//------------------------------// // 121 - Into the Maze // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// Fencer didn’t look behind her as she rushed through the warehouse, Cozy’s glowing necklace clenched between her teeth. Although the trinket – it was quite clearly some minor magical doodad, the sort found in shops in any large town – she’d absconded lit her way, she ran blindly through the maze of crates, not slowing her pace. Just a little further, she told herself as she rounded another corner. Just a little further and I should be out of immediate danger. Just a few more twists and turns… The first concern was to get far enough away from Lex and Cozy that her light wouldn’t be immediately visible. The large stacks of crates would hide it fairly well, but she’d still need some distance between herself and them in order for it to obscure the light enough to be completely masked. Luckily, she felt fairly confident that Lex wouldn’t rush after her. He’s going to be more concerned about making sure that crystal nag is alright than with chasing me, she smirked to herself. That was why he was going to lose, because he was still acting like this was Equestria, where harmony was all. He didn’t know the hard lesson that Fencer had learned: that Vanhoover had stopped being Equestria after the flooding, and that harmony wasn’t here anymore. Finally coming to a stop, Fencer looked at her surroundings, seeing nothing but crates in every direction. Even so, swinging the necklace around made shadows twist and lurch wildly around her, and she couldn’t help but wonder if one of them was Lex, having defied her expectations and followed her through the obstacles that she’d been running around. But after several seconds of waiting, she let out a sigh of relief. Wiping a hoof across her brow, she realized she was sweating, and knew it had nothing to do with her mad dash through the warehouse. For a moment she felt a rush of jubilation, and had to clamp down on the urge to start laughing, knowing that sound would carry much more easily than light. I can still do it! she cheered silently. Even without my group, without my knives, without my HORN, I can still win! That knowledge was exhilarating; for all that Lex had taken from her, in his pompous self-righteousness, he hadn’t been able to break her…and now she had a chance to turn the tables on him! I’ll show you why I’m a survivor! Why NOPONY gets to talk down to me! Letting out a slow breath, Fencer took stock of her situation. She’d managed to get away from Lex and Cozy, but that was the bare minimum. Now she had to find that crystal stallion, Pillowcase, before they did…but that assumed that he was alive, let alone here. With the injuries he’d received, it wasn’t likely that he’d been in any condition to go somewhere else, but that just meant that he was very likely dead, since she couldn’t imagine those undead abominations not pouncing on a lone, injured pony. But if there was any chance that he had survived somehow, then she had to find him first. That was how she’d win it all. And if he wasn’t alive, or couldn’t be found, or Lex and Cozy found him first…then she’d just have to escape back out into Vanhoover and take her chances. That wouldn’t be too difficult to do – there were doors at each end of the warehouse, she knew, and they could only cover one – but it would be far from ideal. Without anypony else to watch her back, or a weapon, or even being able to use magic, she’d be hard-pressed to survive. But that was still better than letting Lex catch her; she didn’t know what he’d do to her after what she’d just done, but she had no doubt that he’d do something awful to her now that she’d attacked a member of his group. One way or the other, there was no going back anymore. Now, how to find an injured pony in this maze…? “We have to find Pillowcase before she does!” Cozy’s declaration was full of alarm, but to Lex’s relief she didn’t try to charge after the other mare, though that might have been because of the wrecked crates that had fallen in front of the path Fencer had taken. They weren’t an insurmountable obstacle, but the dangerous fragments of jagged wood combined with the myriad pencils creating treacherous hoofing resulted in a barrier that couldn’t be casually overcome. Still, that wasn’t the only path through the stacked crates, and Cozy was already headed towards another when Lex moved Severance to bar her way, causing her to yelp in alarm. “What are you doing?! We have to hurry!” “Do you not realize,” hissed Lex in a voice that was full of reproach, “that this only happened because you acted without thinking, despite my repeated warnings?” Cozy flinched. “But-” “No! If you had just listened to me, Fencer would never have been able to attack you, let alone get away from us! Now, we have to contend with her in addition to everything else!” He stalked closer to her, his eyes blazing green and purple, and Cozy recoiled. “You say you want to find your husband so badly, but now your presence here has done nothing but jeopardize that possibility!” “I…” Cozy looked down, and Lex heard her sob. “You’re right. I just…when I realized what Fencer did…” She sniffled, then raised a hoof to wipe her eyes. “I’ll keep my head on straight from now on. No more messing up, I promise.” “I believe you,” answered Lex flatly, “because you’re going to stay here while I go find Pillowcase and Fencer.” “Wh-, no!” yelled Cozy, an anguished look on her face. “You have to take me along!” “You’re a liability.” There wasn’t an ounce of sympathy in Lex’s voice as he turned away from her. “Not having to worry about you will make it easier for me to focus on finding your husband and apprehending that criminal.” He was already struggling to figure out just what sort of punishment would be appropriate for the sheer magnitude of the crimes that Fencer had committed. Balancing criminal penalties against the moral imperative not to engage in cruelty was tricky, but he was sure that he’d be able to find something. In the meantime, Lex glanced over at Severance. “Keep her here. If she tries to leave, stop her without causing her harm. If anything tries to harm her, incapacitate them if they’re a pony, otherwise kill them.” The scythe instantly moved to obey, floating over to begin circling Cozy in a tight orbit, tumbling end over end as it did so. Distraught, Cozy tried to dart forward, but as she did so the sharp point of Severance’s blade flashed forward, and she instinctively recoiled. Biting her lip, she looked at Lex, but he had already turned his back on her, heading towards another entrance to the crate maze. “Please, take me with you! I can help too!” “I disagree,” he replied curtly, not even bothering to look at her. Cozy could feel herself starting to panic. The very idea of the pony she loved most being somewhere nearby and not being able to go to him hurt so badly it was almost a physical pain. And the fact that he was injured as well was-, wait! That was it! “Healing magic!” she blurted. “I have healing magic, remember? If Pillow’s injured, he’ll need that!” That managed to get a reaction out of Lex, causing him to glance back over his shoulder at her, his expression unimpressed. “I have healing magic. When I find your husband I'll heal him as best I can and then bring him back here so that you can treat him.” “He might need more than you can provide before he can be moved!” insisted Cozy. “Yours doesn’t do very much, right? That’s why Sonata was yelling at you before about wanting to let me heal you!” She was babbling, desperation making her words pour out without thinking, but she kept going. “I can use a lot of it too, and it’s really strong! That’s why I healed everypony after we fought those sea creatures! And…and that way you won’t have to leave your magic weapon behind! And-” “Enough.” Lex’s order was followed by a sigh as he came to a stop, and Cozy’s heart leapt with hope. She almost cheered as he telekinetically grabbed his scythe a moment later and pulled it to him. Once he’d retrieved it, he turned to face her directly. “I want to make this as simple as I possibly can: you will do exactly what I say, and only what I say. Is that clear?” She nodded her head rapidly, which served only to make him narrow his eyes, quite clearly not trusting her ability to follow through with what she’d agreed to. “If you try to do something on your own again…if you think you hear Pillowcase or rush to confront Fencer or anything else, then I’ll put you in another force field and leave you there until I’ve finished searching this place on my own. Do you understand?” Cozy nodded, but that wasn’t enough for Lex, not after how she had been consistently ignoring his warnings. “Say it,” he pressed. “I understand,” came the immediate response. You had better, thought Lex, but he didn’t say it out loud. As it was, if she lost control of herself again he wouldn’t be able to make good on his threat, since he hadn’t prepared another force field spell. He could only hope that the prospect of being confined while he looked for her husband would be enough to keep her in line. “Alright. Conjure another light and let’s go.” Cozy’s ears flattened. “I can’t.” “…what?” “I can’t cast that spell without my necklace. Conjuring a light requires me to be touching Lashtada’s holy symbol, or it doesn’t work.” Lex wanted to unleash a torrent of abuse on Cozy about exactly how utterly useless she was, but they had already wasted enough time. “Can you still heal?” he asked through gritted teeth. “Yes. Those spells don’t need a holy symbol.” She didn’t mention that that was only true for the actual spells. Channeling healing energy in omnidirectional waves the way she had before did require her holy symbol, but there was no way she was letting him know that, not when she’d only barely managed to convince him to take her along already. “Of course they don’t,” Lex muttered bitterly under his breath. It made no sense to him that such a minor spell as conjuring a light – one that any unicorn, no matter what their special talent was, could perform with Equestria’s native magic – would require a material representation of a deity to cast, whereas healing magic, which was stronger and more complicated (to the point where Lex still didn’t know how neophytes like Cozy or Cloudbank could use it), needed none. But that was less important than the fact that he had no light spell of his own, not having prepared one with his own magic. Fortunately, he was saved as Severance spoke to him telepathically. A moment later its blade began to glow a strange bluish-violet, the fluorescence providing a dim light that made everything around it glow weirdly. Lex paused for a moment, then nodded. This would allow Cozy to see without being bright enough to easily give away their position. His own vision, enhanced by his horn’s dark magic, needed no such assistance. For her part, Cozy couldn’t contain a soft gasp of relief. She opened her mouth to thank Lex for making his scythe do that, before deciding that he’d want her to be quiet instead. Not giving his companion a second glance, Lex started towards the interior of the warehouse. “Let’s go.” With the last of the problems taken care of, and cognizant that their enemy had gotten a head start on them, Lex had no intention of wasting more time. If Pillowcase is in here, I’ll find him, he vowed to himself. And Fencer had better hope that I DON’T find her!