Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

407 - Reckoning in the Wreckage

The sound of Sonata and Aria’s frightened screams signaled to Lex that it was time to begin the second stage of his plan.

The first part was had been to bring the building down around the girls, trusting that whatever magic they’d used on themselves in preparation for this fight would keep them from being hurt too badly by any debris that happened to fall on them. That was the riskiest part of his strategy, he knew. Although he’d been in the station lobby often enough that he’d long since memorized the layout of the place, structural engineering – like medicine – was an area where he’d never bothered to educate himself. Thus it was impossible for him to predict exactly what parts of the building would fall where, leaving the possibility open that some of it would strike Sonata and Aria as they tried to escape. Even with the magical precautions they’d taken, the risk to their well-being was not minimal, much to Lex’s consternation.

Hence why, from his position a few inches beneath the floor of the lobby, Lex focused all of his attention on what he could hear happening above him. The splintering of the walls as his spikes of black crystal tore into them. The shattering of the windows as their frames bent and warped under the strain of the building shuddering. The ceiling groaning under its own weight as the support columns were struck down. None captured his attention the way the pair of fearful shrieks did, letting him know that Sonata and Aria had realized that the entire place was coming down around them; now they’d be more focused on escaping than fighting, giving him his window of opportunity.

Fighting down the ugly memory of how Xiriel had driven Nosey to scream for similarly utilitarian purposes, Lex sprang into action. There was no chance that Sonata and Aria would be able to make it out of the building in time. He could hear their hoofsteps heading in the direction of the door to the platform, which was exactly where he’d predicted they’d go. But they were stumbling, slowed by the combination of rubble that had already fallen, the debris that was continuing to rain down around them, and the shudders going through the floor as the building began to collapse in earnest. They would, he knew, never make it in time…which was what made him rise up out of the ground directly in front of them.

Both sisters stumbled to a halt, eyes widening at the billowing mass of darkness that suddenly appeared in their path, apparently cutting off their escape route as a familiar pair of green-and-purple eyes locked onto theirs. “L-Lex!” yelped Sonata fearfully.

Aria, having ignored what her tracking spell was telling her about Lex’s location in her rush to escape, was just as dismayed. “What are y-” A crack louder than thunder echoed through the lobby as the ceiling began to cave inward. “We give!” yelled Aria shrilly. “WE GIVE, OKAY?! YOU WIN!”

“A foregone conclusion,” noted Lex darkly, already calling upon his dark magic. “Now hold still if you want to come through this unscathed.”

He didn’t give them a chance to respond as more dark crystals rose up from the floor around them. But unlike the massive spikes he’d raised before, these were a series of thin, cylindrical bars, each of them an inch thick and spread out at matching intervals from each other. They grew around each of the girls in a square formation, lancing upward to a height of five feet before they ceased growing vertically, instead making a perpendicular shift and going over their heads, joining with the bars that had been growing from the other side of them and completing the process.

In less than a second, Sonata and Aria were sealed in cages made of black crystal. Neither of them seemed very grateful for his consideration, however, giving their enclosures horrified looks. Both of them opened their mouths, whether to say something or cast a spell Lex wasn’t certain, but neither had a chance to get anything out as another thunderous crack filled the air.

This time it was followed by a second, and then a third as the ground began to heave even more forcefully than before. Each mare flung themselves against the bars of their cage – Sonata because she lost her balance, Aria in what looked like a futile effort to escape – but neither could go anywhere as the ceiling finally gave way. A second later it was raining debris as the station finally succumbed to the damage that had been inflicted on it, the entire building falling in on itself with a mighty crash.

---

It seemed to take forever for the din to die down. After her ears finally stopped ringing, Sonata gingerly opened one eye. Near-total darkness greeted her, with only a few pinpricks of sunlight making their way through the huge mound of wreckage that was apparently covering her completely. Gulping, Sonata took a breath…or at least tried to, immediately coughing as she inhaled a lungful of dust that had been churned up by the station’s collapse.

“S-Sonata?” croaked Aria’s voice from a few feet away. “Are you alright?”

Needing a second to clear her throat, Sonata sat up gingerly. “I think so,” she wheezed. A moment later she realized exactly how true that was. Despite the fact that she’d been buried alive, she wasn’t in any pain; the dust in the air was more of a problem than anything else. And she could guess why that was. Reaching upward, her hoof touched the bars over her head. Sure enough, she immediately felt the rough edges of what had to be a ton of rubble, all held up by the roof of her enclosure. “Nothing got through the cage. What about you?”

“The same,” rasped Aria.

Slumping down in relief, Sonata couldn’t help but chuckle, somehow managing not to cough again as she did. “Lex saved us.”

“From a disaster that he created,” groused Aria exhaustedly.

“You both deserved it.” Lex’s voice caused Sonata to jump, and she heard Aria do the same. A moment later his green-and-purple eyes appeared, the only things visible in the darkness. “Be glad I didn’t simply leave you both to be buried after that stunt you pulled.”

“Like you’d ever let anything hurt us,” snorted Aria weakly.

“Gotta admit though, we totes didn’t see this coming,” confessed Sonata. “I mean, we were, like, super sure that you were gonna win, but we never guessed you’d drop a building on us.” She gave another soft laugh. “And we thought we were being so smart doing that inside, since it’d make you fight up close and personal.”

The green that made up Lex’s eyes narrowed. “You started that conflict despite thinking that you were going to lose?”

Aria let out a groan. “Real smooth, Sonata. Real sm-” Her rebuke was cut off as she started coughing, needing several seconds before she could clear her lungs. “Ugh, would it have killed you to put up a force field instead of these cages? I feel like I’ve got my face in somebody’s dustpan.”

“The dust is a precaution in case you tried to continue singing,” snapped Lex coldly. “And since I seriously doubt either of you have the intelligence to realize this, let me state outright that if you use your sonic attack spells in your current situation, there’s an excellent chance that you’ll end up destroying the cages that you’re in, burying you both alive.”

“No kidding,” muttered Aria sourly.

“Heh, we were gonna do this big thing with using our super-loud-voice spells on those crystals of yours,” grinned Sonata. “I mean, I don’t know if it would have worked, but we were, like, making strategies and tic tacs,” – Aria let out a long-suffering groan for some reason then – “and we guessed that we might be able to shatter those if we hit, like, the perfect pitch. It was gonna be really awesome! I was betting that you’d try and trap us in those things, and be all like, ‘Hahaha! No one can escape from my crystal prison!’ And we’d smile at each other, and then use our magic to hit the perfect note to blow them away, and you’d be all like ‘Nooo!’ And the background music would reach, like, a really big moment with the chorus going ‘DA-DA-DADADADA!’ And then we’d-”

“For the record,” sighed Aria. “All I said was that we might be able to shatter those crystals of yours if we used the right amount of magic in our voices. The rest of that is her being an idiot.”

“You’re both idiots!” hissed Lex. “Now tell me what you were up to! I know you were lying before! Why did you attack me, especially if you didn’t think you were going to win?!”

An awkward silence fell, neither mare saying anything. Finally Sonata spoke up. “Um, how about we tell you that after you punish us for all this?”

“That’s probably for the best,” added Aria. “You should probably decide what you’re going to do to us for daring to rebel against you before anything else, don’t you think?”

“No,” answered Lex without missing a beat. “The guilty party’s allocution allows for their circumstances to be taken as a salient factor when deciding their sentence, better ensuring that the punishment – subject to the principles of justice – fits the crime. Now, explain yourselves!”

Another silence fell, and this time it remained unbroken.

“So be it then,” announced Lex, his voice thick with anger. “In that case, you can both stay here and consider just how foolish your reticence is. I’ll be back to see if you’ve reconsidered after I’ve finished the Night Mare’s ceremony.”

“NO!” Sonata couldn’t keep the panic out of her voice. “Wait wait wait!”

Fortunately, Lex didn’t ignore her, the glowing eyes turning in her direction. “Why should I?”

“Because…” For a second Sonata struggled to come up with a reason, before the obvious one came to her. “Because you’re going to need your spokespony there!”

Lex regarded her for a long moment. “You can’t possibly be serious.”

Sonata gave an indignant huff. “Um, yeah! I mean, you’re going to be talking to all the ponies in the camp, right? You totes need me there to help you out with that. Oh, and I guess Aria too, because…yeah. So you should totes punish us now so we can go out there and make sure your thingamajig is a big success!”

“And you actually think I’m going to trust you two to do anything after what just happened?” The anger in Lex’s voice was diminishing now, replaced with incredulity.

“No.” The smirk in Aria’s voice was audible. “But that doesn’t mean you don’t need our help. So maybe you could do something about both of those problems at once? Some way to punish us for what we did here while also making sure that we can keep making ourselves useful to you?”

Sonata rolled her eyes. “Oh now who’s laying it on too thick?”

“You moron!” growled Aria. “Don’t say that!”

“Oh come on!” protested Sonata. “You totes just gave the whole thing away!”

“No, I didn’t! If anyone’s giving it away it’s you, right now!”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Yuh-huh!”

“Nuh-uh!”

“Yuh-huh!”

“Nuh-”

“BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!” roared Lex.

The yell made Sonata wince, and she could almost feel Aria doing the same. “Any louder and you’d break those crystals yourself,” she heard her sister mutter.

Fortunately, Lex apparently missed the remark. Instead, he was glaring at both of them, his eyes shining so brightly that they were almost solid green. “In the last twenty-four hours, I have had my authority challenged by everyone around me! First Severance, then the princesses, and then that monster that called itself Harrowing Ordeal! And in every instance I’ve been forced to suspend my duty to the ponies here in order to answer these confrontations! And now you two…you brainless imbeciles…orchestrated yet another problem for me to deal with…all because you want me to enslave you?!”

“There, see!” Sonata grinned, looking in Aria’s direction. “Told you you’d given it away!”

Author's Note:

Lex brings Sonata and Aria to heel as the reasons for their actions are made known to him at last!

Will he give them what they want, or is their plan doomed to failure?

Comments

[David Silver]

Congratulations, you get to be in a Harem anime!

[Not so New Brony]

Well, he imprisoned them alright but the fact that he made the crystal into a uniform shape was pretty cool though if he could make weapons and armor for the fight against the Kraken and its minions, a crystal cage should be possible.

Shame it's temporary, otherwise Lex could create housing for himself and the hirls given that he just brought down the place they've been sleeping in. Poor Feather Duster is going to have a fit and a fright at the wreckage.

Back to the matter at hand, I highly doubt Lex would agree to the girls proposition now given how much trouble they just put him through. As for the matter of needing a spokespony, at least he knows Nosey didn't take part in the girls plan...even if she could have warned him...

Nosey's in trouble too, isn't she?

[harts fire]

really Lex just how thick are you.

[Booster Spice]

Punishment fit for the crime.

Head out and ignore them until things are solved or the world ends.

You can usually last three days without water. Plenty of time, given how hard Lex has been hammered without assisted healing so far.

[Alzrius]

9898564 Well, in order to be a harem it needs to have at least three girls (otherwise it's a love triangle). Which makes it rather awkward to consider how Nosey didn't want to go along with this...

[Alzrius]

9898927 Lex's capacity for shaping the black crystals is extremely high. He simply doesn't bother with it most of the time, because there's no need to create something specific when a jagged mass of razor-sharp crystal will get the job done. In this case, he needed something a little more particular. It's unfortunate, as you noted, that he can't stabilize them for longer than an hour, otherwise he'd have quite the impressive meta-creative power, given how much he's capable of generating. That's one area where the original King Sombra still seems to surpass him.

As for what Lex will do now that he's figured out the girls' plan...that remains unknown. On the one hoof, I suspect he'll reflexively want to deny them simply because he's ticked that they challenged him, even if they were playing to lose. On the other hoof, it's an idea that would let him stay with them...and maybe not violate his personal ethos? It's hard to say, and he has to make a decision rather quickly...

As for Nosey, well...she didn't seem to want to be part of this. Is it because she had no magic of her own, or because of something else?

[Alzrius]

9899279 This is the area where he's least capable. Anypony else would realize "oh, they did this for love, since they don't want our relationship to end." Lex, by contrast, seems to be looking at this in every manner except that.

[Alzrius]

9899303 Well, those cages won't last that long, and I don't see Lex leaving them there to be buried under the rubble in the meantime.

[howard035]

Lex has an incredibly bad Sense Motive, yet those two managed to limbo under it anyway. Doh!

Kind of disappointed Lex, you have so many bonus skill points from your Int, not even 1 point in Knowledge (Engineering) or Heal?

[Alzrius]

9899726 There's a certain point where things become obvious enough that you don't need to make a Sense Motive check for them (which is good, since Lex's bonus in that skill is +0).

As for Lex not having ranks in Heal or Knowledge (engineering) - good catch on picking up on that, I should note - well, bear in mind that his skills are split pretty evenly between ones that he wants maxed out (and that's with him keeping four of them auto-maxed out) and those he wants to spread around so he can make checks in them. But since he has access to some Occult Skills as well (no relation to anything from Occult Adventures; these are an Eclipse thing) and odd skills like Craft (precepts), that means that he's spread pretty thin, all things considered.

Of course, there's a slight problem, in that his build over on my other blog isn't really representative of Lex as we see him now, a consequence of my writing that long before this story got to where it is. Hence, things like his Craft (precepts) skill hasn't really gotten its due, along with skills such as Governance, Foresight, or his spellcasting martial art. And of course he's gained two levels since then, and yet the updates for those haven't really allocated where his skill points went. All of which reminds me that I really should do a revised write-up for Lex as he stands now...

I should also note that not having him have access to all skills is part of my general plan to stop him, as a character, from veering into "knows everything and can do everything" territory. Those kinds of characters bore me; powers and abilities and similar things need to be earned, rather than assumed. So I tend to play up Lex's weaknesses quite a bit. The problem, of course, is that I run the risk of going too far; it's entirely possible to cripple a character too much to the point where it downplays their strengths, and that's not fun either. Since I'm the author, it's always hard for me to judge what's where, so I rely on reader feedback to tell me if I'm making Lex too overpowered or if I'm not giving him rewards sufficient for the challenges he's faced.

If anyone has an opinion on that, I'd be quite glad to hear it.

[howard035]

9899910 It's a tough call. I can say that when I play an INT-maxed character with skill points to spare, by say 10th level I always put a point into every class skill just in case. In character I would explain that as such a smart character that loves reading and knowledge has probably read a book or two on almost every subject that could conceivably be useful.

In Lex's case, it kind of makes sense that he hasn't branched out that much, because when was the last time he could visit a library? On the other hand he's certainly learning new things and even concepts through actually putting his theories of leadership into practice.