//------------------------------// // 154 - Siren Strife // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// “Nosey, listen to me.” Sonata took a step forward, putting her directly in front of the teary-eyed unicorn. “This wasn’t your fault.” Nosey gave her a miserable look in reply. “Yes it was, Sonata. I-” “No!” Sonata’s voice was unusually firm as she shook her head. “You are not responsible for what happened to Block Party! He, like, did this to himself, which means that you can’t be blamed for it!” She looked back at her boyfriend. “Tell her, Lex!” She was sure that he’d have some super-smart way of explaining how it wasn’t Nosey’s fault that awful stallion had offed himself. But Lex didn’t say anything. In fact, he wasn’t paying attention at all, glancing back at the dead body with a thoughtful look on his face. Gritting her teeth, Sonata turned away from Nosey and marched over to Lex, reaching out to tap on his side with more force than she knew was necessary. “Lex!” That got his attention, and he looked back over at her, irritation crossing his features. “What is it?” “Tell Nosey this wasn’t her fault!” It was all Sonata could do to stop herself from adding “right now” to the end of her sentence, having reached the end of her rope. His worse-than-usual mood was one thing, but he’d been totes awful to Nosey this entire time, despite how upset she obviously was. He had better say something super nice to her right now, or so help me… But Lex was utterly oblivious to his girlfriend’s building wrath, instead heaving an annoyed sigh before looking at Nosey. “Strictly speaking, it’s difficult to say that your actions and Block Party’s death form any sort of causal chain. Although it’s possible that he committed suicide because of what you told him, the moral implications therein re-” “What is WRONG with you?!” screamed Sonata, causing both Lex and Nosey to start in surprise. “What…?” Lex stared at Sonata in confusion, trying to figure out what was going on. Sonata saw his bewilderment clearly, but rather than dampen her anger his lack of comprehension instead served only to fuel it. A lot of the time Lex’s cluelessness was funny, and sometimes it was even cute, but right now the idea that he could be so unaware of how awful he was being was upsetting beyond measure. “‘It’s possible that he committed suicide because of what she told him’?” she snarled. “That’s what you say to her?! Nosey’s crying because she thinks this is her fault and you say ‘it’s possible’?! Do you not care about her feelings at all?!” “What are y-, hold on!” Lex was still trying to figure out what had set Sonata off, turning over what she said and analyzing it as quickly as he could. Was she under the impression that he had been indicting Nosey? If so, then it should be relatively easy to clear up her misunderstanding. “I was attempting to explain that, even if he did kill himself because of what she said, the culpabil-” “SHUT UP!” roared Sonata. “Just…just shut up!” He’d actually said it again! It was enough that she had to put her face in her hooves, closing her eyes because she knew that if she had to keep looking at his perplexed face again she’d lose it completely. Mercifully, he was silent, and Sonata breathed heavily as she tried to get herself under control. She knew this was the wrong way to confront him, knew that getting in his face would only make him act more stubborn, but she couldn’t stop herself. After all of the pain and suffering she’d witnessed last night, seeing all of those poor ponies so miserable and hopeless, seeing that expression on her best friend’s face – her best friend who was going to be leaving soon! – was unbearable. Hearing Lex then trample all over her feelings was more than she could take. Unfortunately, Lex found his voice before she could calm herself down. “Sonata, listen to me-” “No, you listen to me!” she snapped. “Nosey is our friend, Lex! Don’t you get that?! She helped us out in Tall Tale, she trusted us enough to follow us here, and she pitched in when we were fighting for our lives! She’s always been there for us, and now when she needs our help you can’t-, you can’t even…” She couldn’t finish, choking on a sob as her anger suddenly turned into an awful, sickening sense of frustration and powerlessness, making her eyes fill with tears. For his part, Lex could only look at Sonata, having no idea what to do. He’d upset her before on numerous occasions – the most recent being less than a day ago when he’d cut Garden Gate’s dress off – but this was the first time he’d ever seen her this mad. Worse, he had no idea what her anger was predicated on. If he’d had some sort of clear understanding of her objection to what he’d been attempting to say, that would have given him a foundation to work from. But without that, he was operating completely blind. That realization was enough to fill him with a controlled panic. Sonata had always been the one pony for whom his social ineptitude hadn’t been a repellant. If that was no longer true… She’ll leave you again, came the voiceless words from his shadow. If you say anything else to make it worse, she’ll abandon you again. And this time she won’t come back. That thought was like someone had placed his heart in a vice. It was enough to make him stay silent, not daring to speak until he had figured out some way to turn the situation around without allowing for any possibility of driving her away. Shuddering as she managed to choke her emotions down, Sonata raised her face to look at Lex, hoping against hope that he’d heard what she’d been trying to tell him, that he’d try and make things right. But the look on his face was carefully neutral, as though he were trying not to let any of his feelings show. And although he met her gaze directly, not a word passed his lips. Several seconds went by before Sonata realized that he wasn’t going to speak, and the realization sent a numb feeling through her chest. Feeling drained, Sonata turned towards Nosey, who was still wearing a stunned expression. “C’mon.” Gently wrapping a hoof around the other mare, Sonata managed to coax her out of her seat and started to lead her towards the door. But she only went a few steps before stopping and half-turning back so that Lex was just barely within her peripheral vision. “I’m going to take Nosey back to everyone else so she can rest. Then we…” she paused for a long moment, swallowing before she spoke again. “We’ll talk later, okay?” For a moment Lex didn’t respond, but somehow managed to find it within himself to nod. That appeared to be the correct answer, since Sonata didn’t seem inclined to berate him again. Instead, she just made her way towards the doors, Nosey by her side. Lex let out a breath he hadn’t realized he'd been holding as he watched them go, silently reassuring himself that she was not leaving him. That had been the intent of her saying they’d talk later, right? Right. It had to be. But for all his anxiety, Lex couldn’t help but wonder – as he watched the two reached the front doors – how they planned on leaving, since Scrubby had locked them in when he’d left. His answer came a moment later as Sonata pounded a hoof on the door. “Cloudbank! It’s me! Let us out!” A few moments passed, and Sonata had just raised a hoof to knock again when the lock clicked – apparently Scrubby had thought to leave the keys behind before running for the doctors – the door opening a moment later, followed by Cloudbank poking her head in. “Hey, is everything alright?” Her eyes ran from Sonata to Nosey to Lex and back again. “I thought I heard yelling before…” “We’re fine,” answered Sonata quickly. “Can you let us out, please?” “Yeah…sure,” replied Cloudbank, her expression openly displaying her doubts about Sonata’s answer. But she moved off to the side, letting the two slowly pass her by. They had moved out of sight before Lex walked over to Cloudbank, the prospect of focusing on Vanhoover’s troubles managing to draw him, at least somewhat, out of how numb he felt about what had happened. “What’s the situation outside?” “That one unicorn was making kind of a ruckus,” admitted Cloudbank, surreptitiously trying to peer around Lex to see what the situation was with Block Party. “But he was smart enough not to try anything too dumb.” One corner of her mouth curled up as she met his eyes then, wanting to see his reaction to the more amusing part of the story. “Except for when he tried to grab Severance in his telekinesis. He got a bit of a haircut for his trouble, and ran off after that.” Lex frowned, less because of Severance and more because he’d wanted to have words with that stallion. If what Nosey had said was accurate, Block Party wasn’t the only one to have committed atrocities against the ponies in this camp. But as much as he wanted to track that pony down and interrogate him, it was going to have to wait. There were too many other, more pressing issues that needed to be dealt with, not the least of which was making sure that everypony here was fed. “Scrubby will be coming back here with doctors in short order to collect Block Party’s body,” he said as he moved past Cloudbank. “Stay here and guard the doors until they arrive.” “That’s fine,” replied Cloudbank immediately. At least now she’d be able to sneak a peek at what had happened to that awful stallion before the doctors arrived. And as an extra perk, the more work Lex gave her now, the more likely he’d forget about- “And once they have, wait one hour and then come find me. You’ll be making your sermon then.” “…right,” sighed Cloudbank petulantly. “Oh, I almost forgot! Aria’s looking for you.” Lex frowned at that, heading outside. Sure enough, Aria had dragged herself in front of the train station, the crowd of ponies having given her a wide berth, eyeing her with open nervousness. Aria barely seemed to notice, glaring at where Severance was hovering directly in front of her. As Lex exited the building, her eyes snapped over to him. “It’s about time!” she whispered harshly. Fighting back the urge to sigh, Lex telekinetically took hold of Severance and placed it on his back. He heard gasps from the crowd as he did so, probably due to how even that small act made his eyes glow, but suddenly he didn’t care. Let them spread whatever rumors they wanted; in a short while they’d be filling their bellies thanks to the magic the Night Mare had given him, and then they’d know who their benefactor was. Which reminded him… Ignoring Aria, Lex swept his gaze across the crowd, barely noticing how almost everypony flinched and refused to make eye contact with him. “As some of you may have heard, Block Party is dead,” he announced flatly. “I’ve launched an investigation into the circumstances of his demise, but so far the evidence points to him having taken his own life.” That should suffice to blunt the worst of the rumors. Hopefully. “Once the investigation is complete, I’ll issue another statement. Until then, no further questions regarding Block Party will be answered.” He paused for a long moment, waiting to see if anypony was going to say anything. When none of them did, he made a dismissive gesture. “Now all of you leave. Food will be distributed near the field hospital in one hour.” As he watched the crowd of ponies begin to trudge away, Lex couldn’t help but feel mildly pleased with himself. He had done just fine speaking to the people directly, the same way he had with sentencing Garden Gate. Maybe I don’t need a spokespony at all. The thought was tinged with spite. Thoughts of Sonata made him turn back to the other Siren in his retinue, looking over at Aria. “Now, what do you want?” “You know what I want,” she hissed. “My voice back!” She thumped her tail on the ground angrily. “You promised me you’d fix it, but so far it’s just been one delay after another, and I’m-” “One week,” interrupted Lex. Aria stopped immediately, giving Lex an evaluating look. “…one week, what?” “I need one week to prepare,” answered Lex. “And then I’ll restore your voice and change you into a pony.”