786 - Devotional Display
“For She Who Dwells in Darkness brought forth Her word, so that those who listened might know Her truth. That supremacy dwells not in the light, which reveals the paths that offer no resistance, leaving the body untested and the spirit fallow. But those who walk in Her night shall bloody their hooves on stones they cannot see, shall break their wings landing without sight, and shall contuse their horns on the obstacles before them.”
“And they shall not know fear,” murmured the acolytes in a collective chant, “for the Night Mare guides us to strength.”
“For those who travel in the darkness that She brings shall fall, only to rise up again, stronger and undiminished,” intoned Lex, rising up onto his back legs, spreading his foreclaws upward, toward the image of the Night Mare glaring down from above the altar. “And their hooves shall break the stones beneath them! And their wings shall shatter the ground they alight on! And their horns shall overturn all that stands in their way! Then the path they follow shall be their own, with nothing to deter them!”
“And they shall not know fear, for the Night Mare guides us to strength.”
Keeping his face raised, Lex began to slowly circle the altar, keeping his eyes raised toward the image of the goddess. “With their spirit hardened and their flesh made strong, the faithful shall be the envy of those who hide in the light. For they shall see themselves and know that they are powerless, unable to follow a path of their own making.”
Slowly, he began to circle the altar, lowering his forelegs to indicate the mares atop it. “But amidst their woe and lamentation shall be those who seek to crawl in the shadows of the faithful. Wise are they, who recognize that the blessed have surpassed them. Righteous are they, who celebrate having found their superiors. Holy are they, who submit themselves to their masters.”
“And they shall not know fear, for the Night Mare guides us to strength.”
Lex made sure to keep his breathing slow and steady as he continued to walk a path around the altar, ignoring the way Thermal Draft was shaking with repressed coughing. But while the smattering of clerical spells given to him by the Night Mare had renewed themselves at the same time as the Charismata, he was currently in no position to try using them to alleviate her discomfort; even if he hadn’t been in the middle of the ceremony, the pain from wearing the neart a’staigh – the skeletal-looking liturgical garments of the Night Mare’s faith – would have made it very difficult to cast them on her, the inner hooks of the vestments digging into his skin.
Under normal circumstances, that would have been impossible. His organometallic fur should have easily kept the hooks from reaching his flesh. And indeed, that had initially been the case.
But that had changed when he’d used the Charismata on the neart a’staigh.
To all outward appearances, nothing had happened.
But Lex had known better.
The Charismata had long been a mystery to him. Why it could only affect certain kinds of creatures. The full range of what it could do to them. Even its proper name. All things which, until recently, had been beyond his knowledge.
But ever since this most recent journey to Everglow, those mysteries had one by one revealed themselves. Through trial and error, tidbits revealed by the Keeper, and sheer desperation Lex had learned that the Charismata was far more than the simple ability to control the motor functions of certain monsters the way he’d initially thought it was.
And now he knew more about it than ever, thanks to the book he’d found in the second story of the Shrine of the Starless Sky’s cathedral.
The Auctoritas Caliginous.
A book of psalms, the ancient tome – its pages cracked with age, yet still whole despite having no preservation magic laid upon it – had described aspects of the Night Mare’s faith that Lex had never even considered. From prayers for simple observances such as marriages and funerals to lore about the founding of the Night Mare’s religion to descriptions of sacred implements ranging from simple holy symbols to mighty artifacts.
Curiously, the latter portion of the book had made no mention of the Umbral Regalia.
But where the book had been mysteriously silent about Severance, Headhunter, Breakdown, and the rest of their ilk, it had a great deal to say about the Charismata, Dominata, and Secreta.
It had been then that Lex had, at last, learned the full scope of the blessing that the Night Mare had given him.
While he’d been correct in noting that it contained a sliver of divine authority – as he’d misnamed the blessing itself – to overwrite a select portion of reality, he hadn’t understood precisely what it allowed him to alter, or how. But now he knew: the Charismata allowed him to impose his will over things which were a part of the Night Mare’s divine portfolio, but only in a way that empowered them.
That was why “magical beasts” – the term the Auctoritas Caliginous used for terrestrial creatures whose physiology had been shaped by the magical channels in their bodies, rather than vice versa – were the only entities that could be directly subject to the Charismata, as the Night Mare claimed symbolic dominion over such creatures, the archetypal dwellers in the dark. As the goddess granted strength, he could grant them new powers on a whim, at least for a short time.
Even when he’d simply bound creatures to immobility, that hadn’t truly been commanding them to remain still – forced obedience being the province of the Dominata – but rather enabling them to remain steadfast in the face of anything that would move them...even themselves.
The same was true for other such commands he’d issued using the godly blessing: none had overwritten the wills of the creatures he’d ordered about; it was just that they’d been granted a mandate that had overwhelmed all resistance, both external and internal...save only for those magical beasts that were incredibly powerful in their own right, or commanded mighty magic.
As Sanguine Disposition had said, it was power in the form of charisma, taken to a godly extreme. Being noticed by someone above you – whether you wished it or not – elevated your own standing. And when the one who noticed you was a divinity, that elevation took the form of actual powers and abilities.
But that wasn’t limited to magical beasts.
Anything which fell within the Night Mare’s divine purview could be so enhanced, which included things formally dedicated to her. Indeed, that was what separated a consecrated object from an ordinary one; the latter had no particular religious significance, whereas the former had been explicitly placed under the auspices of her purview. Anyone could wrap a length of barbed wire around their leg, but only after being formally blessed by one recognized by the Night Mare as one of her faithful could declare it to be a holy symbol...as she’d personally done for him when granting him the Charismata.
And as the Keeper had noted, the neart a’staigh – whose name meant “inner strength” – was already blessed.
As such, Lex hadn’t been surprised that, once he’d poured the Charismata’s power into the hook-lined clothes, they’d been able to cut him even through his metal-like fur. After all, the purpose of the outfit was to showcase the wearer’s fortitude in front of the goddess. It made sense that it would easily take to being empowered to do just that, holding onto the divine energy beyond the sixty-second duration that the Charismata usually ran up against.
Which was why even the act of falling back onto all fours, now that he’d finished circling the altar, caused yet more blood to run down his legs, contributing to the puddles of the stuff that he’d already shed during the ceremony.
But although Lex moved slowly and carefully, it was neither pain nor blood loss that made him move with heightened deliberation. Nor was it exhaustion, though he knew that he should have been on the verge of collapse by now.
Instead, it was that he had to struggle to keep his tension under control.
It was just like when he’d been in Darkest Night. Already he could feel his heart beating wildly in his chest, urging him to take harsh, fast breaths. His every sense seemed to be tingling, and he had to resist the impulse to use his horn’s magic to cycle augment his faculties, knowing that there was no need to do so. Even then, he could feel his muscles straining, tail thrashing behind him of its own accord.
In the back of his mind, the feral instincts of the creature he’d merged with screamed at him, wanting him to do something to alleviate his restlessness. But he shoved that desire down, burying it as he continued to chant, his back to the assembled acolytes – themselves shifting and shuffling about as they felt the rising apprehension – as he looked down at Thermal Draft and Woodheart.
After an interminably long time, the ceremony was at last coming to a close.
“Lies are the offspring of weakness, and weakness cannot survive in the blessed darkness of She Who Rules the Night. In Her name, I hold forth the truth of these words: that I am your master. That I command your obedience. That your lives are an extension of my own.”
He held out one bloody claw then, reaching it toward Thermal Draft’s face, the mare wincing as she felt the wet tip touch her lips. “Drink, and acknowledge that my strength flows through you.”
Pausing as he felt Drafty’s lips open, her tongue licking up his blood, he waited until he heard her swallow before turning his attention to Woodheart. He repeated the words, touching his imbrued talons to her lips. Unlike with Thermal Draft, he pressed his claw forward after he finished speaking, doing his best not to cut the earth mare’s lips as he pushed the bloodstained tips of his claw into her mouth, letting the red liquid wash over her tongue before he massaged her throat, making her swallow.
Again, he looked upward toward the stylized image of the Night Mare. “In darkness, I have shown my faith! In darkness, I have shown my power! In darkness, I have shown my authority! None defy me, and all recognize that the strong do as they will, while the weak suffer what they must!”
“And they shall not know fear, for the Night Mare guides us to strength.”
“LET MY NAME BE AS YOURS!” howled Lex, unable to hold back his exultation as he reached the last part of the ceremony. “LET MY WILL BE AS YOURS! LET MY DESIRES BE AS YOURS! AND ALL SHALL BE AS WE WISH IT TO BE!”
That was the final intonation, and Lex couldn’t help but feel a shudder run through him as he stared up at the Night Mare’s image, rising again to point his claws toward the mares on the altar as he called out to the goddess that he’d finally come to have faith in.
“Make Thermal Draft’s life force flow into Woodheart! Have the latter be revitalized while the former is kept between life and death, where her curse cannot touch her! Do it all without any deleterious side effects or complications!”
He had to stop himself from rattling off a list of specifications and potential issues. As much as he wanted to specify every possible issue, the entire point of this ceremony was a display of piety. Treating the Night Mare like an incompetent underling, or another contract devil, would only serve to undercut what he’d just spent so much time doing.
Instead, he forced himself to perform the closing devotional, one talon tracing a circle over the ankle of his foreleg three times. It was a symbolic act of winding something – such as thorns, rope, or barbed wire – around his leg, which according to the Auctoritas Caliginous was a gesture of faith. The irony hadn’t been lost on Lex, given that the goddess herself had given him the real thing, but he knew the display was no less important for that. “Until all things dwell within your kingdom of eternal night.”
With that, the invocation was over.
And above him, the eyes of the Night Mare’s image began to glow.
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Gods verses Devils. Lex is giving Night Mare a divine legal channel to set up a slapdown in the Mortal Ralm thats otherwise almost totally closed to her?
11471225
That make sense if this was another place but the shrine is already part of her domain so I don't think she need the ceremony but rather she is just answering his call of devotion / show of piety / ritual. I do think she could do it without him doing the ritual simply because he is in the shrine / place of power / place of theological significance but the ritual itself is symbolically important to the gods but inversely would be needed outside of the shrine so the can use the "legal channel" for lack of a better term.
Even more so The Nightmare doesn't believe in giving help freely but rather someone need to do the steps so they can reach their goals so I do think the ritual is important for that too.
Like how drafty got transformed into a changeling using the ritual ( show of faith / ritual ) but could speak to Kara freely anywhere but Kara didn't want to when inside the shrine.
Godly intervention turned good for Lex most of the time the Nighmare helped so I don't think this will go south even if It takes a long time to become clear how or why.
11471225
11471276 reliczexide has the right of it here. The Night Mare can't fully manifest in Equestria (yet), but she has no problem appearing on Everglow, particularly in an area that's been consecrated to her. (Ironically, the official Ponyfinder materials imply, at least to my reading, that there's something – maybe a political agreement, maybe something stronger – preventing all but the strongest gods from manifesting on Everglow as they please, instead needing mortals to take action to bring them forth in the mortal realm even in places where they have established areas of worship. As such, that's the presumption I'm using in this story.)
Ironically, Thermal Draft did use the same process that Lex is using here in order to become a doppelganger, essentially conducting a smaller-scale ceremonial invocation of her own, for a correspondingly-smaller result. Of course, that she did this back on Equestria carries some interesting implications.
11471280 Hopefully so. As noted previously, gods who put the screws to their own followers tend to get a bad reputation among mortals (though it's not always a deal-breaker, since there are always individuals who'll be desperate/crazy/uncaring/etc. enough to worship such an entity anyway), though as the Night Mare herself has noted, that's different when it comes to punishing those who break faith with them. Luckily, Lex seems to be firmly in his goddess's good graces at the moment.
Safe to say that the tome the Keeper had been holding on to all this time has proven to be a massive boon to Lex's understanding of the Charismata and it's powers. And while this ritual is important, I can't help but wonder if that is how Steel Soul's copies rebel against him since they knpw the Dominata's effects and given that they're the same as the original, would refuse to be dominated by another even if it was their original.
Regardless, it seems that the Night Mare has answered Lex's call and his plea certainly ensured Thermal Draft's well being as well as the foal's since I vaguely recall that the curse will only target Thermal Draft. Still, with her essentially in a state of suspended animation, does it apply to the undeveloped foal too?
so Lex is getting a really good idea of the true power he holds.
interesting.
11472367 If all goes well, then his ability to use the Charismata more widely will be just one of several ways that Lex's power has increased from his trip to the Shrine of the Starless Sky, including his new body and his ability to perform ceremonial invocations...though let's hope this first one goes according to plan!
11471906 Steel Soul's copies, I suspect, rebelled against him because they were perfect copies of himself, including the arrogance and domineering nature. The irony is that, if that's the case, then his inability to see that (since he made it clear he thinks something is going wrong with the replication process) all the more ironic. Those kinds of blind spots tend to be the hardest to notice. Of course, the Dominata itself cannot be copies, and so his copies suffered the fate of any who rebel against his control.
As for what will happen to Drafty's foal, presuming that Lex's invocation worked...that's harder to say. Presumably Mystaria is right and the goddess will put it in the same state as Drafty herself, but it's hard to say for sure. And it's not like Lex will think to check, since he has no idea she's pregnant.