//------------------------------// // 251 - From Within // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// “We did it!” The silence that had fallen in the wake of the final ghouls being slain was broken by Sonata’s jubilant cry. Grinning, she reared up on her hind legs and raised her fore-hooves in the air triumphantly, giving a wordless whoop of victory. Falling back to all fours, she turned her attention to the illusion hiding everypony else. “Did you all see that?! I mean, those ghouls were no dragon or anything,” she threw a wink at Lex as she spoke, before turning back to the image of the giant hole in the ground, “but that was still seriously awesome! There were, like, a bajillion of them, but when they came, we saw, and we kicked their undead a-” “Stop that!” hissed Lex, giving her a baleful glare. “We haven’t confirmed that there aren’t any left!” The last thing he wanted was for some stray ghoul to realize that there were defenseless ponies nearby, and Sonata’s talking to an apparently-empty hole in the ground ran the risk of that, especially if her declaration of victory encouraged the ponies there to exit the illusion. But I can’t tell them to stay where they are, since that would only compound Sonata’s breaking their cover. “Aw come on!” Oblivious to Lex’s worries, Sonata groaned and rolled her eyes at his attitude. He’s gotta be allergic to relaxing or something. Ignoring his girlfriend’s indignation, Lex looked at Aria. “Can you use your detection spell again?” The Siren’s reply was a sneer. “What, that’s all I get? No ‘you saved us all, Aria’? Or ‘we couldn’t have done this without you, Aria’?” The words were meant for Lex, but halfway through she found herself looking at her sister. “It’s not like I had to come back, you know. You could at least show a little gratitude!” “Huh?” Sonata blinked, not sure if Aria was speaking to her or not. “You mean me?” The thought made her scratch her head in confusion. Hadn’t she already told her she’d done a great job with the whole ‘last-second save’ bit? The befuddled look on Sonata’s face only made Aria angrier. “Yes you, you simp!” The utter lack of recognition on her sister’s part about what had just happened was infuriating. “I came back to help even though you aba-” “Enough.” Lex didn’t yell, but his voice carried the weight of an undeniable command, making Aria immediately fall silent as the Night Mare’s power wrapped around her and immediately bent her to his will. Holding his injured foreleg toward Aria – the feeling having only just returned to it after the bite from one of the ghouls had left it paralyzed – Lex struggled to get to his hooves. It was a losing proposition, however, and only Sonata’s sudden appearance at his side stopped him from collapsing back into the dirt. He gave her only the briefest glance of acknowledgment, gratitude and embarrassment warring within him for a moment before exhaustion trumped them both. Securing the area came first, everything else was secondary, especially the feelings of these two squabbling imbeciles. “Aria, you-” “You ignored your mate’s sister, rather than nurturing her interest in you, and haven’t even realized that she’s abandoned you.” The Night Mare’s words came back to him then, the message replaying in his mind with such clarity that it made him pause in mid-sentence, unable to help but consider it the current context. As much as it galled him to admit it, the Night Mare’s idea of using others as extensions of his own strength had proven to be insightful. Although he hadn’t empowered Aria the way he had Garden Gate, nor outlined the tactics she was supposed to utilize (apart from a few shouted commands after her return) the way he had with Sonata, the Siren had nevertheless proven herself invaluable during the course of the battle, her spells averting disaster more than once. Her abilities, placed under his direction and utilized with his guidance, had been pivotal in stopping any more fatalities from occurring. That…deserved acknowledgment, if nothing else. Slowly, he lowered his wire-wrapped hoof to the ground, giving a sigh as he released the power binding her. “We couldn’t have done this without you, Aria.” The words came out quietly, just loud enough for both sisters to hear. “You saved us all.” Sonata’s jaw fell open, her eyebrows rising to her hairline. Aria wasn’t much better, giving him a shocked look before her expression became smug. “Darn right I did!” she smirked, giving Sonata a superior look. “Unlike a certain someone, I don’t run out on people right before things get bad.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” frowned Sonata. Aria, still grinning, opened her mouth to reply, but Lex jumped in before another argument could start. “Cast your detection spell again, then circle the battlefield,” he ordered quietly. “I want to know if there are any ghouls that survived.” The pleased look disappeared from Aria’s face as she glanced at the carnage a short distance away. “If there are, I won’t have enough magic left to fight them off.” But Lex had anticipated that. “Severance.” The scythe came immediately, floating over until it was hovering beside him. “Go with Aria. Kill any undead creatures you come across, then return to me once you’re finished.” He didn’t bother touching the scythe to hear whatever reply it might have had, and the weapon didn’t seem inclined to give one, floating over to Aria obediently. Satisfied, she whispered a chant as her hooves gestured, invoking the spell. It took only a moment to finish, and she glanced around before giving a satisfied nod, looking back at Lex. “Nothing so far. I’ll let you know if I find any.” That last part was tossed out with another superior smirk toward Sonata, before she turned and dragged herself westward, moving to avoid the scattered gore as Severance floated alongside her, its blade still glowing fluorescently. Sonata waited until Aria was out of earshot before turning back at Lex, raising a brow. “You wanna tell me what just happened?” She tried to keep the jealousy out of her voice, not entirely succeeding. “Since when do you compliment anybody?” “‘Anypony,’ Sonata,” corrected Lex tiredly, taking a shaky step forward. The motion almost caused him to collapse, and Sonata had to hurry to prop him up as he started walking. “The word is ‘anypony.’ And that wasn’t a compliment. I was simply affirming her own estimation of the tactical value of her performance in the battle.” “You call that a performance?” scoffed Sonata. “Laying down some sweet background music for the fight, that’s a performance...” She didn’t even try to disguise the leading nature of her statement, hoping that he’d pick up on it. “In fact, you could even call it ‘brilliant,’ don’cha think?” “I-” “GARDEN!” His reply cut off by the loud cry from behind them, Lex cursed as he glanced over his shoulder, Sonata frowning as she did the same. Behind them, emerging from what looked like nowhere, four ponies ran out from the illusion, making their way toward Garden Gate with all possible speed. “You idiots!” yelled Lex, his ire resurging. “This area isn’t secure yet!” But the warning had no effect on the quartet of ponies, and they rushed by him and Sonata both as they made their way to their fallen friend, crowding around the injured mare and fawning over her wounds. One of them, a burly earth stallion with a brown coat and blond mane and tail, looked up and gave Lex an accusing look. “What are you doing?! Garden Gate needs help!” Lex’s response was a withering look as he, with Sonata’s assistance, resumed walking. With Aria and Severance working to make sure that there wouldn’t be any unpleasant surprises, he’d been heading for Garden Gate when those four imbeciles had decided to take action on their own. “As soon as we know that there aren’t any more ghouls in the area, I’ll have the doctors take a look at her. In the meantime, her injuries don’t appear to be life-threatening,” announced Lex coldly as he moved to join the group over Garden’s prone form, still stricken with paralysis. Although she was covered in wounds, none of them were bleeding overly much that he could see. “‘Don’t appear to be life-threatening’?!” echoed the stallion, his voice incredulous. “Is that what you say about the mare who just saved everyone here?” He turned to face Lex then, pawing at the ground aggressively. “First you don’t even care that you get one of our friends killed, now you don’t care that another one of them might be dying right in front of you?!” “Hey! Lighten up, jerk!” Sonata surged forward then, not noticing that in doing so she left Lex behind, struggling to stay upright. Getting right in the larger pony’s face, Sonata glared him down. “First of all, Lex cares super deeply about those ponies that died, which is why he got into that slap-fight with Severance! Second, he’s the reason that Garden Shed here was able to fight as well as she did! So third: shut your ugly face!” The stallion colored in anger, baring his teeth. “Little lady, if you don’t back off-” “Funshine, stop it!” ordered an earth mare with a tan coat and black mane and tail, marching over and shoving the stallion away from Sonata. “You’re making things worse!” Funshine stumbled, giving the mare an incredulous look. “But Garden’s-” The mare stomped a hoof. “You really think you’re helping her right now?!” His ears folding back, Funshine opened his mouth, then closed it again, shifting in place anxiously as his eyes moved to his other two companions, asking for help. But when both sent him disapproving looks, he finally let out a breath, lowering his head in shame. “I…you’re right.” He looked at Sonata, then Lex. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…please, help her…” His eyes were watering as he looked back at where Garden was still frozen in place. “We can’t lose her too.” Had he been in a better state, Lex would have given the distraught stallion a blistering rebuke, but at the moment he didn’t have the energy to deal with the other pony’s petulance. His horn was barely able to light up as he telekinetically fumbled for his cloak, the effort of staying standing while removing it almost too much. “Use this to wrap her up,” he ordered, managing to give it to Sonata. She passed it to Funshine, who gave her a grateful look as he grabbed it in his mouth and rushed back to Garden’s side. “Once Aria gets back,” continued Lex, “we’ll immediately call for the doctors to examine her.” He glanced at the mess that was the remains of the medical tent as he spoke, recalling how House Call had said that they were running out of most of the drugs they’d brought with them. Even so, there was no need to be overly worried; even if the ghouls had managed to infect Garden (or himself, for that matter) with their sickness, a night’s rest would replenish his divine magic, at which point the threat of disease would be easily dealt with. And if Vanhoover was now free of the undead menace- “No…” moaned Garden Gate, pushing Funshine’s hooves away as he tried to wrap her up. “Don’t…” Relieved cries went up from the four ponies surrounding her. “Hey, it’s okay,” said the smaller stallion in a soothing manner, trying not to sniffle. “You did it. You beat those ghouls.” “You were really amazing,” nodded the purple-haired mare next to him, having a much harder time fighting back tears. “You saved everypony here. You’re a hero, Garden.” But Garden didn’t seem to share her friends’ happiness. If anything, their words seemed to upset her more. “No, I’m not,” she moaned. “I got Turbo killed…I was selfish, just like in Vanhoover, and I got him killed.” Lex frowned deeply at that, clenching his jaw at her declaration of responsibility. Not noticing his displeasure, the four ponies around Garden Gate shot each other uncomfortable looks. “Garden,” said the black-haired mare, blinking suddenly-wet eyes, “that’s not true. What happened to Turbo wasn’t your fault.” “Yes it was.” Her words came out as a moan, tears sliding down her cheeks. “I wanted to be Garden Gate again. Don’t you see? I wanted to be her again so badly that Turbo tried to do it for me, and I let him. I let him, and now he’s dead. All because I was thinking about me.” A shudder wracked her body then, heartbroken sobs coming from her throat as she closed her eyes. “I’m still Fencer.”