Lex fidgeted impatiently as he waited for the last few stragglers to rejoin the group.
He’d anticipated that it would take only a few minutes to get everything together and leave after he’d punished F-, Garden Gate. After all, all that needed to be done was to retrieve Pillowcase’s body and Cozy, along with breaking down and packing the remaining materials in the medical area of the shelter. It should have been done in well under five minutes, especially with how everypony was rushing to do what he told them.
But somehow, the process had been delayed. For whatever reason, it was taking an extraordinarily long time for the ponies he’d sent back to the shelter to return, and Cozy and her husband’s body were nowhere in sight. For that matter, Sonata had all but vanished after he’d laid his last curse, and he hadn’t seen her since. By his estimation, that had been almost twenty minutes ago, and his irritation at the pointless holdup had begun to erode his good mood. Whatever’s going on, it’s costing us time we don’t have! he groused internally. If they were going to get to the edge of Vanhoover before dark, they needed to leave right now!
He paused as Severance made itself known, speculating that something might have happened. It was enough to make Lex frown, finding the possibility hard to take seriously. After all, there hadn’t been any indications of a struggle that he’d heard, and he’d sent enough ponies away that if something had gone wrong, at least a few of them should have been able to run back and alert him. But even so, after everything they’d gone through, he couldn’t completely dismiss the possibility…
After a few moments of ruminating he started walking back towards the shelter, having decided to check on things personally…only to almost collide with Sonata as she stepped out of an adjoining hallway. “There you are!” His voice came out more aggrieved than he’d intended, trying to cover up his relief that Severance’s guess had been incorrect. “Where have you been? We were supposed to have left by now!”
Sonata bit her lip for a moment, looking oddly reticent, though he couldn’t imagine why. “Lex, listen…we need to talk.”
“What we need is to make our way to this so-called blockade at the edge of Vanhoover before nightfall. Taking a group this large outside at night is too risky, and I’m not willing to suffer another delay in restoring order to this city.” He managed to keep his voice level, reminding himself that as much as he loved Sonata, she was nowhere near his intellectual level and so tended to need things explained to her over and over again.
“I get that. I do,” she insisted, “but this is important.”
Her words gave him pause, caught between wondering if she’d uncovered some other imminent danger or if she was being foolish again. After all, whatever she was talking about couldn’t be of any serious magnitude, otherwise she would have immediately brought whatever it was to his attention instead of leading with something as equivocating as “we need to talk.” But on the other hoof, they’d been through enough that he couldn’t immediately dismiss her judgment either.
But before he could make up his mind, he caught a glimpse of something out of his periphery, turning to see Cloudbank and Thermal Draft carrying a large white bundle across their backs. Beside him, he heard Sonata inhale sharply as she realized what they were transporting. The sight was enough to harden his resolve. If whatever Sonata was struggling with wasn’t something that required his immediate attention, then it was going to need to wait. “I want you to go back and let everypony know that we’re about to leave. I’ll be there once I’ve confirmed that the shelter is completely empty.”
“But-”
“Now, Sonata.” He started to walk towards the two mares approaching them, before pausing and calling back to her, “and retrieve Aria as well.”
She winced at that, but he barely noticed, instead turning and walking toward the two mares who were acting as de facto pallbearers. The two were moving slowly, both from the weight of their gruesome parcel and from trying to keep it balanced as they moved in tandem. Still, he was glad they’d had the foresight to wrap the body; although he didn’t think it was likely, he wasn’t completely certain that Pillowcase wouldn’t turn into a ghoul. If that happened, the ropes tied around his sheet-covered body would keep him contained long enough to be dealt with. “Where is everypony else?” demanded Lex without preamble as walked up to them.
Cloudbank nudged Drafty with a wing, and the two came to a careful halt, sighs escaping their lips as they managed to stop without unbalancing the body on their backs. “It took a little longer than expected to get everything ready.” Cloudbank didn’t bother to mention that she’d caused the delay when she’d insisted on getting a few minutes alone to patch things up with Drafty. There were some details that Lex didn’t need to know. “The others should be finishing up right now.” Next to her, Drafty nodded, still slightly subdued after seeing the number Lex had done on that criminal.
Lex nodded curtly. Moving to walk past the two, he didn’t bother looking at them as he spoke. “When you reach the others, I want you to find some earth ponies to transport Pillowcase’s body. They’ll have an easier time of it, and I have other tasks for you once we leave.”
“They won’t like that.” Drafty couldn’t help but speak up, certain that some random ponies that had never even met Pillow wouldn’t be pleased at the prospect of carrying his remains on their backs.
Lex paused then, glancing back over his shoulder at the two of them. “If they have a problem with doing what they’re told, make sure to tell them that I’ll have a problem with them.” He almost smiled as he said it, feeling slightly ridiculous at giving such an ominous-sounding statement after he’d just made a well-received demonstration that he was everypony’s champion, but managed to keep his humor contained as he turned back towards the shelter.
It took less than a minute to arrive there, and upon reaching it he was relieved to see ponies starting to exit the structure, each of them carrying something. Nodding to himself as they quickly marched towards the warehouse doors, Lex waited until the last of them were gone before heading inside the shelter to confirm that everything had been removed…only to find that it was still occupied.
Off to the side, Aisle and Cozy were embracing.
For a moment, Lex frowned at the sight. The two of them were standing perfectly still, eyes closed as Cozy buried her face in Aisle’s neck while he rested his chin on her head. What were they doing? No, I don’t care, he decided. “The two of you, go join everypony else,” he ordered, speaking louder than he knew was necessary.
The two of them jumped, visibly startled as their eyes snapped open, separating from each other. “L-Lex!” exclaimed Aisle, his eyes darting between him and Cozy. “Um, sorry, we just…we lost track of time.”
“And now you’re wasting it,” countered Lex, raising a hoof and pointing at the exit. “Hurry up.” He was already starting to regret having granted Aisle’s request for a few extra minutes with Cozy. While he felt confident that the crystal mare was in a state of grief, and so couldn’t be reasonably expected to be fully cognizant of the consequences of her actions, Aisle should have known better.
“Right,” answered Aisle, a little too quickly. He then went over to Cozy – whom Lex noticed had been looking at him with an unreadable expression this entire time – and whispered something in her ear. She glanced back at Aisle, and murmured something that Lex didn’t quite catch, before shooting him another odd look as she turned towards the door. Aisle followed behind her, giving Lex a smile that seemed oddly pained before the two of them exited the shelter.
Left alone, Lex sighed, knowing it shouldn’t have been this difficult to get everypony ready to leave. But at least now it was done, and they could leave this makeshift excuse for an operational center behind. And good riddance, he decided as he marched towards the door. It was time to stop reacting to the situation in Vanhoover, and start shaping it himself. Leaving this place behind was the next step towards that goal.
Five minutes later, the warehouse doors opened as everypony began pouring out.
The sun was just touching the horizon when a knock came. “Enter,” called Block Party tersely.
A moment later, the door to his office opened and Spit Polish nervously entered. “Sir?” he gulped. “There’s a…situation.”
Block Party didn’t move except to raise his eyes from the scroll on his desk to look at his assistant. Spit Polish’s bruises were only just now starting to fade, and his right eye was still swollen shut from the beating he’d received a few days ago. His split lip had only recently recovered enough that he could talk without lisping, and his foreleg had obviously healed enough for him to walk on it without grimacing. Or maybe he was just trying to hide his pain. Block Party didn’t really care either way.
What he did care about was that Spit Polish hadn’t so much as said anything about what had happened, let alone tried to do anything about it. He’d simply shown up when he was supposed to the next day, not saying a word about his injuries or the fact that he’d been beaten unconscious the previous night. But he was quite clearly thinking about it; the look of shame on his face had been such that Block Party had come perilously close to grinning, knowing that his assistant had to be feeling utterly miserable.
But that urge was gone now, in the light of the current news. “What sort of situation?” he asked evenly.
“There’s a group of ponies at the edge of the city…”
Block Party snorted, lowering his eyes back to his scroll. “You know what to do about that.”
“Y-yes sir, but we, um…we tried to drive them back into Vanhoover but…we can’t.” Spit Polish had to pause to swallow several times as he spoke. For a brief moment he wished he’d taken Peachy Keen up on her offer to fill in for him while he recovered from the last time he’d upset the commander, but he pushed that thought away. It’s just like the commander said. So long as I keep acting like part of the solution, he won’t have to punish me for being part of the problem. Peachy didn’t understand that, and her insisting that the commander was the one at fault had filled Spit Polish with an incredible sense of anger for reasons that he still didn’t understand. I need to talk to her later, he decided. I need to help her understand why things have to be this way. Although she was sweet, Peachy still didn’t seem to understand that keeping the undead plague contained was the absolute top priority, and that the commander couldn’t take any chances. If they made it harder for him to protect Equestria, then they deserved whatever they got.
“You can’t?” asked Block Party, bringing Spit Polish back to himself. “Or won’t?”
“Can’t, sir!” Despite himself, Spit Polish almost choked on the words, rushing to explain. “This group is several dozen ponies strong! And they all look-, it’s crazy, but they don’t look like they’re hungry or thirsty at all, even though there’s so many of them! And their leader…” He trailed off for a moment then, remembering the lead pony who was almost as intimidating as the commander was.
Block Party’s eyes narrowed. “What about their leader?”
“H-he’s some sort of wizard, sir. When we tried to throw things at their group, he…retaliated.” He let that hang there for a moment before continuing, mustering up his courage to say the next part. “He says he wants to speak to whomever’s in charge, so that…so that he can arrest them.”
For a moment, Block Party was silent. Then he gestured to the chair across from his desk. “Sit down.” Spit Polish tilted his head, but knew better than to question what he’d just been told, walking into the room and sitting in the indicated chair. A moment later Block Party slowly rolled up the scroll he’d been reading and tucked it away, before fixing his assistant with a level look. “Now, I want you to tell me, with as many details as you can, everything that’s happened.” Spit Polish nodded, dutifully relaying what had occurred. When he finished, Block Party simply leaned back in his chair, his face a mask of consideration. After what felt like an eternity, he slowly stood up. “Alright then. Let’s go.”
Spit Polish leapt to his hooves at the commander stood up. “Yes sir! Please tell me what to do and I’ll make sure your orders are carried out faithfully!”
“My orders?” echoed Block Party bemusedly.
“…Sir?”
Block Party chuckled softly as he stepped around Spit Polish, heading towards the door. “Why would I be giving anyone orders? I’m about to be placed under arrest.”