//------------------------------// // 443 - Laying Down the Law // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// A small mountain of rubble was suddenly sent skyward as the lhaksharut burst up from where Rainbow Dash had knocked it into the ground. With the battlefield now exposed to the open air, and the smoke already having been cleared away, it was obvious that the pegasus’ attack had done a number of it. There was an impact crater as wide as a pony on the thing’s torso, creating a depression in its chest that was over a foot deep. Cracks radiated out from the wound, spreading all the way down to its waist and up across its stony face, expression still unchanged. One metal wing was twisted, curling back on itself in a way that kept it from deploying fully. More notable was its sword-wielding arm, which was hanging limply at its side, the fingers looking barely able to hold on to the hilt of the blade. “Damage sustained,” announced the creature, its voice still lacking any inflection. “Severity: moderate. Self-repair systems-” “NOW!” yelled Twilight. Even without the lhaksharut’s saying so, it was clear that Rainbow had managed to inflict considerable harm to the thing. If there was any chance for them to overcome it, then they had to keep hammering the thing before it was able to heal itself. And she had already made preparations to do just that, having cast a spell – one augmented with her alicorn magic – to bolster her natural telekinesis. A second later she put it to good use, bringing a literal ton of bricks down on the lhaksharut’s head. The makeshift missiles crashed against the creature in a hailstorm of stone, striking with such force that each brick shattered on impact. But the lhaksharut didn’t seem to be fazed in the slightest. Ignoring the barrage of rocks exploding against its body, the thing scanned the battlefield, turning its head in a slow motion. “Primary target not found,” it announced stoically. “Scanning for anarchic numinous readings.” “SCAN FOR THIS!” Rainbow Dash’s voice was immediately followed by a crack of thunder as a lightning bolt raced down from above, courtesy of her jumping up and down on one of the scattered clouds dotting the sky. The electricity coursed through the lhaksharut, actually causing the thing to falter for a moment as a torrent of voltage swept over its body. Giving an encouraged whoop, Rainbow kept it up, stomping on the cloud as hard as she could until its lightning was completely expended, the cloud breaking up into nothing a moment later. The assault was enough to make the lhaksharut to glance upward…just in time to see Applejack hurtling straight down toward it with one foreleg cocked back, having leapt off of another cloud where she’d been waiting courtesy of Twilight’s cloudwalking spell and Rainbow’s hauling her up there. The creature had no time to react before she slammed into it, striking it directly in the face with a punch so heavy that the impact could be heard across Canterlot. Unable to withstand the full force of the blow, the lhaksharut stumbled, the whirling rings that made up its lower body scraping across the ground as it struggled to keep its balance, reeling as it fell back from where Applejack had landed on her hooves… Only to get a sudden burst of glitter right in its face. “Surprise!” yelled Pinkie, having launched the barrage of scintillating particles at it from a safe distance. “Now this is what I’d call an adventuring party!” she laughed as the lhaksharut pivoted, trying to face the new threat while simultaneously clearing the obstructions from its eyes. That was when Spike, having clamored on top of a nearby pile of debris, exhaled as hard as he could, bathing the creature in fire. We’re doing it! The thought made a sudden giddiness rush through Twilight as she watched the lhaksharut raise its arms against the flames, trying to ward them off. We’re winning! They just had to keep the thing off-balance, attacking from every angle and keeping the pressure on before it could regroup and regain the initiative, and they just might be able to pull this off! But no sooner had that thought gone through her head than the lhaksharut lashed out at Spike. Its gigantic spear thrust out in a sudden, vicious motion, causing the little dragon to yelp with fright, his flames guttering out as a result. It was only by sheer luck that he wasn’t struck by the blow, losing his footing and tumbling down the back of the debris pile that he’d been perched on before the spear could make contact. He landed dizzily on the floor as the collection of stones scattered, taking the hit that had been meant for him. Nor were the lhaksharut’s other arms idle. The one holding the huge mace swept out, bringing the weapon around in a heavy swing toward Applejack. With no time to react, the earth mare wasn’t able to brace herself, unable to do more than grit her teeth in preparation for what was about to happen. But the impact never came. In the instant before the strike would have made contact a glowing blue wall sprang into existence between her and it, taking the full force of the hit even as the lhaksharut strained, trying to finish its swing. Her eyes widening as she realized what must have happened, Applejack glanced back to shoot a grateful look at Shining Armor, but the stallion didn’t so much as nod back at her, groaning as he put everything he had into keeping his spell up…only to collapse a second later as his stamina, and his spell, finally gave out. Without stopping to think, Applejack threw herself forward. Her desperate dive was just barely enough, feeling a rush of air pass right behind her as the mace swung through the spot that she’d vacated less than a second before. She had just enough time to utter a sigh of relief at the near-miss- “APPLEJACK! LOOK OUT!” Fluttershy’s scream, shouted from where she was cowering behind a large safe, was her only warning before the lhaksharut’s sword struck home. Twilight couldn’t even bring herself to scream, too shocked to react as the creature’s sword tore across Applejack’s body, knocking the mare off her hooves and sending a gout of blood arcing through the air. For a split-second she thought that it had to be an illusion. The creature’s sword-arm had been maimed by Rainbow Dash’s Sonic Rainboom! It shouldn’t have been able to use it! Except that wasn’t true, she realized instantly. Just because she’d interrupted it before it had been able to finish declaring that its self-repair abilities were active didn’t mean that she’d somehow stopped them from working. Even while they’d been trying to pour the damage on, it had been doing what it could to reverse it, and its first priority had apparently been to fix its mangled arm. All the better to keep attacking them with. Panicking, Twilight immediately abandoned any notions of wearing the creature down, instead focusing all of her thoughts on how to save her friend before that monster finished her off. Because Applejack was still alive. She had to be. Which meant that the priority now was getting her out of harm’s way. But how? Putting a shield over her would only delay the inevitable, and worse, would prevent help from reaching her. A short-range teleport like she’d used before would still leave her within range of the thing’s elemental blasts. Telekinetically dragging her out was too slow, and Twilight doubted that even Rainbow Dash – who was already streaking down from above, roaring at the top of her lungs – would be able to get in there and retrieve Applejack without getting swatted out of the sky; if the lhaksharut had been able to use that slow-time spell on her when it hadn’t even known she was coming, it would definitely be able to intercept her wild charge now. Which means that there’s only one chance left, Twilight concluded. I’ve got to make it focus on me. Knowing that she couldn’t afford to fail, Twilight poured her alicorn magic – which was by now starting to run dangerously low – into her next spell. If this worked, it could end the fight in one shot. Of course, the odds of that happening were low, since the lhaksharut had ignored virtually every spell used against it so far. But even if this didn’t work, it would hopefully draw the creature’s attention enough for the rest of her friends to move in and help Applejack. Casting the spell as quickly as she could, Twilight suddenly found herself flashing back to the first time she’d ever used something like this. It had been when she’d first gotten her cutie mark, her magic running out of control and affecting everypony nearby. Her parents had been particularly hard-hit by her uncontrolled surge of power, turning into plants. Much like the field mouse she was attempting to turn the lhaksharut into right now. An instant later her spell was cast, and Twilight clenched her jaw as she tried to force it to work. She could almost feel the thing’s spell resistance moving to block her, like an impenetrable wall refusing to let her magic reach its target. Squeezing her eyes shut, Twilight pushed harder, commanding her magic to grasp the creature and override its control over its body, to reshape it to suit her will. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered if Lex had felt like this when he’d cursed Luna. The thought, laced with self-doubt, was enough to make her concentration waver, and for a moment Twilight almost lost control of her spell…and then she was through. The sense of resistance she felt surrounding the lhaksharut fell away, and her spell reached out to engulf it. Twilight felt a surge of triumph as her eyes shot open. She’d done it! She’d done it, and now- Nothing happened. There was no sense of resistance this time. No feeling of pushback or impedance. Her spell had just failed. For an instant Twilight couldn’t bring herself to believe it, her brain cycling through possible explanations as she tried to figure out what had happened. Her spell had worked, she’d felt it work, getting through the creature’s spell resistance, so what had happened…? It’s immune, she realized numbly. It was the only explanation she could think of. While the lhaksharut had some sort of universal resistance to spells cast directly on it, there had to be certain effects which were completely incapable of affecting it, with her transfiguration spell being as useless as if she’d tried to poison its inorganic metal-and-stone body. That’s right, it’s an axiomatic being. Its lawful nature must make it completely impossible to shapechange. After all, Discord was chaos incarnate, and he couldn’t seem to go more than a few minutes without changing himself somehow. The lhaksharut was the complete opposite of that, possessing an immutable body. And she hadn’t realized it until it was too late. In desperation Twilight tried to cast another spell, but before she could even decide which one, Rainbow Dash’s shrieking descent met its end. Rushing downward so fast that she was a blur, she got within ten feet of the lhaksharut’s head when its mace came up in a sudden swing, colliding with Rainbow in midair and knocking her off-course, one spike piercing through her wing as it swatted her into the ground not far from where Applejack had fallen. The pegasus hit the floor hard, blood splattering across the stones where she fell, and it was only because a faint moan of pain escaped her lips that Twilight knew she was still alive. “Scan interrupted,” announced the lhaksharut blithely. Even as it spoke, Twilight could see the cracks in its body starting to disappear, the crater in its chest already beginning to fill in. “Primary target not found. Proceeding with termination of secondary targets.” It raised its lower arms then, the ones clutching the orbs, and pointed them toward Rainbow Dash…and Cadance. Twilight had just enough time to realize that the lhaksharut was prioritizing the pony in their group who was capable of healing the others, as well as the one who had damaged it the most, before it attacked. Instantly, she cast a spell, trying to teleport both of its chosen targets out of harm’s way…but she didn’t have enough power to move them both. For a split-second she struggled with the gut-wrenching knowledge that she could only save one of the two people she cared about most, knowing that if she didn’t decide she’d lose both of them…and then she focused her magic on Rainbow Dash, silently trusting her brother to overcome his exhaustion and find the strength to protect Cadance. Except, when her spell went off a moment later, Rainbow Dash didn’t teleport out…and it was only after her spell had failed that Twilight realized that, in her panic, she’d overlooked that the pegasus was lying within the faint green field that the lhaksharut had used to shut down Discord’s first portal to Everglow. It was preventing teleportation the same way it prevented inter-planar travel. No! Not again! Twilight had just enough time to realize that, for the second time in less than a minute, she’d made the wrong call in a life-or-death situation, that she’d made a mistake where magic – her special talent, the Element of Harmony that she represented – was concerned. And now her friends would pay the price for it. Then twin beams of elemental energy lanced out. But neither reached their intended target. Instead, Shining Armor suddenly surged forward, pushing Cadance out of the way a split-second before a torrent of electricity struck him. At the same instant, Applejack suddenly lunged to her hooves, throwing herself in front of Rainbow Dash as the blazing ray of fire slammed into her. For a moment neither pony could be seen, swallowed whole by the blinding light of the twin beams. Then both winked out, leaving a pair of charred husks that fell to the ground, unmoving. Twilight’s vision swam then, the sight in front of her blurring and rippling as tears filled her eyes, unable to process what was happening. This is a dream, she told herself silently. This has to be a dream. Any second Luna would appear and tell her that this was all a nightmare…except, no, Luna couldn’t do that now, could she? But…but that meant… “Applejack! Rainbow Dash! Hang on!” “You monster! How could you?!” Twilight was only dimly aware of Pinkie Pie and Princess Celestia racing toward the lhaksharut, one intent on rescuing her friends, the other intent on punishing the thing that had struck them down. “No…” she whimpered softly. “Don’t do it…” But neither heard her, and a moment later it was too late. The lhaksharut’s sword tore into Princess Celestia, staining her white coat with blood as she fell. An instant later its mace came down on Pinkie Pie, crushing her body to the ground in a single unstoppable swing. Nor was it done, and Twilight could only watch with a sickening feeling spreading through her as she saw it heft the spear in its middle pair of arms, turning toward Cadance, who was crouching by the blackened and smoking body of Shining Armor, tears streaming down her face as she chanted a prayer that she would never finish. A second later the lhaksharut lunged forward, and Twilight belatedly closed her eyes, unable to bring herself to watch as someone else she loved was slaughtered. But the sound that reached her ears a second later wasn’t the slam of a giant weapon hitting a body. There was no tortured scream, no sickening crunch as another pony was smashed by the relentless monster. Instead… Instead there was a clang of metal on metal…and a second later, Twilight could hear the sound of Cadance’s voice, still chanting a prayer to Lashtada. Not able to bring herself to hope, Twilight nevertheless opened her eyes. And gasped at the sight in front of her. Standing between Cadance and the lhaksharut was a pony that she’d never seen before. As tall as Princess Celestia, he was clad from neck to tail in brilliant armor, the sculpted metal looking as flawless as if it had just been polished. His eyes were a bright, shining blue, his mane and tail shone like gold, and each of his wings – his six wings! – were the color of silver, almost glistening as he unfurled them. The tip of his horn gleamed like a lance in the sunlight, pointed at the lhaksharut as he glowered at the creature with the stern visage of a lord sitting in judgment. And in front of him, floating of its own accord without so much as a telekinetic aura around it, was a sword as large as the newcomer was. That still made it far smaller than the greatspear that the lhaksharut was wielding, but the sword didn’t seem the least bit strained as it caught the tip of the spear on the flat of its blade, holding the larger weapon back with no apparent effort. “Stand down, enforcer!” The alicorn’s voice was rich and cultured, with a timbre that would have been warm and inviting had it not sounded so menacing at that moment. “This carnage was not part of our agreement!” Although she’d never met him before, Twilight had spoken with Princesses Celestia and Luna about the alicorn in front of her now. The Royal Sisters had thought very highly of him, and had hoped that he would attend the meeting they’d set for today. And now Mihr, the Angel of Friendship, had arrived at last.