The results of Lex’s spell were immediate.
He felt the magic race upward as he completed the casting, bridging the distance between himself and the descending scythe so fast that it might as well have been instantaneous. Then the amassed energy of his spell collided with the incredible power stored within Severance, and Lex held his breath, knowing that the contest would be resolved in a fraction of a second. Even so, that was enough time for him to silently will his spell to work, aware of what would happen if it didn’t…
And then his spell shattered.
Its structure broke apart as soon as it made contact with Severance, the gathered energy dispersing harmlessly as the scythe went right through it, none the worse for his attempt to destroy it. The weapon hadn’t even made a counterattack; it had simply received the spell without trying to defend itself, going through it with no more damage than a falling rock would have sustained if someone threw a pane of glass in front of it. Unimpeded in the slightest, the scythe continued its downward trajectory.
His one plan to deal with Severance having failed, Lex’s mind went into overdrive. With unimaginable speed, he weighed and analyzed every option, every variable, every piece of relevant data as he searched for an alternate course of action. Casting the spell again was immediately out; there was no chance of completing the requisite verbal and somatic components – for that or any other spell – before Severance closed the distance between them. Calling upon the tulpa in his shadow was unlikely to produce any response, since he still didn’t know what made it respond some times and not others, and even if it did react there was no telling if its response would be adequate or not. Creating more black crystals to block Severance’s path would be futile, since the weapon had already demonstrated that it could go through them with no trouble whatsoever. Grabbing it with his telekinesis again would only stop it if he channeled additional magic through himself, and the physical effort required to do that would take more time than he currently had. All of those possibilities and dozens more ran through Lex’s brain then, and all of them had no chance of stopping the scythe from slicing through himself and Luna.
All except two.
The first option was to simply abandon Luna. After all, she was the one the scythe was aiming for; he was simply in its way. Although Severance was now too close for him to dodge it completely, Lex felt certain that if he hurled himself to the side he’d be able to avoid a fatal strike. It was an option that would guarantee his survival if he simply admitted that he couldn’t save Luna, and instead cut his losses.
But just like when Xiriel had forced him into this same circumstance, where he’d needed to choose between saving himself or Nosey, Lex couldn’t bring himself to sacrifice someone else. It wasn’t that he cared about Luna the same way he’d realized he did for Nosey. Luna was an incompetent fool who had once betrayed her sister and her people, whose return had been notable only in how she’d wallowed in the same self-indulgent indolence as Celestia, and who had repeatedly refused to listen when he’d tried to talk her down from this fight. As far as Lex was concerned, Luna was an example of everything wrong with Equestria today. It was just that right now, however, none of that mattered. Regardless of how he felt about her personally, Luna was still a pony. That fact alone meant that her life had immeasurable value, which Lex was morally obligated to protect to the best of his ability even if it meant putting his own life at risk to do it. Which meant that his only choice was to use the second plan that he’d come up with.
Severance had closed to within a few feet of him when Lex made his move. Muscles heaving, he threw himself…not out of Severance’s way, but further into it as he moved from standing over Luna to being sprawled out on top of her, shielding the fallen alicorn with his own body. There was no guarantee that this would work, especially given that he’d just tried to destroy Severance, but the barbed wire around his left foreleg was still unresponsive as the scythe flew down…
And came to a complete stop a few inches away from him.
Lex didn’t let his chance slip away, casting his dispelling spell again as he strained to pull more magic into himself. The burn in his muscles was worse now, but he ignored it as he hurriedly gestured and chanted. He knew that Severance could easily cut him apart before he finished, that there was no way he could have stopped it if it tried, but the scythe remained still, making no move as it hovered over him. That’s right, Lex thought viciously. I’m still the Night Mare’s representative on Equestria! If you kill me, her interests won’t be served!
That was conjecture on his part, of course. Given that Severance’s overriding motive was to act in accordance with its understanding of the Night Mare’s wishes – wishes that Lex knew he’d been sidelining, such as his refusal to heed Severance’s insistence that he deal with Luna, or ignoring, such as when he’d offered to use the resurrection spell in the gemstone to bring back Silhouette despite how badly the barbed wire around his foreleg had reacted – it wouldn’t have been surprising if the scythe, and by extension the Night Mare herself, had decided to terminate both his relationship with the goddess as well as his life. But Lex had been willing to make a calculated risk that Severance wouldn’t do that. After all, he hadn’t formally renounced his connection to the goddess, nor reneged on his promise to gather worshipers for her. I simply haven’t made it a priority yet! smirked Lex as he continued casting. It was a technicality, but one that he suspected Severance – which as a magic item had an artificial personality, and so likely lacked anything that resembled a survival instinct or sense of self-preservation – would adhere to even at the risk of its own destruction.
A second later he finished casting the spell, murmuring the final words around clenched teeth as he poured as much power as he could into it. The ache was worse now, and he knew he wouldn’t have been able to do this at all if his stamina-enhancing spell hadn’t still been active, but there was no other choice. He wouldn’t be able to cast this spell a third time if this didn’t work. Although he could have used the energy he’d gathered physically to retain the spell, feeding it into the mental construct that housed its energy in a process similar to the reserve energies stored in his circlet, that simply wasn’t possible when he was already pouring everything he had into the spell’s overall power. Whether he succeeded or failed, this would be the last time he’d be able to try this.
Again, Lex unleashed his dispelling spell at Severance.
Again, it collided with the scythe in a split-second contest of power.
And again it didn’t work, the spell breaking apart as it tried and failed to disjoin Severance’s magic.
Breathing heavily, Lex could only glare at the weapon as it hung there, its continued existence mocking his efforts to destroy it. Slowly, Severance began to circle around them, and Lex knew that it was looking for a way to strike that would allow it to kill Luna without killing him. His heart racing, Lex flattened himself out, trying to cover as much as he could of the mare under him, but he knew it was no use. Luna was larger than he was anyway, and Severance’s speed and precision would be more than adequate to find an opening sufficient to inflict a mortal wound on the alicorn without doing the same to him. Once it did, Luna would die, and there’d be nothing he could do to stop it.
But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try. Reaching out with his telekinesis, Lex wrapped the scythe in his aura, not having the strength to augment it again. “Don’t…you…dare…” he rasped, despite knowing that the scythe wouldn’t be intimidated. No one would have been, he knew, since it was obvious that he was nearing his limits, and Lex couldn’t help but note the bitter irony that – at least after that filly had healed him – his attempts to destroy Severance had depleted him worse than his fight against the Royal Sisters.
Worse, he realized an instant later as he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye, said filly and her friends were now on their way there! He could see them trotting toward him, their faces relaxed and their movements unhurried, clearly having no idea of what was occurring with Severance right now. But while none of them looked worried, the prospect of their imminent arrival made Lex’s anxiety skyrocket. If those foals realized that there was a conflict between himself and Severance, they’d try to interfere; after how they’d insisted on joining the battle against the alicorns, Lex had no doubt of that. And while he wasn’t sure if they’d side with him or Severance, either prospect would increase the chances that they’d be injured, or even killed. That could not be allowed to happen, and it was with resolve borne of rising panic that Lex turned his attention back to Severance. “Luna’s already beaten!” he snarled. “Stand down!”
But as sharp as Severance’s blade was, its reply – that mercy was a sin – was blunt. As if to prove the goddess’s approval of her weapon’s words, the barbed wire around Lex’s foreleg twisting ominously, the sharp edges pressing against his skin without cutting. The sensation made Lex grit his teeth, the unsubtle warning being-
Wait…
A warning. The barbed wire hadn’t actually injured him just now; it had only threatened to do so, which meant that he hadn’t actually run afoul of the Night Mare’s ire just yet. But Severance seemed dead-set on finishing Luna off. So if his protesting that was only warranting a warning from the goddess…
Suddenly Lex knew what he had to do.
“Luna has been beaten,” he rumbled again as he stood up, the tension in his voice having been replaced with conviction. Out of his periphery he could see Fruit Crunch and his friends getting closer, close enough that he knew they could hear him now, but he didn’t dare stop. “Her loss isn’t just my victory. It’s also the Night Mare’s.”
His telekinetic grip on Severance was enough to let him hear the weapon’s reply as it denied his claim, saying that he had only laid her low because she’d attacked him first. “That doesn’t matter!” snapped Lex. Off to the side, those five foals had come to a halt, watching the one-sided conversation curiously. “I struck her down while exalting the Night Mare’s name! I demonstrated that Luna isn’t worthy of godhood, while proclaiming that the Night Mare is! I made it clear for everyone to see that Luna is weak, and the Night Mare is strong!” He let that hang in the air for just a moment, and when Severance didn’t reply, Lex continued. “And I have no intention of showing her mercy.”
Turning his back on the scythe, Lex focused his attention to Luna. He had little doubt that if he didn’t levy a serious penalty against her right now, the scythe would do so on its own, and its attempt would be fatal. As much as Lex resented having his hoof forced like this, it was an outcome he could live with; although he hadn’t intended to levy any further penalties against the Royal Sisters for what had happened here – particularly since Severance had instigated this conflict – their refusal to back down despite his calls for peace made punishing them acceptable. Besides, the Night Mare doesn’t seem to care what happens to Celestia, so Luna can be the one to bear the brunt of the consequences for both of their actions.
Pointing his horn at the unconscious mare, Lex called upon his dark magic. At the same time, he made himself begin drawing in additional energy through his body. He knew he had already passed his limit, and that he could only even make the attempt due to the spell he’d cast on himself to boost his vigor, but there was no other choice but to do this. Not if he wanted this curse to work…
Fighting back a scream of pain as he pushed himself further, Lex pulled in more and more power as he concentrated on Luna. The agonies that raced through him then were familiar, feeling as though his organs were on fire even as his head throbbed so badly it felt as though he was being bludgeoned to death. But Lex didn’t stop, focusing even more intently on Luna as he kept pushing himself further. Sombra cursed an entire city and everypony in it! he silently screamed at himself as he kept going, pouring more and more power into his dark magic, directing it at the unconscious alicorn. If he could do that, I CAN DO THIS!
Slowly, her body still hanging limp, Luna rose into the air. Even as she did, a black aura manifested around her, causing the foals around them to cry out in surprise as it thickened and congealed around her body, until she was completely obscured within a dark cocoon. Not letting his concentration lapse, Lex abandoned any semblance of restraint, using everything he’d learned from his sessions examining Sonata, Aria, and Nosey as he forced the dark magic further inward, invading every part of Luna’s body. The blackness surrounded her further, compressing and sinking inward as he forced it into her, not willing to stop until he’d made her absorb it all.
The process took only a few seconds, rather than the hours he’d needed when he’d performed a similar – and yet very different – process on Aria. As soon as it was completed, Lex released power he’d been directing all at once, and collapsed to the ground in a heap, gasping for air. At the same time, the last of the dark magic sank into Luna’s body, and she fell to the ground, still unconscious. Barely noticing as Fruit Crunch and his friends helped him up, each of them peppering him with questions, Lex instead glanced back at Severance, weakly taking hold of it with his telekinesis. “Satisfied?” he spat.
The scythe didn’t answer for a moment, and Lex had just enough time to think that it was going to kill her anyway, before it admitted that it was. Outwardly, Lex’s only response to the thing was to release it from his telekinetic aura with a snort. Inwardly, however, he felt a wave of relief, only barely managing to suppress it as he looked back at what he’d done to Celestia’s sister.
She was smaller now, having lost a few inches of her stature. Her mane and tail – which had previously continued to flutter in the nonexistent breeze of their own accord – had become still, and their sparkling radiance had faded to a plain, dull blue. Most notable, however, were her sides, which were now smooth and lacking in the feathered limbs that had been there before. Compared to how she'd looked previously, her transformation was dramatic enough that Lex, despite the nauseating level of pain assaulting him from how badly he’d strained himself, couldn’t help but feel a flash of perverse pride at what he’d just accomplished.
Luna was no longer an alicorn.