The status quo had reached a point that Lex could no longer tolerate.
The possibility that someone was spying on him had been difficult to bear, but it had still been just that: a possibility. Although someone had attempted to scry on him in the immediate aftermath of his scrying on Adagio Dazzle – an attempt that his specially-prepared countermeasure had defeated – the chance that further scrying attempts would follow had been high, but not absolute. As thin as that distinction had been, it had been one which Lex had remained keenly aware of, prioritizing the things that had to be done rather than dropping everything to focus on a problem that might not manifest.
Although Lex had presumed the unknown entity conversing with Adagio – the most likely suspect for who was scrying on him now – had used some sort of specialized spell to gather information on him via his attempt to magically spy on the missing Siren sister, enough to then scry on him in turn, that had been the worst-case scenario. Despite that unknown personage’s apparent specialization in magical surveillance, as evidenced by their ability to seamlessly screen their visual and audible presence from his own scrying sensor, Lex hadn’t been able to rule out less-disastrous hypotheses, giving him a sliver of hope that there would be no further attempts to observe him. If that hidden person had, for instance, some sort of spell that was theoretically designed to respond to a scrying with a targeted counter-scrying, following a detected sensor back to its source as an automatic process rather than somehow diving information about him – a countermeasure theoretically similar to his own, but more insidious than explosive – then there was nothing to worry about; his anti-scrying spell had overloaded his opponent’s magic as soon as it had manifested, destroying it before it could relay even the briefest glimpse of him, leaving them with no knowledge of his identity in order to make a subsequent attempt.
But that theory, which had been thin to begin with, was now conclusively disproven. The detection of a scrying sensor during the second day of their trip to Las Pegasus confirmed that the threat – and an unknown entity monitoring his activities remotely was a threat, regardless of any other salient factors – was real, which meant that it needed to be dealt with. Not after the equinox, when he’d regained his thaumaturgical spells, but now, before they reached Las Pegasus.
But that was easier said than done, however.
While Lex knew he wasn’t without options for how to ward off future scrying attempts, the problem was that none of them were good options.
The first possibility that he’d come up with was using his dark magic to curse a particular area to be occluded to scrying. Whether or not that was even possible was purely conjectural, but in theory it was similar to what he’d done during his duel with Twilight, essentially miring a given region of space in dark magic that was tailored to impede a particular type of movement, in this case the movement of sensory information via magical sensor. It was an ideal solution…and one that he had very little expectation would actually work, even if it could be done.
After all, Twilight herself had demonstrated the weakness of that particular application of dark magic, since she’d broken through the anti-teleportation curse he’d laid down, and using Equestrian magic – which was comparatively weaker than thought-based spellcasting – no less. True, she’d almost certainly augmented it with that same unknown power that Celestia and Luna had used to empower their own magic, and she’d put herself at grave risk in the process, but in the end her magic had overcome his. Someone with expertise in thaumaturgical scrying would likely have far less trouble overcoming a similar barrier.
And even if he went ahead and tried to put up curses to prevent remote observation via magic, there were still practical limitations to consider. His anti-teleportation curse had required him to physically overcharge his dark magic, a process that put his body under great strain, and it was likely that any similar measure against scrying would require just as much effort. Even then, he’d only been able to cover an area roughly forty feet in diameter. Covering the entire yacht would have taken days and left him exhausted…and would have been utterly pointless anyway, since whatever area he cursed would have been fixed in space, rather than following the movements of the airship. Cursing whatever hotel room they were staying in once they reached Las Pegasus would potentially be a more fruitful exercise, but only slightly, since they were supposed to be on a whirlwind tour of the city’s various entertainments that would leave little downtime anyway.
Taken individually, those limitations were comparatively moderate. Taken together, they made it clear that this was a problem that was beyond his dark magic to solve.
With that determination made, Lex had weighed another, much more extreme, option: replenishing his full complement of thaumaturgical spells immediately, rather than waiting for the equinox. His anti-scrying spell could be cast again then, as could the warding spell – which also prevented scrying – that he’d used to guard the warehouse during his initial foray into Vanhoover. While both were powerful enough that retaining them after casting would be exceedingly difficult, it wouldn’t be impossible. He just needed to prepare them again now.
That, however, would require him to be in proximity to the Tree of Harmony.
With Severance gone, that was the only object in Equestria that Lex knew of that emanated sufficient magical power for him to renew his strongest magic. While that didn’t require interacting with the Tree itself – something Lex had no desire to do, since the last time he had (attempting to force open the mysterious locked box it had manifested), it had retaliated with such force that it had blasted him off the face of Equestria completely, sending him on what had been his first trip to Everglow – since he could simply make use of the massive energies that radiated out from the Tree the same way heat radiated from a fire, there were still numerous problems with putting such a plan into effect.
The largest one being the matter of distance. The Tree of Harmony was located on the other side of the Everfree Forest from Ponyville, which was over a thousand miles distant from his current position. Nor was he in any position to undertake such a voyage.
He could have, of course. The yacht was his, and the ponies crewing it worked for him; if he told them to change course and make for the outskirts of Ponyville – though he knew it was unlikely that they were provisioned for such a voyage – they’d have no choice but to obey him. While their airship was nowhere near as fast as a train, they’d still be there in a matter of days.
But the costs of such a detour were simply too high for Lex to countenance. Even if he ignored the massive upset it would cause to everyone on board, there would be questions about what he was doing, questions that he wasn’t prepared to answer. Until he found a way to overcome his inability to easily renew his thaumaturgical spells, that limitation had to remain secret; dragging a ship full of ponies along with him as he made a desperate attempt to do exactly that wouldn’t help.
Slipping away and taking a train to Ponyville once they reached Las Pegasus would be only marginally less disastrous. Lex had no illusions about how conspicuous he was; even if most ponies hadn’t heard of his new royal status, his appearance was too outlandish to allow for any clandestine travel. A bright red horn that didn’t match his coat, eyes that glowed brightly whenever he used so much as simple telekinesis or lost control of his temper, and a shadow that never failed to make itself notable for how it fell the wrong way would make it easy to trace his movements if he suddenly disappeared for several days…which would, in turn, lead to questions that he didn't want to be asked.
And of course, taking the train to Ponyville ran the risk of alerting the princesses. Twilight Sparkle lived in that same village, which was located near the base of the mountain that Canterlot – Celestia and Luna’s home – resided on top of. As lax in their duties as Lex found them to be, he couldn’t imagine that they’d ignore news of someone who looked like him appearing right on their doorstep. Given that Twilight was already on the verge of discovering his greatest weakness, leaving her so many clues about what he was doing would be courting disaster, more so than he could justify.
Having concluded that neither train nor airship would serve, Lex had briefly considered a third mode of travel: teleportation.
Although he had little more than a half-dozen thaumaturgical spells left in his mental reservoir, one of them was his short-range teleportation spell. It could only transport him (and a few passengers, if he chose) around one thousand feet, but if he overcharged it via his body’s magical channels, in theory the spell could take him much further. Potentially to within a stone’s throw of the Tree of Harmony, where he could replenish his magic – including another short-range teleportation spell – and then return via the same method.
But that was an optimistic take on what could happen. Since he’d never fed additional power into that spell before, it could just as easily prove to be insufficient for transporting him the required distance, leaving him at some point between Las Pegasus and Ponyville. Or he could potentially overshoot his destination. Either way, the potential for winding up off-target was too large to overlook, leaving him with no easy way back and nothing to show for his efforts. It was simply too risky.
Having ruled that final method of transportation out, Lex had been forced to acknowledge that a surreptitious detour to the Tree of Harmony was beyond his capabilities.
Which narrowed his options for dealing with his unwanted watcher to exactly one.
A ritual.
By directly shaping ambient magical energy without internalizing it first, the results were potentially far more efficacious than a curse. Nor would he have to travel anywhere, putting his weakness at risk of discovery. On those virtues alone, it was the best choice available to him.
Of course, the risks with such an undertaking were familiar to him. Ritual castings took hours of exacting vocalizations and somatic gestures, and even the slightest of interruptions would cause the gathered energy to collapse, producing magical disasters of an unpredictable nature as it dissipated back into the surrounding environment. If that happened, Lex knew he’d suffer the brunt of the backlash, but everyone around him would also be at risk.
Not to mention that the actual method by which the ritual was enacted needed to be designed. While not as exact as his thaumaturgical spellcasting, rituals were still highly specific in attempting to produce an effect. That meant that he needed to define exactly how he wanted to deal with the scrying spells being directed at him and then come up with parameters to enact that exact sequence, along with other salient factors such as the duration of the effect, the range at which it would operate, etc. Such a thing was no small task; Lex had invented the ritual to summon Harrow Ordeal in a matter of hours and entirely in his head, but that was because it was simply a modification of the ritual he’d made to summon the Night Mare into his presence, something that had taken him weeks of painstaking testing and development back on Everglow.
Of course, that had been when he’d been heavily distracted by numerous other concerns, both practical (such as securing his safety in that harsh, alien world) and cerebral (studying the plethora of magic to be found there, as well as looking for a way back to Equestria). Given that he had far fewer distractions now, as well as a rough baseline to work from via the thaumaturgical spells he knew that dealt with scrying, comfortable surroundings with servants who would obey his every word, and a plethora of ponies who were eager to give him whatever he asked for – including materials for practical experimentation – things would proceed far more quickly.
More quickly than they had gone over the last few days, at any rate. Between the servile ponies that he needed to deal with, and Sonata and Aria growing progressively more dissatisfied with how tepid his indulgence for their recreational pastimes was – to say nothing of his continuing refusal to engage in licentiousness with them – opportunities for research had been far more limited than he’d liked. Interruptions seemed to lurk around every-
“My prince?” called Feather Duster from the doorway to his quarters. “Forgive me for disturbing you, but I was just told that Las Pegasus is coming into view.”
“And?” he snapped, resenting the disturbance.
Wincing a little, Feather continued. “I’ve heard that the city is very beautiful when seen from a distance at night.” She paused then, as though waiting for him to intuit whatever she was implying. When he simply stared at her, waiting for her to get to the point, she seemed to wilt a little. “I think that Lady Dusk and Lady Blaze would enjoy seeing it.”
“Then you should be informing them of its proximity rather than me,” rebuked Lex.
“…I think they’d enjoy seeing it together with you.”
“They'll need to live with their disappointment.” Lex pointedly turned away from her then, making it clear that the conversation was over.
Out of his periphery, he saw Feather fold her ears back. “Yes, Your Highness.”
She slunk away then, but Lex had already put her out of his thoughts before the door clicked shut. Dealing with whoever was spying on him was too important, especially with all of the other distractions that he couldn't afford to ignore. He'd explain to Sonata and Aria what was happening after he had dealt with it; he couldn't take the chance that a scrying sensor would manifest while he was telling them prior to then. The possibility that the person viewing him didn't know that he'd discovered what they were doing was a potential advantage that Lex wasn't willing to give up. If they realized that he was taking action to stymie them, there was a risk that they'd be goaded into taking action to prevent that from happening, and that wasn't something he wanted to encourage. Until then…
Just a little more time, he reassured himself as he went back to work, mentally outlining the ritual that would put an end to this latest complication in his life.
Then this won't be a problem anymore.
Seems like my theory got busted.
Lex is busy as usual but given the purpose of his arrival at Las Pegasus and his intentions to experiment with rituals...things will not be going easy for him despite his hosts' doing their utmost best to do so.
Looking forward to see how things proceed from here on out.
10745562 Looking back through the comments, I'm not sure you posted what your theory was?
10745596 This chapter was a bit heavy on the exposition, but despite how much flak that particular idea gets, it's necessary sometimes. I think of these as "process chapters," where we spend a lot of time inside a particular character's head not because it gives us greater insight into who they are (though that can happen also) but because we need to know that they've looked at the various choices arrayed in front of them, as well as why they've picked the one they have. That Lex had several different options for how to deal with his current situation is something that needed to be addressed, and since he can't talk to other people about most of them - such as his keeping his inability to recharge his strongest magic a secret - that means that his analysis is one that only the readers are privy to.
As for whether or not he'll be able to make a ritual that will solve his problem, and what it will do, that remains to be seen.
10744303
I mean, holy hell, she almost stole Sonata away from Lex through brainwashing, and yet Starlight has the gall to feel vindictive towards Lex? Sure he crushed her dreams, but she deserved far worse than that after stealing loved ones away from their families. For her to either think otherwise or hold resentment towards the one who stopped her is kind of...well, inexcusable.
If a ritual has to be designed to exactly deal with something, and therefore if any parameters of the thing being dealt with can be so very easily altered, the ritual can be worsethan useless, can Lex use a ritual to say summon or create a Sensor Familar? Some Magical or null magical item or beastiary entry that can interefere with sensoryinteractions, preferably greater with magical than normal? Like he has the Ioun Stones useable for fairly small passive continous area effects?
10745934
The theory that Lex's anti-scrying would prevent someone from seeing him in order to meet the basic pre-req to use scrying on him.
10745953 That's one of the major differences between Lex and other ponies, at least when it comes to the concept of justice: most of Equestria is near-totally focused on the idea that offenders should be rehabilitated, and that if they feel remorse for their actions, punishment isn't necessary; it's only those who are unrepentant that receive harsh sentences (and even then, those are mostly reserved for those who've proven themselves to be powerful enough to constitute a threat to society, with the sentence focusing heavily on keeping them contained).
Lex, on the other hand, believes that offenders should be punished for what they do, oftentimes quite harshly. While rehabilitation is still a goal, it's not the only goal; criminal actions warrant penalties all on their own, and in so doing serve to demonstrate to society at large that those who harm it will pay a price, regardless of how badly they feel about it.
Hence, for Twilight it's enough to try and redeem Starlight Glimmer, and would press for her to do no more than offer an apology to those she wronged. Lex, on the other hoof, would bring down a series of truly terrible curses on her whether she felt bad or not.
10746090 Here's a glimpse behind the curtain: Lex's anti-scrying spell is basically an arcane version (divination school) of the remote view trap power, one that's been customized as follows:
You may wonder about that first bullet point, since that actually makes the spell worse than the corresponding power is. The answer is that, when Lex actually invented this custom spell, he failed the Spellcraft roll to design it, and so the spell had that flaw in it. Unfortunately, it's not something he's had the liberty of going back and fixing; partially because of circumstance, and partially because correcting that flaw would raise the spell to 9th level, which makes the Spellcraft roll to create it very hard to meet, even for him (though the negative modifiers he accrues for things like lack of research materials, lack of assistants, lack of funds, etc. play a big part in that).
There's also the fact that at his current level, a 9th-level spell would be incredibly difficult for him to successfully cast. (The fact that he's able to cast the current at all is only because he's able to use the Compact metamagic theorem to get it down to a manageable level, which means that even casting it (something he normally does every seasonal cycle, thanks to its extended duration) puts a strain on him.)
10745976 In theory, ritual magic can be used to accomplish almost anything; it's simply a matter of designing a ritual correctly, and then casting it correctly. However, there's no guarantee on either of those; you can design a flawed ritual (in which case it doesn't matter how good your casting is, since something unexpected will happen) or you can have a ritual that's perfect in design but still miscast on your part. That's not really something that most forms of contemporary spellcasting have to deal with, since they have built-in safeguards that prevent a miscast spell from doing something random.
(A note for old-school players reading this: "wild magic" is basically a form of spellcasting that not only removes those safeguards, but trades them out for packing extra energy into the spell. That means that the result is potentially stronger than normal, but there's a much greater chance that the spell's structure will break apart under the strain, causing a chaotic "wild surge" to happen.)
As for what design Lex is working on now...that's uncertain, but he seems to think it'll be decisive in its application.
10746103
Yeah, I kinda see what you mean. I guess that someone doing something that wrongs me in particular becomes personal and would cause me to be far less forgiving than if it just happened to someone else. So if I were Lex and I heard Starlight talk ill of me, my first instinct would be to cause her such immense pain that she'd be too afraid of me to hate me. If that failed, then her existence would most likely be an affront to me.
Oh dear lord, I sincerely hope that this doesn't cost him anything involving his girls. There have been enough fights and drama between them as it is. Hopefully, Lex will explain and they'll come to a realization and be understanding. Also, is the Nightmare a physical deity, or is it intangible? Because if it's physical, then killing it by approaching it in a seemingly peaceful manner before suddenly pulling out a knife and stabbing it through its eye and into its brain for an instant kill seems like a very good idea, assuming that she doesn't see it coming, of course. If intangible, then...well, there's not much a mortal can do against something made up of cosmic energy or whatever.
10746303 Unfortunately, that the current situation is causing friction between Lex and the ladies who love him seems not only inevitable, but to have already started. While he has a reason for not talking to them, you have to wonder if his decision is doing more harm than good; I suspect that Sonata and Aria would be more understanding of the situation than he credits them for.
As for the Night Mare, one thing to keep in mind is that this entire story runs off of the d20 System rules (i.e. D&D 3.X and Pathfinder 1E). What that means is that sneak attack instant-kills are something that can only happen under very particular circumstances (i.e. the death attack feature of the assassin prestige class, which still has conditions that need to be fulfilled before it can be used, and even then still allows a saving throw). Other than that, you have to wear down the target's hit points (though there are other potential avenues to a kill, such as ability damage to Constitution, a called shot to the heart that results in a "debilitating blow," etc.). So you can't really bushwhack someone in the manner you describe.
As for whether or not the gods are physical beings or not...that's essentially a question of whether or not they can be fought, and the problem is that different versions of the d20 System have different answers to that. 3.X says that they have stat blocks that can be written out and battled, even if defeating them is a tall order. Pathfinder 1E says that the gods are beyond stats, and that while they can be fought or even killed, that's largely an issue of fiat on the part of the Game Master. So it's kind of a toss-up, and that's without getting into the issue of them simply sending avatars as opposed to their real selves.
So which is it for this story? Well...at this point it's unclear. The power difference is such that no one's put either theory to the test that we've seen.
10746338
Ah, okay. Hmm...if we were going by reality as opposed to game rules, though, an everyday schmuk could possibly bushwack a deity as long as they have physical bodies to off. Even if we go by the game rules, would it really be that surprising to find someone who is either insane enough or carefree enough to fight one of those deities? I mean, granted, this is Equuis instead of earth, but I, personally as a powerless human, would be eager to fight one of these deities, whether it be to the death or otherwise. I'd be having the time of my life...until I die, of course, in which case, either the afterlife or cease to exist. Either/or works for me. That said, there must be at least one creature between Everglow, (Equestria Girls) Earth, and Equuis who would be more than willing to try taking down an D&D deity, right?
10746373 The problem is that (at least insofar as we know) gods don't exist in reality, so we have no common basis by which to suggest that they're dependent on the same biological functions that mortals are to survive, even if they have a physical existence. It's that lack of common definition that makes gods in different media so wildly different in their degree of power. Even different editions of D&D have taken very different stances on this issue, and that's not getting into Pathfinder or various third-party products with different takes, such as the Immortal's Handbook (which is built to different standards, allowing for a much higher curve where measuring power is concerned).
Naturally, there are still numerous entities that would fight a deity, though I suspect many if not most of them would wait until they thought they could win; those with no chance of victory but attack anyway tend to kill themselves off pretty quickly, until all that's remaining are the ones who know not to make a suicide charge.
Of course, there's no guarantee that you'll actually reach the deity him- or herself. That's because deities aren't typically loners; they have expansive retinues of servants, both mortal and not. Even leaving aside their earthly worshipers (some of whom might be powerful in their own right) - who go to the god's divine realm when they die anyway - virtually all gods have armies of servants, all of whom have varying levels of power, ranging from subordinate demigods to planar denizens (e.g. angels, demons, etc.) who carry out their will, along with numerous other creatures; renegade fey, ancient dragons, elder elementals, etc. The same way it's really hard to sneak into a world leader's place and bump them off, it's an order of magnitude more difficult for gods.
Take, for example, the Norse fire giant god Surtur. This particular entry is built to the standards of the Immortal's Handbook (and so includes an aspect of pantheism, in that the "real" Surtur is the Para-Elemental Plane of Magma, bound to quiescence, while his avatar takes on the role of the deity most people know), but serves as a good example for what sorts of divine followers a god has in the d20 System. Surtur not only does he have a ridiculous amount of personal power, but he also has (as per the Servants entry on the last page):
That's a basic rundown, taking up only a half-page of text, and it doesn't account for the allies he has (mentioned earlier in his entry), any magic he uses to summon additional aid, etc. Plus, the Plane of Magma isn't exactly the easiest place to traverse if you feel like spoiling for a fight (and his castle is built to giant standards rather than human). So in other words, you'd need to get past a lot of other people with an interest in Surtur not dying (and since they're already invested in his power structure, they're not going to throw that away by turning traitor unless they think you have a very good chance of success; possibly not even then, depending on how loyal they are) before you can even take a shot at him. Then there's the defenses built into his realm, traps designed to catch/kill intruders, etc.
And then there's the fact that all gods tend to have some level of divine senses, which are hard to avoid/fool, and they and their servitors will typically have sensory magic as well, as well as normal senses that are sharpened to the point of bordering on the supernatural, and you can see why this would be a tough gig for any assassin. That's without even getting into how hard it is to actually injure them with an attack (most have high degrees of damage reduction, various elemental immunities, magic resistance, and a multiplicity of healing properties).
The Night Mare almost certainly has a setup comparable to Surtur (or rather, Surtur's avatar) I should note.
All of which is to say is that, in the d20 System, gods are essentially cosmic super-beings, even if they have physical bodies. It's not like waiting for Thor to head back to Avengers Tower and crash on the couch, at which point you pop out of hiding and stab him before he can react.
10746693
Ah, I see. So...let's assume that an ordinary civilian wanted to go and fight a deity like Surtur not to kill him, but just for the experience and thrill of fighting a deity, regardless of whether or not the deity kills him, and states as much to everyone/everything that gets in his path and even says he doesn't mind them spectating. Do they just laugh at the guy and say something along the lines of "fine, but it's your funeral" before letting him pass, or would they be more inclined to just sigh in annoyance before killing the guy with extreme prejudice?
10746739 Well, that depends somewhat on how persuasive they are (e.g. how good their Diplomacy skill is) and the alignment of the servitors in question (which in this case is Lawful Evil), so...they probably wouldn't be inclined to grant such a request.
10746748
Ah...well, there would go that idea. If they actually did exist, it'd be fun to fight one...for a nanosecond before he would use a thought to cause me to explode or something similar.