//------------------------------// // 26 - Fire and Acid // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// Sonata and Fireflower were silent as they exited city hall. The hour was getting late, and so the crowd around the building had thinned out somewhat, but there were still enough ponies cluttering around the entrance that the two had ultimately decided to leave the way they’d entered. Closing the fire escape door as best they could, the pair climbed down the ladder and exited the alley. Following Sonata as she headed onto the street, Fireflower bit his lip. Everything in the mare’s body language screamed dejection: her steps were slow and listless, her ears were folded back, and her eyes were glued to the ground. Although he hadn’t known her for very long, it was still unnerving to see someone usually so peppy being so down. “So, um, now what?” he ventured, hoping that the question would snap her out of her depression. She’d previously mentioned going to the hospital to interview the ponies that had been hurt in the last attack. With any luck his prompting would remind her of that; at least then he’d see some signs of life from her. His hopes were dashed a moment later when the only response he received was a noncommittal grunt. Becoming slightly worried now, Fireflower decided that he needed to be more proactive. “Look, let’s…let’s sit down for a minute.” He nudged her towards a nearby bench, receiving no resistance as he guided her towards it. Hopping onto it and lying on his belly, he was momentarily dumbstruck as Sonata seated herself by turning around and, keeping her hind legs on the ground, rearing up and leaning back. The result was that only her bottom was touching the bench, keeping her upper body upright. Having had a human alternate form before his unexpected trip to Equestria had replaced it with a pony one, Fireflower recognized that she was using human posture, as odd as that was. He briefly thought of commenting on it, but decided against it. She didn’t look like she was up for smalltalk. Instead, he got straight to the point. “Alright, look…the mayor wasn’t very helpful-” “That’s putting it mildly,” snorted Sonata, leaning forward and putting her elbows on her knees (were those even the right terms for a pony, Fireflower wondered) before resting her face on her hooves. “Come on, we got some useful information,” he insisted. Sonata glanced over at him, her expression dark. “We got, like, nothing. All she knew was that her city was suddenly being attacked by big spiders with magical powers, and then that same night she’s foalnapped by some ponies she’s never seen before, blindfolded, and taken to a cave where a big green dragon tells her that he’s heard about what’s happening, and will fly everybody out of the city to safety, but since most dragons are all scary and awful she needs to tell everybody that it’s a bunch of ships instead. Whoop-de-do.” Taken aback by her sudden torrent of negativity, Fireflower nevertheless tried to rally. “Well, from how she described the ponies in question, they sound like they might be Rockwood, Shadowvine, and Breezyleaf.” He was silent for a moment as he considered the lack of anyone who matched Brightrose’s description. Just the thought that he might have lost another sibling… Shaking off the onset of worry, he kept going. “There’s no way they’d work for that dragon willingly, so it’s obviously forcing them somehow.” “Uh-huh.” Sonata’s reply was still lacking vigor. “What else? Oh! She mentioned that the cave was all damp, right? So the dragon’s probably making a lair near water somewhere. So if, I don’t know, if we checked around where there’s water I might see something familiar…?” He trailed off in hope that she’d run with the idea, and for a moment she seemed to consider it, but then she shrugged helplessly. “Well, where’s there a whole lot of water around here?” “I don’t know. Isn’t there supposed to be a beach outside of town somewhere?” Sonata rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah, totes great idea. Let’s just go on a beachside stroll. We can ask if anypony has seen a cave with a big dragon in it. In fact, there’s probably a whole buncha signs up and down the place that say ‘Big Dragon Cave, next right’ on them. I can’t believe we didn’t think of that before!” For a moment, Fireflower gaped, surprised and stung by her sarcastic response. Before he could think to calm himself down, he found his patience breaking. “Well what’s your big idea then?” he snapped. “Chasing down the mayor was your plan, so now what?” “I don’t know!” she shouted, finally pushed out of her lethargy. “Coming up with plans was always what Lex did! But the mayor said he hasn’t been to see her and he wasn’t at her speech or anywhere else we’ve checked, so I don’t know what to do!” Her anger suddenly petered out, and she slumped in place, sniffling. “For all I know he already figured out where that dragon is and went to fight it by himself and…and he’s…” She couldn’t bring herself to say anymore, lowering her head and rubbing a foreleg across her eyes. Turning back to Fireflower, she forced a smile onto her face. “I’m sorry, I’m being a super downer. I’m glad you found out more about what’s going on with your siblings, for reals.” “No, I should be the one apologizing to you!” protested Fireflower. “I wasn’t thinking about how you felt, not having found out anything about your…you know.” He had intended to say “boyfriend,” but the word refused to pass his lips. He hurriedly continued, hoping that she hadn’t noticed his slip. “Besides, he’s caustic enough that I bet that the dragon’s acid breath would just wash right off of him.” Sonata snorted, this time in amusement. “Well, Lex can be a jerk sometimes, but I doubt that…that…wait, what did you say?” Fireflower bit his lip, thinking he was about to be rebuked. “Er, sorry. I mean, he does seem kind of severe, but I guess calling him ‘caustic’ was a bit too-” “No!” cut in Sonata, her voice suddenly thick with worry. “What was that about the dragon having acid breath?” Fireflower blinked, confused. “Well…yeah.” His tone made it clear that he thought that was obvious. “It’s a green dragon.” “But dragons breath fire!” she insisted. “I mean, Lex said that they breathe fire. Like, period. He didn’t say anything about that changing if they were green!” “Whoa, whoa, hang on.” Fireflower hopped off the bench, unable to remain sitting in the face of Sonata’s distress. “I don’t know how it works in this world, but on Everglow a dragon’s color determines what kind of breath weapon they have. Red dragons breathe fire sure, but green ones breathe acidic gas. For that matter, blue ones breathe lightning, black dragons breathe liquid acid, and white dragons breathe freezing cold.” Brightrose, the most worldly of his siblings, had told Fireflower all of that a few years ago, and it had stuck with him. “That means…” Also climbing to her hooves, Sonata was mumbling to herself as she wracked her brain, trying to think back to what Lex had told her a few days before. “Well, I hate to break it to you, but I’m beginning to have serious doubts that a dragon is the culprit here.” “Aw, how come?” Sonata fell back to all fours with a disappointed look. “You mean besides the fact that dragons breathe fire, and there are no scorch marks around here? Or that the metal tracks have been melted somehow?” Lex had been sure that dragons only breathed fire, Sonata knew, which was why he’d been suspicious about how the train tracks had been destroyed. But then they’d met Fireflower, and he’d confirmed that there was a dragon. “We found a cave, and we thought we would hide in it for a while until we figured out where we were and how to get back. We’d barely gotten inside when its owner came back.” “Its owner?” Sonata tilted her head. “Who’d own a cave?” Fireflower shuddered. “A dragon.” Closing her eyes, Sonata concentrated on following her train of thought. If Lex knew that a dragon was involved, and was certain that all dragons breathed fire, then would he realize that was wrong due to how the train tracks were melted? …no, she realized. He’d talked about what they’d do if they ran into a dragon, and that was after they’d seen the first set of ruined tracks. Lex rolled his eyes before continuing. “Since they breathe fire, I’ll cast a spell to resist damaging heat on both of us.” Sonata felt a chill run down her spine as she realized that matched what she knew of Lex. The melted train tracks would puzzle him, but wouldn’t be enough to overturn what he thought he knew, not when somepony as smart as him could doubtlessly, without any further evidence, come up with alternate explanations for why that was so. And that meant that when Lex faced down the dragon – and Sonata was absolutely certain that he would – he’d be completely vulnerable to its acid breath. “Sonata? Are you alright?” Fireflower put a hoof on her side, worried by how pale she was becoming. Her eyes snapped open. “We’ve got to find Lex!” “Well, yeah. That’s what we’ve been trying to do.” “No! I mean we really have to find him! He doesn’t know that the dragon breathes acid! He’s going to have the wrong magic protecting him when he fights it!” Fireflower’s eyes widened as he finally put two and two together. He’d always thought that the red-horned unicorn was mad for wanting to fight a dragon, but he had to admit that Lex’s magic was impressive. But that would make no difference if he went in with the wrong suite of defensive spells prepared. “He’ll be killed!” Fireflower didn’t like Sonata’s boyfriend very much, but having lost his little sister, he couldn’t imagine wishing that kind of grief on anyone. Even so, a small part of him couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to his relationship with Sonata if Lex was out of the picture. His attention was refocused on the mare beside him as Sonata, now clearly panicking, whirled and ran down the street, yelling Lex’s name over and over as though he were a lost puppy. Caught off-guard, Fireflower hurried after her, quickly catching up to her as she paused at an intersection. “Sonata! Wait!” He reared up, putting his forehooves on her shoulders to try and stop her before she bolted again. She immediately tried to shake him off. “No! We have to find him! Right now!” “Listen to me-” Wrenching herself from his grasp, Sonata took off again, succeeding only in drawing stares from passersby. “Lex! Lex, where are you?!” “Sonata! STOP!” This time Fireflower all but tackled her to the ground. “Lemme go! Let me go!” Sonata started struggling almost instantly, forcing Fireflower to hold on with everything he had to keep her from running off again. “Listen to me!” he pleaded with her. A crowd was beginning to form around them, drawn by the spectacle. “We can’t just run around calling his name at random! We need a plan!” “That’s easy for you to say!” she shrieked, thrashing her limbs as she started to become hysterical. “It won’t be your fault if something happens to him!” “Huh?!” Her statement was so unexpected that he almost lost his hold on her. “What are you saying?! It won’t be your fault either!” “Yes it will! YES IT WILL! If something happens and he’s hurt or killed then it’ll be ALL MY FAULT!” She screamed the last few words, and that seemed to take all of the strength out of her, sagging bonelessly in his grip. A moment later Fireflower felt her start to shake, and realized that she was crying, pressing her face into his chest. “It’s all my fault! I left him,” she sobbed. “I’m the one who left him and so he isn’t here to hear that he’s got it wrong! If I hadn’t done that he’d know what he needs to do! It’s all my fault!” Sympathetic murmurs came from the crowd of ponies around them. They didn’t know what she was talking about, but the sight of somepony so distraught was heartbreaking nonetheless. Feeling his heart pounding in his chest, Fireflower slowly pulled her closer and, taking a moment to try and calm himself, nuzzled her mane gently. “We’ll find him,” he whispered soothingly. “We’ll find him, and we’ll beat the dragon, and we’ll make everything alright again. I promise.” He meant every word of it. At that moment, it didn’t matter that she was pining for someone else. It didn’t matter that their enemy was a dragon. It didn’t matter that his family was in danger. All that mattered was making Sonata, the girl whom he now knew he’d fallen in love with, have a reason to smile again.