated beyond my expectations
Still, I do wonder what caused this reaction from Lex. Could the Tulpa be at work or perhaps Sombra or his dark magic or worst of all, it was Lex's conscious decision to do this(though him not reacting when Thermal Draft got caught up in his magic is pretty telling). Regardless of whether Lex is in control or not, there's no turning back from this, especially after what just happened at the end.
11182300
Probably combination of fear at being found out...and anger that someone he considers inferior figured it out. He's been paranoid about his arcane recharge problem being found out for a while now, and his feelings against Fail Forward are pretty clear by now, so after already being on edge about Mystaria's "mental attack," having his worst fear become true with her revealing she'd figured it out just caused him to snap.
Sheesh, these chapters leaving me thirsty man!
it's evil to make us wait to know what will happen, here's hoping I can enter a coma and wake up once this is completed.
I treally hope Lrx reactions were because of him setting up long before a totally automated unconcious sequence of sxripted events in case someone tried to take advantage of the knowledge of his primary weakness?
Sort of like on opening the door, you pull the pin on the grenade, unless you know just how far you can open it before reaching in and moving the thread just the right way so you dont trigger the trap yourself, as used in in certain war stories etc before?
And nobody missed her ever again the end.
Jkjk I won't say it was a bit called for but eeeeeh
11182300
11182309 Given that Lex's stress and tension has been getting progressively worse for a while now, my money's on him having some sort of breakdown. As much as he seems to roll with various life-or-death struggles, he's also dealing with not knowing what's happened to the mares he cares for back on Equestria (where his hard-won political gains are no doubt being dismantled by the princesses), the state of Thermal Draft's soul, his new bond with Solvei, getting caught up in a new fight with Grisela that he doesn't want but feels obligated to deal with, and his fractious relationship with Fail Forward, my guess is that this is the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.
11182341 Is it wrong of me, as an author, to say that I'm overjoyed to know that the wait is driving my readers crazy?
11182379 Lex's mental prowess is borderline supernatural, but I don't think he's quite at the level of being able to create pre-programmed responses in himself that will trigger with certain stimulus. Even if he could, I'm not sure this would be the sort of thing he'd deliberately do.
11182644 Maybe if it had been Shadow, I'd have agreed, but Woodheart isn't that bad, is she?