//------------------------------// // 200 - From the Mouths of Foals // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// The trip back to camp seemed to take forever. Lex had forced himself to pay close attention to their surroundings on the trip out of the city, ready to annihilate any ghouls that were foolish enough to show themselves. Part of him had hoped that the undead things would try and ambush them; the prospect of killing more of them was a soothing one…or at least, it should have been. But in his emotional exhaustion, he hadn’t been able to bring himself to relish the thought overly much. Even if he slaughtered ghouls by the hundreds, it wouldn’t change what had happened. Once they had reached the edge of the city, however, Lex had let his attention wander. With none of the undead monsters having shown themselves, and Aria’s detection spell finding no hint of Severance – dashing the last of Lex’s hopes for finding concrete answers about what had happened – he immediately turned his thoughts to what needed to happen next. While the immediately priority was still to acquire sufficient food for the survivors, there were numerous other questions that needed to be reconsidered in light of what had happened. Those thoughts had dominated his awareness as he and Aria had slowly trudged back to camp. Now, with the medical tent that had become the camp’s main feature only a stone’s throw away, there was no more time to consider his next move. Resisting the urge to sigh, Lex looked around for Sona- Aria slid in front of him, giving him a glower. “Don’t think that what happened back there changes anything,” she whispered warningly. “Yeah, they died. It’s sad. But I’m still here, which means that you have six days left to keep your promise to me.” Lex met her glare with one of his own, his jaw tightening. “Do not remind me of my promises,” he hissed through clenched teeth. But his anger was more reflexive than anything else. Although it was irking that Aria, who had fought against her own kind on behalf of those sahuagin monsters, would dare to impugn his integrity, in the wake of the others’ deaths it was too small a thing to bother with. “I said I would restore your voice and change you into a pony, and I will.” “You better,” snorted Aria, before turning and dragging herself away without another word. Lex didn’t bother to watch her leave, instead resuming his quick scan of the camp for Sonata. But doing so revealed only that she wasn’t among the ponies closest to him, causing him to frown as a flicker of anxiety ran down his spine. Something had killed Cloudbank and the others – and, in all likelihood, was also the reason for Severance’s disappearance – before the ghouls had ever gotten to them. Although he hadn’t been able to fully appreciate that at the time, the salience of that particular revelation became more prominent in his mind as he looked at the nearby ponies and didn’t see his beloved. Could whatever had dispatched the others have somehow snuck into the camp while he was gone and done the same to Sonata? That’s ridiculous, he silently assured himself. There’s absolutely no evidence to suggest such a scenario. Just because Sonata wasn’t at the edge of the camp waiting for him was no reason to think that she was missing or hurt. In all likelihood, she was milling about somewhere, or maybe lounging inside the field hospital or the train statio- “Lex!” Looking over at the familiar voice, Lex frowned as he saw Garden Gate trotting up to him. Several of her followers – Lex couldn’t bring himself to imagine that she had actual friends – were trailing behind her, hanging back far enough to keep from activating the curse he’d laid on her. Even so, she passed within range of a few other ponies as she approached him, causing her to wobble before she managed to move past them and head directly toward him, not stopping until she was standing a short distance from him. Her eyes looked him over before slowly examining the empty space around him, and even Lex – who had no talent at reading people – knew what she was going to ask before she opened her mouth. “Where’s Turbo? No one’s seen him since he left yesterd-” “He’s dead,” responded Lex bluntly. This had been one of the issues he’d grappled with on the trip back: whether or not to tell everypony what had happened. But it hadn’t taken very long to realize that he had no choice in the matter; those five ponies would be missed, and the public would come looking to him for answers. Denying them that would accomplish nothing except to stir up unrest. More than that, however, was the moral responsibility he had to the ponies they’d left behind. Their friends and families deserve to know what happened. “He and the other ponies that went into Vanhoover were all killed.” For a moment Garden simply blinked at him, uncomprehending. The ponies behind her, overhearing the conversation, froze in place, shocked expressions on their faces. Garden recovered first. “Wh-what? That’s…” She smiled then, disbelief causing the corners of her lips to turn upward. “Come on. That’s ridiculous. We all got out. Turbo would never-, we all got out! Don’t you understand?” Her smile faded away as she took in Lex’s stony expression. “Turbo wouldn’t go back there and then just…he has something to come back to, now! We all do!” Her voice was growing louder now, but Lex had no interest in standing around and letting her throw her grief at him. Instead, he started walking, directing himself to move right past her. “My condolences on your loss,” he said flatly, fulfilling what he knew to be the necessarily social ritual regarding bereavement. “W-wait!” called Garden, moving and putting a hoof on his side. “What happ-” With a wordless snarl, Lex knocked her hoof away – something that was easily done since he was inside the radius of her curse – and continued forward. That was enough to snap Garden’s companions out of their stupor, and several of them rushed around him to go to her side, while others began peppering Lex with questions. The commotion was enough that several nearby ponies stopped to look at them, curious as to what was happening, and Lex knew that the news he’d just shared would soon spread like wildfire throughout the camp. But at the moment he couldn’t bring himself to care, ignoring Garden’s companions as he made his way to the medical tent. Thrusting the main flaps aside, he strode in. “Where is Sonata?” The doctor in the entrance area – Lex belatedly realized that he was one of the ponies that had shown him Block Party’s body yesterday – looked up blankly. “Huh?” Lex’s eyes narrowed. “You heard me.” Just the threat of his wrath was enough to rock the doctor back on his hooves. “I-, I don’t know. I’ve been here a little while and I haven’t-” Lex didn’t bother to listen to any further, turning and leaving abruptly. Sonata wasn’t here, and if she hadn’t been for some time then there was little chance she was in one of the outpatient tents either. That meant she was either out mingling with everyone else, or she’d shut herself up in the train station. Since that building and the medical tent were on opposite sides of the camp, all he had to do was make his way over there and he’d find her at some point. Preferably sooner rather than later. Although his rationale for why she was almost certainly fine was logically sound, he still wanted to confirm- “Excuse me!” called a new voice, this one male. “Sir! Um, Mister Lex Legis, sir!” This time the flash of irritation that went through Lex was more substantial, momentarily eclipsing his gloom as he saw a grass-green pegasus stallion trot up to him nervously. “This had better be important,” he growled. Flinching, the stallion bit his lip before rallying, forcing a smile onto his face. “Hi, um…my name’s Disc Jockey.” He turned in profile, giving a bashful smile as he pointed to his cutie mark: that was a silhouette of a pony reaching out toward a perfectly round object, speed lines behind it indicating that it was flying toward the silhouette’s outstretched hoof. “Everypony who hears that thinks I’m a musician, but my special talent is playing Frisbee.” Upon noticing that Lex’s expression hadn’t changed, his grin waned. “Uh…I asked whatshername, the fish-pony lady, to apologize for how I acted back when y-” “Get to the point.” His ears folding back at the curt response, Disc Jockey swallowed nervously, his smile completely gone now. “R-right. Um, I just wanted to ask…i-is there going to be more food soon? Everything from yesterday is gone, and even though my mom says she’s not hungry, I can hear her belly growling, so I just, you know…wanted to ask?” Lex let out a slow breath, reminding himself that the question wasn’t illegitimate. “I’m currently in the process of procuring more provisions for everypony. You’ll have more to eat very soon.” Disc Jockey let out a relieved breath. “That’s great! Really, great! Thank you so much!” Lex gave a curt nod and turned away, not trusting himself to keep from screaming at the irritating stallion if he had to listen to his stammering for another moment. This time he all but galloped toward the train station, walking so fast that his legs started to ache after several minutes, and he slowed down only when he barely managed to avoid tripping and falling on his face. Whether due to the tense look on his face or simple chance, no one else approached Lex as he made his way through the camp, and in no time at all the train station loomed ahead of him. Despite his moderated pace, Lex sped up just a little. Just one glance, to make sure she was alright, then he’d grab somepony and figure out where the nearest farm was. He’d rush there and use the bits that the others had died to acquire, still tucked away in the extradimensional hole, and buy enough food to- “L-Lex Legis...” called a small, plaintive voice. “Can you help us, please?” For a split-second he was tempted to just keep walking, but that would have been immoral. A plea for aid didn’t necessarily have to be granted, but it at least needed to be acknowledged and reviewed. Even so, Lex grit his teeth as he turned to look at the voice’s owner, an earth pony filly who was tentatively creeping up behind him, a sleeping toddler cradled in her hooves. Fiddlesticks and Tiddlywinks, he remembered, recognizing the pair from when they’d first entered the camp. “What is it?” he asked, barely able to stop himself from snarling the question. Children deserved more leeway than adults, after all; they couldn’t help but be stupid and annoying. He apparently didn’t completely succeed in modulating his tone, because Fiddlesticks flinched. “Um…I’m sorry to bother you, but Sonata said that you were a superhero, and I wasn’t sure who else to ask…” She paused then, and Lex felt his nerves fraying as she looked at the ground, idly rocking her brother as she apparently lost her nerve. It was only when Lex gestured at her to hurry up that she gulped and lifted her gaze. “O-our campfire has run out of stuff to burn, and, um, a lot of others have too, and it’s going to be night soon.” She looked down again then, her voice dropping. “If it gets too dark then it’s really scary…” She looked up, her cheeks red. “I mean, not for me, but Tiddlywinks is still just a baby so he gets scared really easily.” To anypony else, the display would have been adorable, but it was all Lex could do to keep from screaming at her. I shouldn’t have to deal with this nonsense! That he was being interrupted to fix a child’s fear of the dark when things were falling apart so badly was galling beyond measure. At the very least this stupid brat should have bothered someone else about this before making her foolishness into his problem! Especially when it was so easily solved! Only barely managing to control himself, Lex swept a hoof back toward the rest of the camp. “Just go find some unicorns to help you,” he hissed. “So long as they keep using their horns then they’ll create a luminescent aura.” An idea occurred to him then: there was a unicorn in camp who could make herself useful. “In fact, go find a unicorn named Nosey Newsy. She has a black coat and a blonde mane and tail. Tell her that I said…that I…” Lex trailed off then, his eyes widening as his jaw hung slack. Ever since Lex had interviewed Nosey about Block Party’s death, something had bothered him. Too many crises had broken out for him to pay it much attention, but the sensation that he’d overlooked something had been recurring, a persistent feeling that he’d witnessed something important but had somehow failed to properly contextualize it. But it was only now that he realized that it hadn’t been what he’d seen; it had been what he hadn’t seen. Fiddlesticks blinked, not sure what Lex was doing. “Are you okay? Do you want me to go get that Nosey pony you mentioned?” “No.” Lex slowly shook his head, his look of shock fading into one of grim resolve. “Leave Nosey to me.”