Having been granted rulership over the city of Vanhoover, and confessed their feelings for each other, Lex Legis and Sonata Dusk have started a new life together. But the challenges of rulership, and a relationship, are more than they bargained for.
“…ces…esti…”
The words were like pinpoints of light against an utterly black backdrop, dimly reaching out to her as if from a great distance.
“…cess…lesti…”
She knew the voice wanted her to follow it, that it was calling out to her to make the effort to head toward it. But the very idea was upsetting, knowing that the journey would be difficult and painful. It would be so much easier to keep resting.
“…incess…lestia…”
But she couldn’t. The voice was growing louder, more insistent. Worse, she was starting to remember that something had been going on. Something important. Something frightening. Something that she needed to know, because not knowing was unbearable.
“…rincess…elestia…”
This time she fought to follow the voice. It was hard, like trying to fly upward through murk so thick it was almost solid, and the more she struggled the more she became aware that she was in pain, deep aches making themselves known all over her body. But she didn’t stop fighting, knowing that the answers she needed would be found if she could just follow that voice that was calling her name…
“Princess Celestia!”
Her eyes snapping open, Princess Celestia drew in a sharp breath as she returned to consciousness. With it came her memories of what had happened. Lex Legis’s surprise attack. Silhouette’s death. Those foals interfering. The guards moving to hold them off. And then…and then the battle had taken a turn for the worse, and Lex had gotten the drop on her, and after that there was nothing. Which meant- “Luna!”
Panic surging through her at the thought of what had become of her sister, Celestia tried to sit up, only for pain to explode through her as soon as she made the attempt. At the same time, a multitude of hooves pressed themselves against her body, forcing her to lie back down. For a second, she struggled against them, trying to get up so she could find out what had happened to her precious little sister, but the pain grew so bad that she couldn’t find the strength to resist as she was pressed back down onto the bed-
Wait. The bed?
“Princess Celestia, please calm down!”
Letting herself go limp, Celestia didn’t fight the ponies around her as they held her down, instead looking around. She was in an opulent-looking bedroom, lying on a four-poster bed that had been stripped to the sheets. A glance down at herself showed that she had bandages covering large portions of her body. Gathered around her were several ponies that she didn’t immediately recognize, all of them wearing lab coats or medical scrubs, as well as worried looks on their faces. Doctors, she realized belatedly. They’re the medical ponies from the refugee camp that I spoke to earlier.
Relaxing, Celestia managed a small smile. “My apologies,” she murmured, her voice slightly hoarse. “I’m alright now.” That was true in more ways than one; if she was here, being treated by a group of doctors, then it could only mean that Luna – despite the odds being so heavily against her – had somehow managed to defeat Lex Legis. There wasn’t a doubt in Celestia’s mind that, if Lex had won the battle, she’d be waking up in far less hospitable circumstances…presuming that he’d have let her wake up at all. Lex’s original goal had been to kill Luna, after all, and Celestia felt certain that if he’d succeeded, she’d have been next.
But that didn’t happen, she reassured herself. Luna won, and Equestria is safe once again. The thought was uplifting, and not just because Lex and his evil artifact had been eliminated. Luna had needed something to feel proud of for a little while now. Despite assuring her multiple times that she’d been completely forgiven for what she’d done as Nightmare Moon, Celestia had been able to tell that Luna still felt guilty over what had happened, and the thought that her sister was still privately torturing herself over her mistakes – mistakes that Celestia still considered to be partially her own, since she’d been blind to just how badly Luna had felt unappreciated – was painful to consider. I’m sure that’s why she started overcompensating by trying to become a goddess. But now, hopefully, she’ll realize that she doesn’t need to be anything other than Luna to make a positive impact on Equestria and its ponies.
With that established, Celestia turned her attention to other considerations. “Where am I?”
A blue unicorn stallion – Dr. House Call, Celestia recognized – stepped forward. “You’re in one of the guest rooms in River Bank’s mansion, Your Highness. We brought everypony here after…after the fight was over.” He paused for a moment, before continuing. “One of the nurses here said you groaned when she was checking up on you, so I started calling your name in hopes that you’d regain consciousness.”
He put a smile on then, but Celestia hadn’t missed the way he’d hesitated before, her own smile falling way under a sudden rush of concern. She and Luna hadn’t been the only ponies out there. “Is everyone else alright? Our guards and those foals?”
“They’re fine,” replied House Call with a reassuring nod. “We’ve put those foals in another bedroom. They have some scrapes and bruises, but honestly it’s not much worse than anything you’d see when children roughhouse.” He gestured to a nearby mare in scrubs, and she passed him a few sheets of paper, which he telekinetically took and started to glance through. “We’ve converted one of the downstairs dining rooms into an area for the Royal Guard members to recover. Several of them have notable injuries, but nothing particularly serious. There are a few concussions, some deep bites, and a few of them have been poisoned due to what look like snake bites, apparently…” he ruffled through a few pages, “from one of those foal’s pet snake. Unfortunately, she says that the snake in question is gone now, so she can’t identify its type so that we can look for the proper antidote in Vanhoover’s remaining medical supplies. The good news is that it seems like it’ll run its course in due time without any permanent injuries.”
Celestia closed her eyes in relief. “So everypony’s going to be fine,” she murmured.
Unseen by Celestia, the medical staff shared a round of uncomfortable looks. House Call cleared his throat. “Yes, well…”
“Except for Silhouette,” sighed Princess Celestia. “I know.” She glanced at the room’s window, where sunlight was streaming in. “We’ll need to get him to Cadance immediately, and…” She paused as she glanced at the angle of the sunlight coming in, realizing something. “What time is it right now?”
House Call, able to guess why she was asking that question and what she’d do with her answer, opened his mouth to tell her not to worry about it. But he didn’t have a chance before another pony, quite clearly looking to score some points with the princess, pulled out a pocket watch. “It’s quarter to three, Your Highness,” he chirped.
The answer made Celestia groan. That wasn’t quite enough time for everypony in Equestria to notice that the sun was still directly overhead, but it was getting close. It would need to be taken care of before all of Equestria fell into a panic. “I need to move the sun,” she grunted, trying to climb out of the bed.
But House Call was already there. “Your Highness, you need to lie down! Your entire body received considerable blunt force trauma from that fall you took, and you’re showing symptoms of heightened intraluminal pressure in several of your internal organs! You also have multiple contusions to your ribs, spine, and pelvis, and while your electrical burns haven’t caused too much epidermal damage, the musculature in all six of your limbs are still suffering from periodic seizures due to involuntary contractions! And if we had proper diagnostic equipment I’m sure we’d find a lot more injuries as well!”
Princess Celestia’s smile was understanding but firm at the same time. “Then I suppose I should ask if you’d mind helping me up, because this needs to be done.”
House Call rolled his eyes. “One day I’m going to have patients who’ll listen to me again,” he muttered ruefully, but found himself already trotting forward to help the princess up, several other members of the medical staff doing the same.
It took a few minutes for them to lift the princess and gently ferry her to the window. Once she was there, she looked up, considering the sky for a moment before her horn began to glow. Taking it extra slowly so as not to strain herself, and hopefully to cut down on the number of ponies who’d notice the sun’s accelerated movement to a new position in the sky, Celestia let out a breath once she was finished. “Thank you. That should do it for now.”
Taking their cue, House Call and the others brought her back to the bed, laying her down and looking her over to make sure she hadn’t exacerbated her injuries. For her part, Celestia simply watched them fuss over her with a bemused smile. “I’m a little surprised that Luna didn’t move the sun herself,” she remarked idly. “Since I moved the moon while she was gone, I thought for sure she’d want to see if she could move the sun on her own. Or is she too busy making arrangements for us to hurry back to Canterlot?”
The question caused a new round of uncomfortable looks to be passed between everypony, but this time Celestia saw them, frowning. “Is everything alright?” Several ponies winced in response, and none of them were able to look at her. It was enough to make a knot of tension form in her stomach, and she found her breath quickening as she looked around the room. “Somepony, please tell me what’s going on.”
“Your Highness, you should try and get some rest,” pleaded House Call.
But Celestia was having none of it. “Doctor, if you want me to rest then please tell me why everypony is acting as though they’re hiding something from me. Is it about Luna? Did she get hurt defeating Lex Legis?”
A confused look crossed House Call’s face. “Defeating?” he echoed dumbly, before he seemed to realize something, turning pale. “Y-Your Highness,” he stuttered. “I’m afraid there’s been a mistake…Lex Legis was the one who ordered that you and your sister and everypony else be given medical attention. He personally gave me the order to bring you all here a few hours ago.”
Celestia felt her blood run cold. “What do you m-” No, there was a more important question that needed to be asked right now. “Where is Luna?”
Several members of the medical staff had already begun creeping toward the door, but Celestia ignored them, keeping her eyes focused on House Call. “Where is Luna?” she asked again when he hesitated.
Swallowing, it took House Call another few seconds to find his voice. “Princess Luna’s injuries were considerably worse than your own,” he managed to say. “We’re doing our best to treat them, but…” He shook his head helplessly. “The worst of her…wounds is, well…it’s not something we can do anything for.”
Fighting down a surge of panic, Celestia forced herself to stay calm. Whatever had happened to Luna, Cadance would be able to fix it. She could even bring the dead back to life, and according to House Call Luna was still alive, so there was nothing to be worried about. But despite knowing that to be true, Celestia could feel herself breaking out in a cold sweat. “Take me to her.”
“Your Highness,” protested House Call weakly, “you shouldn’t-”
“Take me to her.” The look on Celestia’s face now was a far cry from the warm smile she’d had a minute earlier. “Now.”
“A-alright,” gulped House Call, grabbing a few of the medical ponies who hadn’t managed to make it out the door yet. Together, they managed to get Celestia on her hooves, shouldering as much of her weight as they could as they helped her out of the room and down the hall.
Their destination was only a few doors down, and inside revealed another bedroom almost identical to the one she’d been in. There were several more medical ponies there, all of them looking up with wide eyes as Celestia and the others came in. But she ignored them, focused on the bed; unlike the one in her room, the curtains had been drawn, obscuring the sight of the pony within. “We thought it would be best to keep her out of sight as much as possible in her…condition,” muttered House Call. “Word is already getting around about what happened to her.”
The words made Celestia’s worry peak, and she pulled away from the ponies supporting her, telekinetically yanking the curtains aside as she stumbled toward the bed.
A moment later her despairing wail echoed throughout River’s mansion.
Princess Celestia regains consciousness and finds out what happened to her sister!
Is Lex about to be drawn into another battle?
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Celestias almost at the point where if that suprise slingshot doesnt poink her horn enough to knock her unconcious with feedback, then the recoil would put a hole right through the thrower.
If Celestia managed to blast Lex and Severance into non-existence though sheer rage and despair in the aftermath of this discovery I am not sure I would be able to blame her for doing so.
9721206 Yeah, you lost me completely that time.
9721232 Well, leaving aside that Severance is already gone, at this point Lex seems to be only somewhat more injured than Celestia is. But then again, Sonata is back by his side, so that might not end well for her (Celestia).
Celestia is probably smart enough to take her sister and get out of town, fix this somewhere else.
9721272 Presumably (and hopefully) so. Celestia strikes me as the sort of pony who knows when discretion is the better part of valor.
9721260
Prehaps but regardless this entire affair has the marks of creating a sword of damocles over Lex's head and honestly I don't think his 'victory' over the celestial sisters and the fell curse he's inflicted on one of them is going to make things easier for him or help his goals in the long term.
Like howard035 said, best for Celestia to cut their losses and get everyone out of here so Cadence can hopefully fix this but given the emotional rollercoaster she's going through, she might just do something highly irrational. At least there are plenty of ponies with cooler heads around to point out the flaws in any ill thought out actions...provided any of them are willing to speak up against the ruler of Equestria.
Still, if the princesses and the royal guard flee Vanhoover, it would essentially be telling the camp ponies that they've been undoubtedly abandoned by the Crown. Then again, they've suffered several months of disaster without any single aid from them and the only one that helped is Lex and with Sonata having spoken from the heart of Lex's good intentions...we might have the beginnings of a kingdom.
...
Well. The question here is is his far enough to push Celestia to do something drastic?
9721317
It also does sort of the same for Celestia. Lex now has bargaining power over them in the form of him holding Luna's divinity hostage. Furthermore he's demonstrated that he can defeat them on an equal battlefield (actually it was heavily unequal against Lex) which means Celestia knows that she has no means of defeating him.
The best she could do (and her most likely course of action) is to gather the elements of harmony to defeat Lex. Which would likely fail considering that Lex is not evil nor chaotic and therefor they probably wouldn't work against him.
In the short term it at least forces Celestia to acknowledge that she cannot just 'handle' Lex like she thought she could earlier.
9721369
Regarding the mechanics of getting this fixed. I would imagine the spell Lex used was Greater Bestow Curse. A curse of that level cannot be easily dispelled, and can't be broken with Remove Curse.
Since Cadence has demonstrated the ability to use Raise Dead, she would at least be able to cast Break Enchantment. But would need to succeed on a very high DC roll if they even think/know to use that spell.
For actual math, the DC is a minimum of 22, probably more given Lex's intelligence (I think he may have actual stats from the Ponyfinder story but I forget) so probably DC 26 or higher. If Cadence is a 9th level cleric, she'd need to roll a 17 or better.
9721530
True but Celestia doesn't know that but once she does, she could either pray that Cadence can somehow undo the curse or come back to Vanhoover so she coud get the curse removed.
The only thing she can do is get back to Canterlot in time to have Cadence resurrect Silhouette for Luna but given the shock of seeing his goddess reduced to a regular unicorn, he'd probably start a one pony crusade against Lex, causing more heartache for poor Luna.
The only potential outcome that ends on somewhat agreeable terms for all parties is to do what they had tried to do in the first place: Sit down and talk.
Sadly, I doubt that will be happening anytime soon since everyone is dealing with their own issues at the moment. *cough*Herd stuff*cough*
9721523
Lex relies heavily on dark magic which the elements would neutralize. Specifically Sombra's magic which the elements specifically work against.
Unless you use the Ponyfinder version which is completely useless against pretty much everything.
9721317 Certainly, this isn't how Lex wanted things to go. He's won a battle to be sure, but now he's for all intents and purposes at war with Equestria's rulers. While it doesn't have to be that way, it honestly seems at this point like the only remaining question is if it's going to be a cold war or a hot one...
9721369 Celestia doesn't come across as the sort of pony who loses her head when her emotions flare up, but then again that's more an issue of her demeanor rather than anything we can say for certain. Given what's happened to Luna, we can't completely rule out that Celestia will do something that she'd regret in hindsight. And if that happens, hopefully somepony else will tell her that it's a bad idea.
Of course, Celestia might go the opposite route and do something unexpected in the opposite direction: that is, she might try and negotiate with Lex directly. After all, it would behoove her (heh) to at least ask if Lex could undo what he's done to Luna, or even possibly barter something for restoring her. After all, she lost the fight, so surely she'd realize that pushing for things to come to blows would be a bad idea...right?
9721396
I was going to say "a little hoarse," but I thought that would have been a bit too on the nose.
But yeah, Celestia's reaction is going to determine a lot about what happens next.
9721523
9721576 While Lex's actual alignment is Lawful Neutral, his use of Sombra's horn means that he counts as being evil for all alignment-based effects (though he doesn't get to use it to overcome aligned damage reduction, the way he would if he had the [Evil] subtype). Moreover, this affects all of the magic he uses, regardless of whether it's his dark magic or not (though not magic items that he uses), so they also count as being evil magic (i.e. having the [Evil] descriptor) in the case of things like dispel evil. His grafting that horn onto his body, even if he doesn't use it for his thaumaturgical or sacerdotal spellcasting, means that its aura is a part of him.
Of course, the idea that the Elements "specifically works against Sombra's magic" is a bit of a tricky one. We were never shown nor told that Celestia and Luna used the Elements when they originally banished King Sombra, nor did the Mane Six use them when they ran off to save the Crystal Empire when he reappeared. They did use them when he came back at the beginning of season nine, but while they seemed to destroy him, he instead faked his demise and followed them back to the Tree of Harmony, effortlessly shattering it. So there's not really much of a basis to describe the Elements as being some sort of instant-win button where Sombra's power is concerned.
Now, they are powerful, but a careful examination of what we see them do in the show doesn't actually turn up that much:
And that about covers it. There's some issues with them being used by one or two ponies instead of six (i.e. the old chestnut about "Why didn't Celestia just heal Nightmare Moon like the Mane Six did, instead of banishing her to the moon?" To which I think the answer is "she wasn't able to perfectly use all six herself (right at that moment, at least."), but overall that's pretty much it. It's not much to go on, besides being used as a deus ex machina that lets them win almost all of the time.
(There's also the Rainbow Powers, but since we've never seen those other than when they were used to defeat Tirek, notwithstanding Luna's dream (which doesn't count, since the entire point of that episode is that anything can be done in dreams), I'm ready to presume that was a one-time-only boost from the Tree.)
9721530 I'm really having to bite my lip with regards to getting deeper into the math involved regarding Cadance trying to restore Luna, but I won't because I don't want to spoil anything.
9721556 One can only imagine how Luna's current state would affect Silhouette if he's brought back, as well as her (previously referenced but heretofore unseen) other worshipers.
9722469
Even if Sombra managed to get away, they still wiped away all the dark magic effects. And they used an awfully similar if not technically element-based power to defeat him in part 2. I assumed it was the same spell without the artifacts helping but that's not explicit I guess.
The inconsistent self-repairing bit could be them working like the Crystal Heart repair -- when new ponies are linked to them, they're strengthened and that repairs them if they're broken. That would be why Celestia couldn't fix them before Nightmare Moon's return and why the mane six couldn't fix them after Sombra shattered them (had to wait for the student six to link to them).
9722488
Actually, no. While Twilight's Element seemed to overcome Sombra's "worst fear" spell for her, and then linked to the others to free them from their worst fears, that was all the dark magic the Elements dispelled during that conflict. The removal of King Sombra's magic from everypony else in the Crystal Empire was accomplished when Cadance brought the Crystal Heart to the plaza and activated it (repairing it in the process, apparently). That's what freed everypony else, though it didn't destroy King Sombra the way it did back in The Crystal Empire - Part 2 (season three, episode two), something I attribute to Cadance being the only one to activate it, rather than the whole of the crystal ponies.
Honestly, that entire sequence is frustrating with regard to just how unclear it is what's actually happening. The implication, from Discord's speech, is that they're using the same power as the Elements of Harmony, but there's no real explanation as to how or why they're suddenly able to do that. The presumption is that "friendship is magic" is a literal statement (as the Mane Six themselves seem to indicate), but suddenly having that be the case when it's always needed some sort of magical mcguffin to work that way before is even more of a friendship ex machina than usual, and that makes it difficult to put into game terms.
I don't think it's inconsistent. The Elements seem to be able to reconstitute themselves so long as the ponies they're linked to are okay (and the link(s) survive, presumably so long as the ponies in question remain as living exemplars of their respective Elements), and so long as the source of their power, the Tree of Harmony, is intact. With the Tree gone, the Elements are so much broken jewelry now.
aww did somepony stomp a hole in the center of your ,,, i am all powerful and can do no wrong ideals.
9722758 Well, let's see if she can set up a rematch where Twilight steps in for her...