Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

771 - Just Imagine It

Lex stared at his reflection, the mirror in front of him held aloft – and illuminated by – the roiling purple aura of his telekinesis.

The polished surface was made of silver, rather than glass, with an ornate border that marked it as being the product of careful artistry rather than rote work. To all appearances, and even the few simple tests that Lex had put to it, it was exactly what it looked like and nothing more. Even examining it in the magical spectrum had turned up no magical auras or properties, lending further credence that it was entirely real.

And yet Lex knew better, having conjured the mirror out of his shadow a few minutes prior.

It was the latest in a series of tests that he’d run, experimenting with just what he could demand of his tulpa now that he finally, finally had control over the thing.

The first thing he’d done had been to mentally interrogate the thing about what spells it had prepared without his knowledge. He’d already determined that, as a fragment of his own mind, it had some limited capacity to ready thaumaturgical spells, siphoning off bits of energy during those rare occasions when he’d been able to renew his mental complement of his most powerful magic. Prior to now, knowing that had been of little use, since his tulpa had been unforthcoming as to what it had prepared.

This time, however, his silent query had been answered. Not in the form of words, but in sudden insight, as though he’d suddenly remembered a few additional spells that he’d forgotten that he’d prepared previously. That wasn’t truly the case, since his tulpa was still extant, even if it was obedient now. As such, those few spells were stored in the partitioned portion of his consciousness, outside of his ability to willfully activate. But now he knew, as if by instinct, that all he had to do was mentally command his tulpa to release them – something which required no concentration or focus on his part, leaving him free to do other things while it handled the actual casting – and it would.

Even better, the next time he readied his thaumaturgical spells, he would be the one to pick what his tulpa prepared, rather than it making those decisions on its own!

But as satisfying as that had been to confirm, it had been a secondary line of investigation for Lex.

Far more fascinating, and more important, had been his newfound command of his tulpa’s ability to bring his dreams into reality.

As with the spells it had prepared, there was no telepathic communication of the precise nature, scope, or limits of what it could do. But neither did he receive any sort of sudden rush of comprehension. Apparently, this power wasn’t something which could be intuitively understood.

But that was no barrier to experimentation, and Lex had spent more than a few minutes in the alone in the front of the carriage that Sanguine Disposition had conjured, testing the limits of what this power could do.

The data he’d gained so far had proven to be promising indeed.

He’d tried simple objects first. A single sheet of unmarked paper. An unadorned glass jar. A square sheet of undyed cloth. All had been, at his mental command, brought forward by his tulpa. Each had been meticulously examined before setting them on the roof of the carriage, left there to see how long they’d last before he’d turned his attention to other things.

Next had been more complex materials, and once again his tulpa hadn’t failed to deliver. A sealed vial of ink had showcased that liquid compounds were possible. A pocket watch had confirmed that objects made of complex construction and moving parts were similarly viable. He’d even been able to reproduce a copy of a long scroll he’d written some time ago detailing how his thaumaturgical magic worked, the original having been lost when he’d sacrificed his extradimensional pouch while fighting Xiriel...though in that case, further experimenting had confirmed he could only bring forth written works that he’d read in their entirety; making a fully detailed work without knowing what was in it was, unsurprisingly, outside of what his tulpa had imagined.

Then he’d started working with magic, and it had only been then that he’d started to hit the limits of what could be made.

Conjuring the sort of minor conveniences that represented the height of Equestria’s magical development had been no more difficult than bringing forth mundane items had been. Pouches with minor preservation spells, crystals enchanted to display a single image from memory, and miniature roto blades designed to carry aloft non-flying pets of pegasi. All easily brought forth.

Recreating one of the floating gems – the dusty rose prism which had granted the ability to anticipate danger a fraction of a second before it happened – that he’d lost in his fight with Dark Streak had been similarly successful. As had making another of the protective amulets that he’d worn. But it had been when he’d tried to recreate the deadly mask that Shadow Star had destroyed that his tulpa had at last failed.

Unable to comply.

That had been all it had said. There’d been no explanation as to why, nor any tactile or psychic sensations to indicate what limit he’d hit. Just a simple message of failure.

Further testing had revealed at least some of the mystery. There was apparently limit to how much magic he could bring forth from nothing. The floating gems he’d taken from Xiriel hadn’t been equal in what they could do, and several of them – such as orange prism that had increased fine magical control, or the pale green prism which had improved fine motor coordination – were likewise beyond what he could make.

Equally notable had been how, while magic bound to items were viable, precast spells in prepared containers weren’t. He’d attempted to bring forth spells embedded in gemstones – something that would have rendered his inability to easily replenish his thaumaturgical spellcasting obsolete! – only to fail no matter which spells he tried. From his strongest and deadliest to minor feats of magic, no such materials could be brought forward.

Further testing had let him at least come up with a hypothesis, there. While whatever unknown process was taking presumably ambient magic and binding it to items brought forth from his tulpa, it could only bind it to it in stable forms. Precast spells, by contrast, were only held inside a particular container; they weren’t bound to it. That apparently made a difference, the magic scattering before it could be arranged and put into the gemstones he visualized.

And there were other limits besides those on magic items.

Size, or perhaps total mass, was a factor as well. At one point it had occurred to him that, if he could conjure up a secure dwelling, they could stay there while he conducted more tests. But that had been a complete nonstarter; while he’d eschewed anything opulent, such as River Bank’s manor or Sanguine Disposition’s villa, opting instead for a small, single-story stone dwelling, his tulpa had again been unable to comply. No matter how he’d tried to reshape his request, nothing had worked.

Which had likely been just as well, since it had been shortly after that when the items he’d made had begun to disappear. Quietly fading out of existence, he’d again felt nothing to indicate their loss; it had only been because he’d caught a glimpse of the vial of ink he’d made fading away in the light of his horn that he’d noticed it. Subsequently checking the pocket watch had confirmed that his creations lasted for a little longer than ten minutes before discorporating. Though he apparently had the option to dismiss them sooner if he wanted, something he’d inadvertently done with the gauntlet he’d used against Sanguine Disposition.

But after confirming that he couldn’t make things appear further than a couple of feet from himself – an important factor for using this ability in a fight – he’d come to the one experiment he was hesitant to try.

Conjuring up creatures, rather than things.

Thoughts of seeing Sonata and Aria again had immediately crossed his mind. But rather than being enticed by the prospect, Lex had found himself repulsed. Now that he knew the truth about his relationship with the two of them – that their feelings for him were the product of Kara’s “blessing” – the idea of creating facsimiles of them was something which he found he couldn’t stomach. All the more so since it was entirely possible that they were both dead, those false feelings having caused them to run into danger for his sake, only to burn alive in that abandoned factory where he’d fought Dark Streak.

He'd briefly considered other people he’d known as an alternative, his parents chief among them. But that was only slightly less unpalatable. While Jewelia and Big Dig – his mother and father – were over a thousand years gone now, bringing forth phantoms of them now would only highlight the fact that he’d never gotten to say goodbye. Even with how numb he felt after learning the futility of trying to connect with others, and how his love life was due to divine manipulation, that thought sent an ache through his chest.

Instead, he’d elected to shelve that particular experiment, and instead focus on how any of this was possible.

That his tulpa was pulling things from his dreams had been self-evident; he’d known that much by how it had, on more than one previous occasion, brought forth warped images of ponies he knew and cared for. Spitting invectives and hurling blame, those images had been taken directly from the nightmares the rogue portion of his mind had inflicted on him for so long.

But the ensorcelled gauntlet that he’d used to wound – however briefly – Sanguine Disposition hadn’t been from any dream that he’d ever had. The form of it had been familiar enough, being a copy of what he’d used in his battle with Starlight Glimmer. But the actual enchantment on it had been nothing more than a half-formed notion of how such a weapon could potentially work, utilizing a directed pulse of positive energy – the stuff that healing magic used – to disrupt the mass of negative energy that animated the undead. It had been, at best, a stray thought that had come to him during his time in Vanhoover; one which he’d never followed up on, since the only healing spell the Night Mare had given him was far too diffuse to use as a template in that regard.

And yet his tulpa had produced a working version of it, completely realized and magically functional, when he’d needed it.

Dreams were, as far as Lex knew, the imagination allowed to run wild, without consciousness to guide it. Except that his tulpa was a guiding consciousness, being formed of his own fears and doubts. And being a part of himself, it had full access to his mental makeup, meaning that it was fully cognizant of his thoughts, feelings, memories, knowledge, and awareness, being able to arrange various aspects of them all in order to craft dreams that were specifically tailored to cause him distress.

But if it was able to do that, then had to have considered numerous other kinds of dreams, if only to discard them as being unsuitable as nightmares. Even if it had only shown him the unpleasant ones, others must still have been imagined and evaluated before being discarded. And it had done that at the speed of thought, with all of the focus and discipline that he brought to his mental endeavors, for night after night over the course of almost two years.

In light of that, his tulpa’s control over his dreams had given it access to the full range of his imagination.

Of course, that was only half of the mystery. The other half was how it was making his dreams manifest in reality.

That part Lex couldn’t figure out, at least not yet. While the obvious answer was magic, that self-evidently wasn’t the case. The mundane items he’d conjured had radiated no magic whatsoever, which made sense; if his tulpa had the ability to collect and compress ambient magical energy on that scale, then preparing his thaumaturgical spells wouldn’t have required any external assistance. And yet, it had to be imbuing those dream-objects with physical substance somehow.

Presumably the Night Mare had a hoof in that, since she was the one who had given him his tulpa to begin with, but without more proof Lex was leery of jumping to that conclusion. He’d also attributed those sexual spells he’d received to the Night Mare also, mostly for lack of a better explanation, and while that seemed embarrassingly absurd in hindsight, they’d been clues to a much more unpleasant truth which he’d foolishly ignored. It wasn’t a mistake he’d make again.

But even if he was ignorant of the exact manner in which his tulpa was able to make dreams into short-lived reality, the fact was that it could. And for all the myriad implications that had now that he could control that power, there was one which overshadowed all others.

It was now possible to return to Equestria.

The only reason he and Thermal Draft were still trapped on Everglow was because he didn’t have the proper material component to return home. He knew the spell that would let them cross the planes of existence, and had prepared it during the equinox a few days ago. But that spell was one which required a physical focus – a tuning fork made out of specific materials and keyed to a certain pitch – in order to work, with each plane having its own particular combination of those two factors. Since the spell itself could conceivably journey to any realm, it needed that to lock onto the target plane, otherwise it was useless.

Lex, of course, knew exactly the construction and modulation necessary to find Equestria again. But being stuck out in the wilds had made that a non-starter, nor had that farming village they’d stayed in so briefly been the sort of locale where something that esoteric could be found. A journey to Viljatown had been, in his estimation, the only place where the proper tuning fork could be constructed.

But that wasn’t an issue anymore. His plane-shifting spell didn’t take very long to cast – not like his scrying spell, which took a solid hour to utilize, meaning that the silver mirror he’d made for it (before he’d confirmed the time limit on dream-made objects) was useless now – which meant that once he regained his body, he could return to Equestria whenever he wanted.

Which I’ll do, he decided as he let the mirror dissolve into nothing, once I’ve finished my business on Everglow.

Thermal Draft needed to be saved. Solvei needed to be resurrected. And Sissel, Grisela, Paska, and the rest of their twisted clan needed to be put to death. Those were his responsibilities, responsibilities which he’d come close to abandoning in the wake of so many personal tragedies, but which he now realized were the only things left which gave his life meaning.

He’d never have what he wanted most, the ability to understand others, and even the relationships that he’d fallen into were lies, the result of Kara’s tampering. All of his worst fears had come true...but in doing so, they had ceased to have any power over him. Since his tulpa existed entirely to reflect his fears back at him, he’d ended up reclaiming that aspect of himself – at least in part – and in so doing found the power necessary to finish what he’d started and then return home to continue his work there.

That was what his moral code demanded.

It was the one thing he had left, the single aspect of his existence which still had value. He’d briefly abandoned it, thinking that if his life was so pointless and empty then everything he’d created had to be equally meaningless, but now he knew better. It was the one thing which remained intact, the guiding principles which showed how his life could still be meaningful. Happiness was beyond his reach; it always had been, and always would be. Lex understood that now.

But he still had a reason for living.

That was enough.

Nodding to himself, Lex belatedly checked his lifeline...and frowned.

“Stop here,” he instructed the shapeless force driving the carriage, which immediately complied. Taking a moment to dismiss the remaining items he’d had his tulpa create, Lex leaped down from the driver’s seat of the carriage, glancing around. Solvei, exit the carriage with Akna.

He needn’t have bothered with the instructions, the door opening almost as soon as the carriage had stopped, the adlet frowning as she glanced around. “Why have we stopped?”

Solvei pushed her way passed Akna. “Is everything alright, Master?”

Lex nodded behind him. “My lifeline is pointing in a slightly different direction than the carriage’s heading. That means the road is angled away from where we need to go, and since the undergrowth is too thick for our conveyance, we’re abandoning it here.”

He didn’t wait for them to get used to the idea, walking toward the tree line. The further they’d gotten from Eigengrau, the more the wilds had closed in, with less and less sign of it having been hacked back. As such, it took only a few dozen steps before they were back in the wilderness again, Lex closing his eyes as he used Solvei’s vision to orient himself, telepathically calling the winter wolf to his side.

“Ugh,” groaned Akna. “I was just getting used to how soft those cushions were.”

“They just felt that way because your clothes weren’t covering your bottom,” snickered Solvei as she walked to Lex.

“They’re n-, HUH?!” Shrieking as she glanced back at herself and saw that her tail was lifting the bottom of her robe, Akna immediately reached back and flattened her tail, pulling the hem down as far as it would go. “Th-, how di-, has that been like that the entire time?!”

“Yep!” laughed Solvei, her own tail wagging in amusement. “Ever since you put that on!”

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” hissed the shaman, ears flattening.

“It was funny,” answered Solvei, making no attempt to hide her mirth. “Besides, it’s not like a lot of people saw you like that. We were only walking around that town for a little bit before we got in the carriage and went to that bat pony’s home, and then came here, so relax.”

“Relax?!” seethed Akna. “Relax?! I can’t believe-”

“May I remind you,” cut in Lex with a growl, “that we faced several hostile creatures the last time we went through this place’s wilderness. If you two keep making so much noise, we’ll likely do so again in short order.”

Seething, Akna tossed her clothes aside, changing back into her winter wolf form as she took advantage of the darkvision her quadrupedal body offered her. “You didn’t say anything either,” she huffed, keeping her voice low. “Were you enjoying the show that much?”

Lex didn’t have a chance to answer before an explosion went off in the distance, followed by a multitude of howls as the woods suddenly exploded with activity.

Author's Note:

Lex learns what his new power can do as he and his companions head back into the wilds of Darknest Night, only for the situation to become volatile in more ways than one!

Will they be able to reach their destination in time?

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Lex immediately makes yet another basic mistake. Yes the carriage was heading diretly towards his required destination, but there wasnt a variation in strength due to range to use. As soon as the vector swing away from the road though, he only needs a short distance to get a very rough approximation of range, and so how far he needs to go for required accuracy. Then they can taret a point instead of a line?

Then again, if they did that, he would be less likely to divert to see what distractions were being applied?

[Alzrius]

11411009 The problem with that idea is that it wasn't previously specified that the carriage was heading "directly" toward where his lifeline was pointing, just that it was pointing beyond Eigengrau and so that's where they needed to go. While the carriage was taking them in that general direction, what Lex ascertained here was that the vehicle's heading was slightly off-target from their destination. With no way of knowing if the road took any twists or turns up ahead (since the only light is what they have with them, and even darkvision only extends for a few dozen feet), there was no method of establishing whether that would get better or worse, so he elected to abandon the carriage to head in a straight line.

The idea that the lifelines were pointing in a slightly different direction between where the carriage left Eigengrau and where Lex abandoned the carriage, in other words, isn't established in the text. It's more that Lex was content to make some general progress while he experimented with his new power, and only belatedly realized that a course correction was necessary.

[Not so New Brony]

Heh, guess that little gag had to end sooner or later.

Anyways, Lex seems to have discovered quite a few things in regards to his new abilities with the tulpa at his command. Still, it feels weird that it had become so monotone after the many times it had taunted Lex so much in the past. Sanguine Disposition's own reading into the admittedly little recorded knowledge on dreambinders makes me curious if there's more to the tulpa than what Lex has discovered thus far.

Regardless, it's current capabilities is going to be very helpful in settling his dues in the Everglow before returning to Equestria, after he gets back to the former of course.

[Alzrius]

11411694 One thing that I was always mindful of, when writing Lex's tulpa, was that it had no fully-formed consciousness of its own; it was never anything more than a semi-independent collection of Lex's own fears and doubts. To that end, it never actually acknowledges itself; if you go back through the entire story, under no circumstances does it say "I" or "me" when it's speaking. That's because it's not actually self-aware, and never was.

Now that Lex has largely deprived it of its primary function, having accepted that all of his worst fears have come true, it has no real independent voice anymore. While not fully reintegrated into his consciousness, it's still mostly restored into the greater framework of his mind, and as such only responds with the bare minimum acknowledgment necessary when he gives it instructions. Of course, now that he's brought it back, he can harness its ability to manifest his dreams, and while we've gotten a good sense of what he can do with that in this chapter, it's up in the air if we've seen the full extent of what he's capable of now.

But at least the way back to Equestria is in sight!

...right?