//------------------------------// // 263 - Hopping To It // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// By the time the train arrived, everypony had gathered around the station in anticipation. The bulk of the crowd had split into two groups, one on either side of the building, watching in nervous excitement as the train slowly pulled into the station. The remaining few were perched on the roof of the place, having flown or climbed up to gain a better vantage point for what was about to happen. Even Aria’s face could be glimpsed peering out from between the closed shutters in the station’s windows. The one place that wasn’t occupied was the platform out in front, where passengers would normally embark or disembark from the train itself. By Lex’s order, that had remained clear except for himself and Sonata, the two of them standing in the center of the open space. Both were silent as the train came to a stop in front of them, steam hissing as it was released from the engine. A moment later the door to the engine car swung open, and Lex tensed. Although he knew that it was unlikely that whoever was operating the train was hostile – trains were the major mode of inter-city transit in Equestria, which meant that it was more than likely other ponies on board – there had been too many unpleasant surprises in the last few days for him to take anything for granted. After all, Xiriel had been involved with the trains ceasing to come to Vanhoover in the first place, and the exploding scroll had made it quite clear that just because the devil was dead didn’t mean that its schemes were undone. To that end, Lex had initially tried to order everypony to stay far away from the train when it arrived. But that had proven to be impossible to do; despite it being a complete assumption on their part, everypony was thoroughly convinced that the train’s arrival could only be a good thing. More than that, Sonata had intervened when he’d tried to press the point, all but begging him not to waste the goodwill he had (to hear her tell it) finally acquired from everypony. Instead, she’d convinced everypony to hang back while the two of them received whoever was on board, an alteration to his order that he’d reluctantly signed off on. Even so, Lex had taken as many precautions as reasonably could. He’d worked out with Sonata ahead of time that, in the event of a battle breaking out, she’d use her magic to enchant the crowd and get them to retreat in an orderly fashion without leaving anypony behind. Likewise, he’d conferred with Aria so that she’d lash out from her position of concealment inside the station – hopefully catching any potential enemies by surprise – if things went bad. For some reason, that had made Sonata grumble… As for himself, he’d placed his gemstones in orbit around himself, taking preemptive advantage of their enhancements. Unfortunately, that was the only preparation he’d been able to make. Although he’d managed to renew a few of his defensive spells earlier in the day, he hadn’t cast them; their limited duration meant that using them prior to an immediate outbreak of hostilities would run the risk of them expiring when he needed them most. Likewise, he’d left Severance on his back instead of keeping it readied, aware that a drawn weapon was itself an act of aggression that justified attacking in retaliation. If whoever was on that train wasn’t hostile, there was no need to antagonize them. His thoughts were drawn back to the present as a unicorn mare with a blue coat and blonde mane and tail exited the engine car. “Alright!” she bellowed. “You guys had better-” Her voice caught in her throat as she looked at Lex, eyebrows rising as she took in his appearance before glancing at Sonata, then at everypony gathered around the station. “…the heck’re you all supposed to be?” Sonata opened her mouth to respond, but the other mare didn’t give her a chance, shaking her head. “No, you know what? I don’t care. You just better be ready to buy all this stuff!” She jerked her head back at the train. “It needs to be sold, and I’m not taking no for an answer!” Sonata blinked, quite clearly taken off-guard by the belligerent mare. “Uh, what stuff?” Beside her, Lex was silent, having activated his circlet to let him see into the magical spectrum. So far so good; there were no unusual auras on the newcomer. “I’ll tell you what stuff!” The blue mare’s horn glowed as she took out a shipping manifest, waving it at Sonata aggressively. “Eggs! Milk! Oats! Honey! Corn! Peanuts! And a lot of other things too!” She stomped a hoof on the ground. “We’ve been trying to get this here for over a month, and every time we tried something-” But she didn’t get to finish as everypony suddenly started cheering, stomping their hooves and prancing in place with joy. The sight left her looking around, a dumbfounded expression on her face. “Huh…okay then.” “That’s good news, right?” came a new voice as an earth stallion timidly peeked out from the engine. But he’d barely gotten the words out when he looked at Lex and Sonata, his jaw dropping even as his eyes widened. “You’re-” Sonata looked only a little less surprised. “Oh my gosh! You’re the guy we met when we were going to Tall Tale! Ticket Scrub!” “Uh…it’s, um, Ticket St-” “Nopony cares,” interrupted Lex irritably, also remembering the annoying train attendant. But there were more important things to focus on, and Lex was already thinking of them as he turned to Sonata. “Have the money I retrieved from Vanhoover brought here.” “Gotcha!” nodded Sonata, turning toward the crowd to find some volunteers. But she’d barely taken a step before she turned back around. “Wait, what’re you going to do?” “I’ll inspect the train,” answered Lex. “I want to make sure everything is what it seems like before we start unloading its cargo.” The words seemed to snap the blue mare out of her surprise at the cheering crowd, and she turned to Lex with a scowl. “Listen buster, I don’t know who you think you are, but-” “Um, Coal Hopper, can I talk to you for a moment?” interrupted Ticket Stub nervously. Coal Hopper looked ready to argue, but Ticket Stub managed to usher her back toward the engine, where he started talking to her in low tones. Sonata didn’t miss her opportunity, glancing back at Lex. “Okay, awesome. While they’re doing their thing, I’m gonna go find some ponies to bring all those coins here, and as soon as I do I’ll wait for them right here with you. So don’t go inspecting without me, ‘kay?” She didn’t wait for a reply as she dashed off towards the edge of the platform. “Hey guys! Who wants to do everypony a solid?” Lex watched her go, fighting the urge to sigh in relief. A train full of food was a welcome change from just how calamitous the last few days had been, particularly since it didn’t seem to be accompanied by any problems or hardships that needed to be resolved. Hopefully that would remain the case for the foreseeable future… “This isn’t enough.” Outwardly, Lex showed no reaction to Coal Hopper’s announcement, fighting down another sigh, this time of exasperation. But the unicorn mare seemed to take his lack of a response as some sort of slight, frowning deeper. “It’s not even close to enough,” she reiterated, gesturing to the large pile of bits that had been stacked nearby. “What you have here is enough for maybe one car’s worth of food, but that’s it. All of the other cars still have to be paid for.” Sonata sent a worried glance at Lex. They’d just toured each and every one of the train cars at his insistence, accompanied by a visibly-nervous Ticket Stub, while Coal Hopper had stayed behind to start counting the bits that several of the camp ponies were bringing onto the platform. The inspection had gone well enough, with Lex staring at the contents of each car for a little while before declaring them to be fine (she’d eventually asked him, via his whisper-spell, what he was doing, with him saying that he was checking them for unusual magic or possible poisons). The only snag had been when they’d found four ponies tied up in the caboose. That had almost turned into a thing, before Ticket Stub had hastily explained that they were a group of ponies who had tried to stop the train at someplace called Windigo Way, and who had eventually had to be forcibly subdued when they’d refused to listen to reason. The four ponies themselves had spoken up at that point, swearing that they hadn’t been in control of themselves, and that they’d finally snapped out of it sometime yesterday. To Sonata’s mild surprise, Lex had believed them, though she’d started to understand why when they’d said that they’d lost control of themselves after meeting somepony who matched Block Party’s description. Since they didn’t look enchanted to Sonata, and Lex said he didn’t see any lingering magic on them, they’d decided to release the four over Ticket Stub’s uneasy protests. Everything, in other words, had been going great for a change. Except now Coal Hopper was being a big ol’ Scrooge about things. That was enough to make Sonata uneasy, since she was sure there was no way Lex would let all this food go. “Listen,” she began, hoping to head off a fight before it started. “There’s a lot of really hungry ponies out there-” “And there’s going to be a lot of really poor ponies at home if we don’t get paid for this,” growled Coal Hopper. That was enough to make Ticket Stub frown. “That’s a little cold, don’t you think? Miss Dusk was telling me about what’s been going on here while Mister Legis was inspecting the cargo, and it sounds like everypony’s had a really hard time.” Of course, it had been obvious that she was talking up her boyfriend, going on about sea monsters and zombie armies and all sorts of unbelievable things, but just one glance at the crowd of dirty, ragged-looking ponies gathered outside, along with the torn and filthy tent-city behind them, made it clear that something awful had happened here. “Look, I’m not saying we won’t sell them the stuff,” protested Coal Hopper. “I’m just saying that we can’t walk away empty-hoofed.” She turned back to glare at Lex, since he was obviously the guy in charge here, even if his red horn and wire-wrapped hoof and weird shadow and especially those trick gems flying around him made him look like he was in a weird Nightmare Night getup. “What do you plan on doing about this?” Lex didn’t hesitate before replying. “Start unloading the food immediately.” Coal Hopper looked ready to explode. “Are you kidding-” But Lex wasn’t interested in her temper tantrum, turning to Sonata. “Begin distributing it among the camp ponies. Make sure to only pass out modest portions. This isn’t like what I conjured earlier; this food needs to be carefully rationed. It’s not going to just sustain everypony here; it’s also going to be how we start getting the farmers in the surrounding villages to begin engaging in commerce again.” “We need to engage in commerce!” howled Coal Hopper indignantly. “You can’t just-” “Shut. Up.” Lex hissed the words softly, but his eyes changed colors as he did, sending a green-and-purple glare at Coal Hopper, stopping the mare in her tracks. Seeing that she’d quieted down, Lex’s eyes returned to their normal color a moment later. “While the cargo is being unloaded, I’ll retrieve funds sufficient to pay for everything. You’ll have them before the end of the day.” “Oh… Well, you should have said that before.” Coal Hopper’s response lacked her usual fire, trying to fight down the sudden fear that had gripped her just then. Up until right then, that Lex guy had just looked outlandish. But when he’d rebuked her, her perception of him had changed. All of a sudden his ornamentations and oddities hadn’t looked bizarre anymore; they’d looked like an intimidating panoply of magical might, the sort of thing that only a powerful wizard could wear so casually. His dour voice had suddenly been brimming with strength, as though just the sound of it could flatten her where she stood. And his eyes… Coal Hopper knew that she was a tough mare. She’d grown up with four older brothers who had seen to that. But the way Lex’s eyes had started to glow when he’d glared at her had been more than enough to make it plain that she did not want to try his patience. As such, it was only after he’d turned away from her that she managed to ask through suddenly-dry lips, “Where are you going to get the money?” Lex was already leaving the platform, heading westward and not bothering to glance back as he said a single word in reply. “Vanhoover.”