//------------------------------// // 497 - Doubt and Redoubt // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// The power that Starlight put into her final attack was staggering to witness. Her eyes glowing with white light as she screamed in rage, the beam that came from Starlight’s horn was both wider and taller than she was. Its passage alone sent shockwaves rippling out in every direction, causing the ponies in the nearby crowd to let out screams of fright as they struggled to brace themselves. Closer to the source of the blast, Sonata, Sugar Belle, Party Favor, Double Diamond, and Night Glider were all knocked backward, limbs flailing as they went tumbling. The only pony who didn’t move was Lex himself, his horn shrouded in deep purple as he called upon his dark magic, answering Starlight’s wordless roar with a sharp yell of his own. The wall of black crystals that rose up in front of him then was dozens of times thicker than the one he’d created to protect Cloudbank and Thermal Draft, its depth measured in feet rather than inches, and wide enough to catch any spillover from Starlight’s energy beam. Physically overcharging his dark magic like that sent a renewed ache through his body, but Lex remained standing, knowing he never would have been able to conjure so much material if his shadow hadn’t bolstered him just now…and even with that, it was unlikely he’d be able to do so again without incapacitating himself a second time, stamina-enhancing spell or no. But this should be enough, he felt certain. With her injuries, and how she'll need to brace herself against that spell’s recoil, Starlight Glimmer won’t be able to move enough to adjust the beam’s angle. That means all I have to do is wait for her to expend the last of her strength trying to breach this barrier, and then- His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of cracking. Lex wasted a fraction of a second being surprised, his eyes widening in shock as the sound changed into one of shattering, the black crystals at the forefront of the wall he’d conjured breaking down under Starlight’s assault. He’d known he was facing a powerful opponent, but this had been completely beyond his expectations! A barrier of black crystals less than a foot thick had been sufficient to withstand multiple blasts of augmented magic from both of the Royal Sisters! How could Starlight Glimmer, a unicorn who could only use Equestrian magic, generate more power than an alicorn?! There was no time to ponder the question. The remainder of the wall he’d created was steadily disintegrating under Starlight’s assault, the enraged mare somehow sustaining the massive outpouring of energy despite the incredible drain it had to be putting on her. Even as Lex watched, fissures spread through the ebony material in front of him, the surviving parts of the wall starting to lose their integrity. In another few seconds it would collapse entirely, letting the beam swallow not only him, but Aria and Garden Gate as well. Gritting his teeth, Lex conjured more black crystals. Knowing better than to strain himself by trying to recreate the large section that had already been destroyed, he instead narrowed his focus, conjuring minute amounts of new crystals to fill in the cracks that were spreading through the remainder of the wall. If I can just repair the damage faster than she can inflict it…! But a few seconds was all he needed to determine that it wasn’t working. Although there was still a solid five feet of black crystals between him and Starlight’s attack, the force she was generating was demolishing it faster than he could keep up. New fractures were forming before he’d finished restoring existing ones. The best he could accomplish was to slow the rate at which she was destroying his barrier; he couldn’t reverse it. Worse, although the drain on his reserves of dark magic wasn’t egregious, it was steady, and Lex knew that even if his barrier hadn’t been breaking down faster than he could restore it, he couldn’t maintain this rate of output for long before he ran dry. Two minutes until I run out of dark magic, he estimated grimly. But only thirty seconds until Starlight breaks through. One way or the other, he was going to lose unless he could come up with a new strategy. If he couldn’t, not only would the price of failure be death, but Aria and Garden Gate would lose their lives as well. And the rest of Equestria would lose their special talents to Starlight Glimmer, since she quite clearly had both the power and the inclination to take them by force. Thoughts of what would happen if he failed here made him glance over at his shadow. If you have any other spells, now’s the time to use them! he snarled mentally. But the tulpa lurking within his umbral outline did nothing. The lack of response made Lex curse bitterly to himself. Was he not frightened enough for it to come to his aid? Or did it simply have no spells that would be useful in this situation? The latter scenario was a distinct possibility; even if the thing had been siphoning small amounts of power to prepare its own cache of spells – something it wouldn’t have been able to do after he’d banished Severance – it couldn’t have prepared more than a few. It was only a fragment of his larger consciousness, which meant that it likely lacked much in the way of thaumaturgical capacity. But that couldn’t be the limits of its powers…not when it had dragged his nightmares into the real world during the ghoul invasion. If it brought forth those distorted copies of the ponies he’d known now and had them charge at Starlight… Lex discarded that idea, knowing it would be a recipe for disaster. Even if Starlight couldn’t reliably alter the direction of her oversized energy blast, the sight of several horrors descending on her would likely make her desperate enough to try anyway. Or her balance would be thrown off when the creatures attacked her. Either way would almost certainly cause the direction of her attack to veer off unpredictably, which with all of the people gathered nearby would more than likely result in fatalities – potentially a great many – before Starlight terminated her spell. That was something Lex was determined to avoid at all costs, which likely meant that his shadow wouldn’t bring those nightmares out now. But with no more spells and no nightmare-creatures forthcoming, that meant that unless it had some other heretofore unknown ability, there’d be no further aid from the tulpa. Nor was there any other viable way to that Lex could think of to counterattack. He could turn into a shadow and move through the ground, avoiding Starlight’s beam entirely and moving in to attack her physically. But at its current rate of deterioration, what was left of his barrier would be destroyed before he could cross the distance to Starlight, meaning that he’d be abandoning Aria and Garden Gate to die, a course of action that Lex rejected utterly. Creating more stalagmites to try and attack Starlight wasn’t feasible either. Even if that worked – which was in doubt, since she’d now seen that trick more than once – it ran the same risk of throwing her aim off and hitting the bystanders. That was a factor that couldn’t be countenanced under any circumstances. Winning without protecting everypony wasn’t winning at all. Which meant that only thing he could do was keep repairing what was left of his black crystal wall and hope that Starlight would run out of power before she broke through…in another fifteen seconds. Starlight, however, was showing no signs of letting up anytime soon. His lips pulled back in a silent snarl, Lex tried to think of an alternative plan, one which offered some way out of the bad position he was in without making any unacceptable sacrifices. But nothing came to him. And time was running out. Shielding his face against the wind being whipped up by Starlight’s attack, Party Favor looked at his companions. “We have to do something!” “Like what?!” Night Glider gave him an incredulous look. “We can’t even get close to Starlight right now!” “What about the cutie marks in our wagons?” Sugar Belle glanced back at the vehicles in question as she spoke. She and her friends had unharnessed themselves from them when they’d moved in to confront Starlight about her lies, leaving them far enough back that they – and the glass jars that they were carrying – were undisturbed by the force of the blast. “All the other ones she took are back in the vault at our village, but can let these ones out!” “What good will that do?” Double Diamond gestured toward the battlefield, yelling to be heard over the din. “Starlight only took three ponies’ cutie marks! One was that Aria lady, another was that kid, and the last one was that mare with the peach symbol on her flank! The first two are unconscious and I don’t think the third can help!” “But we can’t just do nothing!” protested Sugar Belle, before looking at the last member of their group. “Sonata, you still have some magic left, right? Maybe you can…Sonata?” But the mare in question didn’t answer her, staring at how the black wall that Lex had conjured up was struggling to maintain itself against Starlight’s relentless assault. “Lex…” she murmured softly, the word lost beneath the roar generated by the infuriated mare’s super-huge energy beam. Starlight Glimmer was her friend. Ever since she’d realized that – shortly after the mare had explained how she’d taken away her cutie mark, and with it her ability to sing, for her own good – Sonata had given Starlight the benefit of the doubt. Not being able to sing anymore had been a major drag, and if she was being totes honest Sonata didn’t really care if everypony else was jealous of how pretty her voice was, but she hadn’t made a big deal out of it since Starlight said it was important. Friends were supposed to support each other, right? It had been for Starlight’s sake that Sonata had kept quiet when Starlight had torn Aria’s cutie mark off. Sure, Aria had been crazy upset about it, but she’d come around once she realized that Starlight just wanted what was best for her. Friends were supposed to trust each other, right? Nor had Sonata said anything when Starlight had beaten up those nice kids, the ones who had saved her and Lex and Aria from that Silhouette jerk. That had made her feel totes bad, but Sonata had pushed that feeling down – barely – wanting to believe that Starlight really was doing that for their sake. After all, a lot of ponies had been upset with Lex when he’d first come here. Friends were supposed to believe in each other, right? Then Lex himself had shown up, and Sonata had suddenly found herself feeling all kinds of awful. When he’d called her name, it had been all she could do not to flinch. And while it had been gut-wrenching watching him and Starlight fight, Sonata had tried to tell herself that it wasn’t really a big deal. Starlight’s zappy-beams were even going right through him thanks to that freaky-flicker mode thingy he was doing, so he probably wasn’t hurt. And those explosions she’d caused weren’t even all that big. Besides, they were both super-smart ponies who had, like…ideas and stuff, so they’d probably calm down and talk it out. Friends were supposed to have faith in each other, right? That faith had been severely tested when Sonata had seen the paint running down Starlight’s flank, however. But as hurt as she’d felt, she hadn’t been able to become too upset about it, finding herself wanting to believe that Starlight hadn’t really meant to do anything wrong. Sure, she’d basically lied to them about everything, but no one was perfect. Friends were supposed to forgive each other, right? But now…now Starlight was trying to…she was actually attacking Lex for realsies- Starlight’s my friend. She was shooting all that magic at him, and Aria and Fencer too, and it looked dangerous…like, super dangerous- Starlight’s my friend… In fact, she’d said what she was trying to do. She’d said really loud that she was going to take his life. She- St-Starlight’s my f-friend… She’d aimed at Aria and Fencer on purpose! She’d wanted Lex to get in the way so that she’d be sure to hit him! She was trying to hit him! To kill him! Star-Starliiight’s my fr-…my f-f-fri-…Starlight’s mmmyyy friii-… SHE WAS TRYING TO KILL LEX! At that moment, something in Sonata’s mind gave way. “YOU’RE NOT MY FRIEND!!!”