In the wake of the girls’ departure, Lex found himself feeling surprisingly numb.
It wasn’t how he’d expected himself to react. Having alienated all three of the people that were most important to him, he would have thought that he’d be seething with indignant rage or drowning in self-loathing. But while both of those emotions were there, they were strangely muted, as if conjured up purely by force of habit rather than being authentic reactions. Even his bewilderment at his own indifference was anemic, to the point where he couldn’t bring himself to care very much one way or the other. His attempt to clarify his relationship with the girls had failed, the consequences for it were almost exactly what he’d expected, and now it was time to move on to other things.
Even his shadow seemed to agree, or at least it didn’t disagree, since the tulpa that dwelt within it was completely silent as Lex made his way toward the door. Of course, that was no surprise at all. Without his usual cascade of negative emotions to feed it, and with him refusing to rise to the few barbs that it had thrown at him immediately after Nosey and Sonata had left, the spiteful thing had quickly fallen quiet. I might not know what made it come to my aid before, Lex noted, but at least I know how to starve its antipathy. That was enough for now.
Stepping outside, Lex was greeted by a sudden yelp of fright. Glancing to his left, he saw the maid that River had left him – Feather Duster, he reminded himself – sprawled out on the ground in a rather undignified position. The sight earned a frown of disapproval from Lex. “What are you doing?”
“I’m sorry!” Scrambling to her hooves, Feather Duster frantically tried to fix her uniform, smoothing her skirt down from where it had ridden up almost to her waist. “I didn’t hear you come out, and then I saw, er…” She trailed off, her eyes looking nervously at where Lex’s shadow was stretched out along the platform in its typical defiance of how the light was falling, its path taking it right past where she was now. “I, um, I wasn’t trying to stand on it, I swear,” she whimpered. “Please don’t be mad. I promise it’ll never happen-”
“Shut up,” ordered Lex flatly, not so much as bothering to look at her as he moved toward the edge of the platform. His own shadow notwithstanding, the angle of the sun made it clear that he still had a few hours left before his noon engagement with the alicorn princesses. That gave him enough time to retrieve Severance and prepare a few more spells for when he declared Celestia and Luna criminally negligent in their duties and arrested them both. The thought brought a thin smile to Lex’s lips, pleased at the thought of indicting those two fools for how they’d mismanaged-
“Um, sir? Mister Legis, sir?” came Feather Duster’s voice from behind him.
Ceasing his stride, Lex turned his head just enough to glance back at her. “What is it?”
Taking a hesitant step toward him, Feather Duster gulped, needing a moment to find her voice before she continued. “Y-you, um…you know the Night Mare, right? I mean, you’re her friend?”
Lex let out a snort that might have been a humorless laugh. “My relationship with the Night Mare is nothing so sanguine,” he replied darkly. Still, the query was unexpected enough that he turned back around, giving his maid his full attention. “What of it?”
Cringing, Feather Duster swallowed before answering. “I just…I’m not complaining or anything, but, well…did she really give my daughter a pet snake?”
Lex frowned, eyes narrowing. “What?”
“She said it was her spirit animal,” continued Feather Duster. Apparently deciding that the die was cast, she plunged ahead, the words almost jumbling together in her haste to get them out. “And that it could talk to her but only she could hear it, and how the Night Mare made it for her, or from her, I think? And that it was making her a healer, with magic powers-”
“What are you babbling about?” interrupted Lex harshly. “Your daughter is one of those foals who defied the Royal Guard last night, is that correct? The so-called ‘Night Mare’s Knights’?” He remembered seeing Feather Duster throwing herself tearfully at one of the fillies in that group after the hostilities had ended.
“Y-yes.” Biting her lip, his maid nodded. “Her name’s Cleansweep.”
“I thought so.” Lex rolled his eyes, certain that he knew what was going on now. This was the same nonsense that Fruit Crunch had been taken with, being so thrilled with how their adventure had ended that they were already looking for more. But whereas the colt was itching for another dangerous situation to intervene in, this Cleansweep girl was doubtlessly playing with some of the local wildlife and engaging in an elaborate game of make-believe in order to pretend like she was on some sort of goddess-given quest or something equally insipid. “The idea that the Night Mare would have any interest in your daughter is one that I can’t bring myself to take seriously,” announced Lex. “Nor should you.”
“R-really?!” Feather Duster almost gasped the word, slumping in relief. “Oh, I’m so glad! I mean, I knew it was preposterous, but she was so insistent! And that snake really was obedient too! It must have escaped from a pet shop in the city…”
“You should know better than to entertain a child’s fantasies,” snapped Lex, no longer considering this conversation to be worth his time. “Now, when noon comes, I’m going to be otherwise engaged, so I’ll need you to distribute food to everypony,” he added, turning back around as he nodded toward the large pile of food near the end of the platform…and stopped in his tracks, realizing that wouldn’t be viable.
His noon meeting with Celestia and Luna was here, at the train station. Having everypony come right up next to the same building where he planned on battling the two alicorns – as well as their guards, if they decided to bring them – would put them unacceptably close to harm’s way. While he planned on confronting them inside the building, and the food he’d purchased was outside on the platform, that left only a single wall between everypony and danger. All it would take would be a single spell of sufficient power, dodged or deflected or otherwise sent toward the wall, and the conflict could very well spill over and engulf innocent ponies.
But there was an easy solution to that. I can just delay passing out food, decided Lex. Except, he realized a second later, that wasn’t a acceptable solution. Even if nopony was near the train station when the battle occurred, the food itself still was, and it remained a resource of critical importance. With the nearby farms only just now starting to engage in small-scale commerce again, Lex knew they couldn’t afford to lose even a small portion of the food that he’d purchased from Coal Hopper. Their situation was still too close to the precipice of disaster to make any such risk justifiable.
That left only moving the food that was here to a more remote location – which, Lex knew, would take too long, considering how much of it there was – or changing the venue of his meeting with the princesses. The latter was a feasible decision, but tactically unsound; he’d wanted to battle Celestia and Luna indoors so as to prevent them from using their wings to the fullest extent. But if he declared the train station unsuitable, that left no other building in the immediate vicinity that he could use. Certainly, River’s manor was unacceptable, since she’d made it plain that her staff was currently living there, and he couldn’t even begin to think of how he could lure the princesses into some building in Vanhoover…
“Sir?” Feather Duster’s voice was back to its usual timid tone. “You said you wanted me to be the one handing out the food to everypony?”
“Be quiet!” hissed Lex, his unusual calm beginning to crumble. The realization that his plan to confront the Royal Sisters carried unacceptable risks to the ponies in his care was enough to make him clench his teeth in frustration. I can fix this! he swore silently. There has to be some way of negating the danger to everypony else, at least long enough for me to subdue those two! Once they’re defeated, they won’t be able to exercise any further influence over Equestria because they’ll…they’ll be…
Lex’s eyes widened as he realized he wasn’t able to finish that thought. Once he’d successfully defeated the alicorns in the inevitable altercation, then what exactly would he do with them? It wasn’t as though he planned on killing them. Celestia and Luna were severely misguided in their approach to rulership, but they weren’t evil; and even if they had been, they were still ponies, which meant that their lives were sacrosanct.
Nor could they be easily imprisoned. Lex couldn’t imagine that any of the local buildings would be able to contain them once they’d recovered from the battle; the glimpse of Celestia’s magical abilities that he’d gotten last night might not compare to his own, but by Equestrian standards it was still formidable. Even if she couldn’t teleport, he had no doubt that she and Luna would likely be able to find a way out of almost any jury-rigged prison. Tartarus was likely the only place that could hold them, and its only entrance was at the base of the mountain on which Canterlot sat, many hundreds of miles from Vanhoover. There weren’t even any guards that could keep them in line; Severance probably could, but he’d need to withdraw it from them eventually in order to recharge his magic.
A curse, then. Something to limit their power, like I did to Fencer. But no, that wouldn’t work either. Any curse that inhibited their capabilities would likely cripple their ability to move the sun and the moon. Even if his magic outstripped Celestia’s, Lex had no illusions that he could move the heavens the way she and her sister could, not when they had cutie marks that were quite obviously providing them with additional power devoted solely to those tasks.
But I haven’t tested that theory yet, he thought grimly as he looked over his shoulder. Glaring up at the sun, Lex ignored the confused look Feather Duster was giving him as he reached out with his telekinesis, gritting his teeth as he forced additional magic through his body and into his horn. Straining, he pushed against the glowing orb, grunting with effort as he tried to change its position even just a little-
Only to abandon the attempt a few seconds later, realizing it was futile. While telekinesis didn’t provide tactile feedback, there was always a commensurate strain involved when attempting to move objects. In this case, the strain had easily exceeded the motive force he was capable of bringing to bear, even after he’d augmented his telekinesis with additional magic. For all his power, he hadn’t come close to performing the feat that Princess Celestia did every day; pushing himself further would likely have injured him before he came anywhere close to succeeding. The boost she’s receiving from her cutie mark must, he realized, be considerable. That, or the glimpse of her magical prowess that he’d gotten had been more incomplete than he’d thought.
Or both.
Or something else altogether.
There was simply no way to be certain, not without studying their magical abilities further. He could do that, of course; boosting his circlet with additional magic would make it easy, but it wouldn’t be a quick process. Certainly, not something that could be done in a few minutes, particularly since he doubted that Celestia and Luna would let him physical manipulate them to get a better view of their bodies’ magical channels the way he had Sonata, Nosey, and Aria…
Lex winced, and not only because the thought of the girls suddenly brought forth the regret he’d expected to feel earlier. His plan…no, it couldn’t even be called a plan with how little thought he’d put into it. His hasty, haphazard decision to confront Celestia and Luna overly relied on incomplete information, would put too many ponies at risk, and had no appreciation for the long-term consequences. There was no choice, Lex knew, but to abandon it.
Ignoring Feather Duster's confused call, Lex trudged down from the edge of the platform, going to retrieve Severance. He could still prepare a few spells between now and noon, but it would be purely as a precaution. The meeting he was about to have would be just that: a meeting, and nothing more.
There'd be no violence when he met with the alicorns.