Lateral Movement

by Alzrius


39 - What Really Matters

With everypony else having gone back ahead of them, Lex and Sonata headed back to Tall Tale on their own.

The walk was a slow one, mostly because Lex was still hurt badly enough that he couldn’t move very quickly. Sonata had offered to run ahead and retrieve Fireflower’s brother, the one with the healing magic, but Lex had coldly told her not to.

Since then he hadn’t said a word to her. She’d tried to engage him in conversation several times, asking about the magic he’d used in that fight, telling him what her investigations in Tall Tale had revealed, or even just asking if he was hungry, but the only answers she’d received had been a stony silence. He wouldn’t even let her help him when he stumbled, holding out a hoof warningly when she’d approached him.

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. She ran ahead of him and turned around, placing herself directly in his path. “C’mon Lex! Talk to me!” she pleaded.

“Why don’t you just leave, if you don’t like how I’m acting?”

He regretted the words the instant they came out of his mouth. A hurt expression spread across Sonata’s face, and he felt his heart clench at the knowledge that he’d lashed out at her. But at the same time, there was a sick sense of satisfaction there as well. She had ripped his heart out, so why shouldn’t she be punished for it?

“I…I like, totes deserved that,” she admitted softly, her ears folding back. She had hoped that they could just pretend like nothing had ever happened between them, but that had always been more of a wish than a real expectation. And now that he’d said it, there was nothing to do but face the music.

She took a single step closer to Lex, looking directly into his eyes. “I’m so, so sorry for how I acted before, Lex. I feel terrible about it now.”

“You’re ‘sorry’?” His voice hadn’t warmed in the slightest. If anything it had gotten even colder. “You hurt me more than anypony ever has…I can’t even begin to…and you’re ‘sorry’?!” He could feel his emotions beginning to rage out of control, and tried to clamp down on them even harder. Again he felt the urge to punish her for all of the pain she’d caused him, to unleash the cruelest words he could think of until she was sobbing on the ground. But at the same time he quailed at the thought. He didn’t want to hurt her! She was the last pony he’d ever want to hurt!

The two desires, each overwhelming in their weight, collided with each other, leaving Lex staring at her as he worked his jaw wordlessly. He could feel himself shaking, desperately trying to figure out what he wanted.

Sonata, by contrast, felt only one emotion: guilt. She could feel the intensity radiating off of him, silently underscoring what he’d said about how badly she’d hurt him, and it tore at her. She had to explain herself! She had to make him understand! “I was scared! I’d never seen you like that before and it frightened me! And then when you wouldn’t say you were sorry it scared me even worse but I was wrong! I know you’re not the sort of pony who admits their mistakes,” she gave a thin, apologetic smile to show that she wasn’t trying to needle him, “and I was the one trying to change you into doing that and then left when I couldn’t and I was wrong. I’m so, so sorry, Lex.”

She moved closer to him, until she was close enough to wrap a foreleg around him in a gentle embrace. “Please…please forgive me.”

For a moment he wavered, the desire to hold her close and cherish her surging. But then voiceless, hateful words slithered across his mind. All she does is talk about herself. She doesn’t even want to hear about how much her thoughtlessness made you suffer.

The sentiment was petty and spiteful, but the fear that they contained – the implication that Sonata didn’t really care about him – went straight to the core of his worst impulses and stoked them. In that instant the sudden rush of warmth that he’d felt for her was drowned under a black tide of spite.

“You stupid, stupid mare!” he roared, shoving her away. Surprised, she stumbled and fell.

Lex continued raging. “‘Forgive you’?! Is that some kind of joke?! You think that I can just flip a switch and suddenly make it not hurt anymore when I remember what you did?! That I can just choose to forget how you abandoned me like that?! Well guess what? Saying you’re sorry doesn’t make it better! NOTHING makes it better! Everything we had, all of it, it’s ruined now! YOU ruined it! And you want to be ‘forgiven’?!”

She hadn’t bothered to stand, looking up at him with wide eyes, her expression horrified. Tears were running down her face, her heart clearly breaking with every word. But Lex didn’t stop. He tore his pack open, telekinetically yanking out a blank sheet of paper and a quill, quickly scribbling “Lex & Sonata” on it. He then held the paper in front of her as he growled. “You see this? This was our relationship. And this,” he crumpled it into a wad, “was what you did to it.”

She began to sob then, but Lex was pitiless. He tossed the balled paper at her hooves. “Even if you unfold the paper, it will never be the way it was. That’s what you’ve done.” He turned away from her and started walking. “There is no forgiveness.”

Sonata lay on the ground, shaking with anguish for the second time that day. This was everything she’d feared: she’d ruined things beyond repair, and now she was losing the one person who had ever loved her for her. She had completely destroyed…

Wait… “ever loved her”…

Sonata’s thoughts suddenly flashed back to what Kara had asked her in her dream a few days ago.

Kara’s eyes widened slightly. “You don’t love him anymore?”

Desperate hope suddenly flared in Sonata, and she scrambled to her feet. Looking at where Lex was walking away from her, she called out to him. “Do you not love me anymore?”

The question pierced through Lex as surely as the dragon’s talon had, and he froze in place.

“I-” For an instant he wanted to tell her that he didn’t, purely to keep spiting her. But for some reason the words refused to form on his tongue, and it was enough to make him pause in confusion. Why couldn’t he say it? He was still angry with her, and had said all of those other things, so why not this?

It took a moment for Lex’s thoughts to catch up with his emotions. But when they did, the answer was simple: He couldn’t tell her he didn’t love her anymore because it wasn’t true. He did still love her.

He still loved her.

Suddenly, all of his hurt and his anger were gone, and he realized just how horrible he’d been to the one who meant the most to him.

“I…I do.” Lex turned around slowly, and Sonata gasped with hope at the look of regret on his face. “I do still love you Sonata. I love you so much.”

“Lex…” she could barely speak, new tears filling her eyes as she took a tentative step towards him. He responded in kind, and suddenly they’d closed the gap between them and were hugging each other tightly, as though afraid that they’d lose each other again if they let go.

“I’m sorry.” Lex’s voice was strangled, and he could feel hot tears sliding down his cheeks, his composure breaking down. At that moment he couldn’t think about his code, or his pride, or anything except how close he’d just come to throwing away his beloved. “I’m so sorry, Sonata.”

The enormity of what he was saying wasn’t lost on her, and she could feel herself starting to shake. “It was my fault. It was all my fault,” she whimpered, holding him tighter.

“I didn’t mean what I said.” The words were pouring out of him now, distorted by sobs. “Our relationship isn’t ruined. I don’t want it to be ruined! I don’t ever want to be without you! I love you so much!”

“I love you too, Lex!” He could hear her weeping harder as well, and he wanted to tell her everything else that he was feeling. About how she was the only thing that made him happy. About how grateful he was that she was with him. All of it. But he couldn’t speak anymore, and neither could she, and so they just stood there, holding each other and crying together.

They stayed like that for a long time.


The sun had almost reached its zenith by the time the two of them stumbled into Tall Tale, Lex leaning on Sonata. As they began to walk down the streets, there were already signs that news of what had happened had spread. Colorful banners were hung between buildings and they could see some balloons tied haphazardly around lampposts.

“Wow, I think they really are going to throw a parade,” noted Sonata, looking around at the decorations before turning her attention to Lex. “Wanna head to the center of town? I bet that whatever they do will be at the square.”

Lex shook his head. “I’d rather go see the mayor. The first thing to do is check to see if she’s still under the dragon’s enchantment. Just because it’s dead doesn’t necessarily mean that the spells it cast have expired. After that we need to make preparations to get to Vanhoover.”

“Like, oh my gosh.” Sonata rolled her eyes in mock-exasperation. “Does your huge vocabulary not have the word ‘vacation’ in it? For reals, we beat the dragon, saved the ponies and the ar-, arana-, um…”

“I think the word you’re searching for is ‘araneas’,” noted Lex wryly.

“Right! Saved the ponies and the araneas, so I think that it’s time for us to put in some R & R! Besides, I’m, like, super hungry! I bet they’ll be making all sorts of tasty food as part of the celebration! Ooh! That reminds me: what’s your favorite snack treat?” Sonata looked up at her boyfriend, smiling with eagerness at the thought of learning more about him.

“Prunes.”

Straining to keep her smile in place, Sonata was saved from having to figure out how to reply to that by the sight of a familiar pony approaching. “Fireflower! Hey!” She waved, feeling Lex firm up his stance so that she didn’t need to support him.

“Where have you two been?” Fireflower approached slowly, a relieved look on his face. “We were just about to go back into the forest to look for you!”

Sonata glanced at Lex with a small smile, which to Fireflower’s shock Lex returned. He hadn’t known that Lex could smile! “We were, like, taking care of some personal business.”

“Oh…OH!” Fireflower, misunderstanding Sonata’s meaning, turned red, even as his chest clenched. He’d known that he didn’t have a chance with her, but that didn’t mean that something like that was easy to hear. Hurriedly, he tried to change the subject. “Yes, well, the mayor is going to make a public statement, but she’s made it known that she wants to speak to the two of you privately before she does.”

“Good,” Lex nodded, pleased with the news. “Then we should go speak with her immediately.”

“Wait a second,” Fireflower held out a hoof. “Before you do, I want to give you two this.” Untying what looked like a black ribbon from around his tail, he held it in one hoof. “I found this in the dragon’s cave, but to my mind it belongs to the two of you.”

“Huh? The dragon was keeping a black tablecl- WHOA!” Sonata’s eyes bulged and her jaw dropped as Fireflower spread the black cloth on the ground, letting it change into a large hole full of coins. Even Lex’s brow rose at the sight, causing Fireflower to grin.

Adjusting the circlet he always wore, Lex studied the magical emanations from the cloth-turned-hole. “It’s an extradimensional receptacle,” he murmured, clearly intrigued. The aura was subtly different from the one that his pack generated. But what captured his attention more were the pair of cylinders – clearly scroll cases – lying on the bed of coins. Still, caution was demanded, since a dragon that could use magic might have laid additional defenses on its treasures. “I’m going to check this over for-”

“WOO HOO!” Sonata cannonballed into the hole, landing on the pile of coins. “Look at me!” she yelled as she started making swimming motions. “I’m like that duck from that cartoon!” Neither stallion had any idea what she was talking about, but just watching her was enough to make Lex groan at her obliviousness, while Fireflower chuckled.

Turning to Lex as Sonata began to do the backstroke, Fireflower motioned as if to leave. “I’m going to let the others know that you two are okay. If you need to find us, we’re staying at Busy Bee’s Bed ‘n’ Breakfast.” He didn’t wait for an answer before turning to walk away, but stopped suddenly. Turning back around, he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Don’t tell Tender I said this, but she was right: her sister’s pancakes really are incredible.”

Lex snorted, and Fireflower took that as the best response he could hope for, leaving with a cordial wave. After he’d gone, Lex turned his attention back where his girlfriend was playing with their newfound fortune. “Sonata, that’s enough. We need to see what the mayor wants with us.”

“Aww.” Climbing out of the hole, Sonata looked around. “Hey, where did Fireflower go? He didn’t show us how to turn this thing back into a tablecloth.” She nudged the edge of it curiously, and made a slight grunt of surprise as she caught a seam. Lifting it, the hole suddenly turned back into a piece of cloth. “Nevermind! I figured it out!”

“Just make sure that, whatever you do, you never put that thing in my pack, and vice-versa,” warned Lex. “Layering extradimensional spaces on top of each other can put a severe strain on the dimensional fabric in the local area.”

“Huh?” Sonata blinked, before comprehension suddenly showed in her eyes. “Oh! This is like that thing when you didn’t want to take your backpack into your magic tree-fort! But didn’t you figure out how to make that work okay?”

One of Lex’s eyes twitched. “I want to examine that receptacle before I try something like that with it. And my rope trick spell is not a ‘tree-fort’.”

“It kind of is,” smiled Sonata. “Now do me a favor? Tie that around my mane.” She presented the back of her head to Lex expectantly.

Blinking at the odd request, he eventually decided that it would probably be fine, since Fireflower had worn it with no ill effects. Still, he couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he complied with her wishes. Wearing an extradimensional container as an accessory, really.

When he was finished, Sonata examined her appearance in a shop window, her mane now pulled into the same shape as her tail. Turning back and forth, she seemed satisfied, nodding smartly to herself before turning to Lex. “How do I look?”

“The same way you always do,” he replied. “Beautiful.”

“Hmm.” Sonata gave him a hooded gaze at that answer, a sultry smile crossing her face. “Next time I’m going to want more details, charmer.” She punctuated her warning by closing the distance between them, stealing a kiss. “Now let’s go see what the mayor wants.”

They made their way through town towards city hall, Lex gently leaning against Sonata again, more to feel her closeness than because he needed assistance. The two took their time, and finally arrived almost a half-hour later.

There was a crowd around the building, though Sonata noted that it wasn’t as large as the last time she’d visited the place. Getting closer, a unicorn mare at the edge of the crowd glanced back and noticed them, doing a double-take. “It’s him!” she yelled.

The crowd turned to look at them, and for a moment the pair tensed, but the sudden cheers that erupted belied their concern. Instead, the mass of ponies parted, clearing the way into city hall even as they stomped their hooves and whooped. Sonata beamed at the attention while Lex just blinked, clearly having no idea how to react.

As they walked through the throngs, they could hear voices calling out. While the overlapping cries were impossible to make out individually, the words “dragon,” “saved” and “hero” were all audible, and Sonata smiled at Lex in vindication.

As they reached the stairs at the base of the building, Sonata waited until they were halfway up, then stopped. When Lex turned to her to see what the holdup was, she leaned in close. “Wave,” she whispered.

“Huh?” His lack of understanding couldn’t have been more obvious, making her giggle.

He might have been able to make all sorts of genius plans, and use magic strong enough to bring down a dragon, but when it came to working a crowd she was the smart one! “Turn around and wave to them.”

He gave her a dubious look, but did as she requested…and a look of wonder spread across his face as the cheers swelled in response. Sonata leaned over and nuzzled him, his joy feeding her own. “You see?” she murmured. “I totes knew everyone would appreciate you if you just let them.”

Lex swallowed heavily, eyes still scanning the jubilant crowd. “I don’t know what to say,” he admitted.

Sonata smiled. “You don’t have to say anything. That’s my job, remember?” She winked at him, then turned to the crowd. “Let’s hear it for Lex Legis, dragonslayer!” she hollered.

The crowd went wild.


A few minutes later, they were inside the building, being ushered up to the top floor. As they approached the mayor’s office, raised voices could be heard from within, despite the closed doors.

“-might work with your sister, but I can’t bake cookies for the entire city, Lucy!”

“Then what about just saying you’re sorry? I’m sure that everypony will understand that it was a mistake!”

“A ‘mistake’ is too small a word! I can’t possibly-”

The voices quieted as Sonata knocked on the door. A moment later the mayor’s secretary, Lucy Goosey, opened it. “I’m sorry, but the mayor’s not- Oh! Miss Dusk!”

Sonata raised a hoof in greeting, but to her surprise Lucy took it in her own hooves, her face pleading. “Please, you’re a consultant, right? You have to tell the mayor that she can’t resign!”