Lateral Movement

by Alzrius


301 - The Parent Gap

Everypony was quiet as Princess Luna led Silhouette away. A few seconds later, after a moment of quiet conference, Princess Celestia and Sonata headed off in a different direction, the latter pausing to give a worried look back at Lex before she let herself be ushered off. With no other orders, the remaining members of the Royal Guard stood down, moving out of the way to wait for the princesses’ return. For several long moments the tense silence remained, until it was shattered by a jubilant cry.

“We did it!”

Fruit Crunch didn’t even try to moderate joy in his tone, almost giddy as he made his way over to his friends. “How awesome are we?!” he laughed. “We really did save the day!”

“That was the coolest thing ever!” cheered Cleansweep, flying a quick loop-de-loop in excitement. “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe we did that! Can you guys believe we did that?!”

“No,” muttered Feathercap dazedly, sinking to the ground as his tension finally started to ebb. “I didn’t think our plans would work.”

“Aw, c’mon,” smiled Fiddlesticks, giving him a friendly nudge. “Those were your plans after all.”

“And they were good ones, too,” added Straightlace. “The way you had a backup plan and a backup backup plan? That was brilliant!”

Feathercap turned red at the praise, an embarrassed smile coming to his lips. “Ah, no. I didn’t really do anything. I just thought that we should use everyone’s ideas together, was all.”

Fiddlesticks shook her head at that, unable to help but admire the little guy’s modesty. When Silhouette and his guards had moved in, clearly intent on disrupting Lex’s spell, the Knights had started arguing about what they should do. She’d wanted to run and get the princesses, while Fruit Crunch had been eager to run right out there and go after Silhouette, and Straightlace and Cleansweep had thought they should try and rescue Lex’s girlfriends (the word in camp being that the blonde mare was his girlfriend now too, for some reason). Feathercap had been the one to turn all that into a real plan of action, adding in him trying to yank Sonata’s gag off if Cleansweep and Straightlace failed. We wouldn’t have been able to do anything if he hadn’t put all the pieces together the way he did, she knew. Who’d have thought he’d be able to do that?

A moment later, her thoughts were echoed aloud by the last pony she would have expected. “Don’t sound so humble, you did a really great job with that!”

Fiddlesticks blinked owlishly, turning her head to look at Fruit Crunch. Had he actually just said something nice?! She wasn’t the only one who was shocked either; Straightlace was open-mouthed, and Feathercap looked nonplussed. Cleansweep, however, was grinning so wide that it had to be making her face ache. “I…I did?” stuttered Feathercap, clearly not sure if the other colt was being serious.

Fruit Crunch nodded, his joyous expression undiminished. “Absolutely! We all did!” He held out a hoof then, the same one that Severance had scarred earlier in the evening. “Night Mare’s Knights forever!” he yelled happily.

“Night Mare’s Knights forever!” echoed Cleansweep, touching her hoof to his. She did so at an angle, rather than meeting it directly, giving an expectant look at the rest of them.

Feathercap was the first one to recover, climbing to his hooves as a shaky grin crossed his lips. “N-Nightmare’s Knights forever,” he offered tentatively, touching a hoof to Cleansweep and Fruit Crunch’s.

The sight sent a warm feeling through Fiddlesticks’ chest, and she couldn’t have stopped smiling even if she wanted to, transferring Tiddlywinks to her back as she went over to clop hooves the others. “Night Mare’s Knights forever.”

Straightlace was smiling too as he reached out to do the same. “Night Mare’s Knights forev-”

“CLEANSWEEP!”

The filly in question had just enough time for her eyes to widen before a pegasus mare swooped out of the air and snatched her into a crushing hug. “Are you alright?!” fretted Feather Duster, turning her daughter every which way to examine her for injuries. “I should have been here sooner but I fainted dead away when I saw you doing something so dangerous! Does it hurt anywhere? Do you need a doctor? I don’t have any bits, but I’m sure we could-”

“Mo-om!” yelled Cleansweep, imbuing the word with two syllables before finally managing to extricate herself from her mother’s grasp. “I’m fine!”

“You should probably be asking those guards if they’re okay, Mrs. Duster,” laughed Fruit Crunch. “The way she tackled them was enough to knock all three of them down! Just boom! Like bowling pins!”

But Feather Duster wasn’t amused by the comparison, glaring at the jovial colt. “And I can guess whose idea it was to make my daughter into a living bowling ball, Fruit Crunch!”

The colt in question wasn’t fazed by the rebuke, however, having received this particular lecture more than once. “Actually-”

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” came a new voice. “But if it wasn’t for your daughter and her friends, we might not be here right now. They saved us all.”

Feather Duster and the Knights turned to regard the pony speaking, the former frowning as she did so. “You’re…?”

“Nosey Newsy,” smiled the blonde mare cordially, silently thanking Sonata for using her calming magic on her again before she’d gone off with Princess Celestia. “I’m a reporter for the Canterlot Chronicle. And I have to say, these five are the bravest foals I’ve ever met. If they hadn’t stopped that Silhouette guy, he’d have disrupted Lex’s spell, and that would have caused a disaster for sure. It’s thanks to them that we’re alright.”

Each of the Knights lit up at the praise, with Cleansweep shooting her mother a hopeful look. “You see, Mom? Crunchy didn’t-”

But Feather Duster cut her off before she could finish. “We’ll discuss this later, sweetheart.” Her mother’s tone made Cleansweep wilt, knowing full well that they wouldn’t discuss it later. Oblivious to her daughter’s distress, Feather Duster frowned at Nosey. “Miss Newsy, I apologize for asking something so personal when we’ve just met, but do you have any children?”

The question caught Nosey by surprise, making her blink. “Wh-, me? I-, no. No, I’ve never even-, no.”

“Well,” replied Feather Duster frostily, “if you ever do, then you can lecture me about how I should treat my little girl. But until you know what it’s like to see your only child…your precious baby fling herself into danger…” She choked up, tears gathering in her eyes as her lip quivered.

“Mom…” This time Cleansweep’s voice was a mixture of guilt and exasperation.

Sniffling, Feather Duster fought to keep her composure, wrapping a foreleg around her daughter in a protective hug. But even as she did so, she turned her face to Fruit Crunch, her features darkening. “And as for you, I don’t want you hanging around my daughter anymore.” The colt’s eyes widened at that, and Cleansweep gave an alarmed grunt, straining against her mother’s grasp again, but this time Feather Duster refused to let her go. “You’ve always been a bad influence, but this went way beyond your usual pranks or antics! Until you shape up, I don’t want you anywhere near Cleansweep!” With that, she turned and flapped her wings, flying back toward the camp, her daughter’s wails of protest fading in their wake.

Fruit Crunch watched them go, his jaw slack. “You’ve gotta be kidding me…”

Nosey and Feathercap both seemed at a loss for words. For her part, Fiddlesticks grimaced, feeling unexpectedly sorry for Fruit Crunch. “Look…she probably didn’t mean it.” But it sounded lame even to her.

Thankfully, Straightlace had some words of wisdom to share. “My dad says that when somepony’s upset, sometimes the best thing you can do is give them some time to calm down. I bet that if you go talk to her tomorrow-”

“Ahem.”

The faux-cough, and the masculine voice it belonged to, made Straightlace freeze in place, his eyes widening. A moment later, he turned around. “Dad?!”

Nosey and the other foals turned, seeing a pegasus stallion with the same off-white coat as Straightlace, his plain brown mane and tail looking like a darker reflection of his son’s green hair, and his cutie mark was of a rather drab-looking black bowtie. Frowning behind his mustache, his words were nevertheless gentle as he spoke. “Son, we need to talk.”

“Hold on!” Nosey couldn’t help but take a step forward, aghast that another one of these kids’ parents was going to chastise them for saving everypony! “Your son is a hero! He-”

“Miss Newsy,” interjected the stallion. He smiled, not unkindly, at her obvious surprise that he knew her name. “I overheard everything you said a minute ago while I was talking to the guards,” he said with a nod back at where the golden-clad stallions were standing. “I’m Straight Arrow, Straightlace’s father. I’m grateful that you want to stick up for my son and his friends, but at the same time I have to add that that filly’s mother wasn’t entirely wrong.” He turned his attention back to Straightlace then, giving him a look of mild disappointment. “Son, what were you thinking, attacking members of the Royal Guard?”

“But they were putting everypony in danger!” protested Straightlace. His other friends nodded at that, moving to stand next to him. “You always told me that if we see somepony in trouble, we should try to help!”

But Straight Arrow’s expression didn’t change. “I’ve also told you that fighting is what happens when you’ve run out of good ideas. Instead of tackling those guards, why didn’t you try talking to them?”

Straightlace looked ready to protest, but Nosey beat him to the punch. “We tried talking to them, Sonata and me! It didn’t work! Even if they were willing to listen, that Silhouette guy wasn’t! He cast a silence spell to make sure we couldn’t!

Straight Arrow gave her that same disappointed look that he’d given his son moments ago, shaking his head sadly. “He did that after your friend used her magic to try and force everyone to do things her way. If she hadn’t escalated the conflict, he might have been more open to listening to what you had to say.”

For a second Nosey couldn’t even come up with a response, flabbergasted. “You can’t be serious!”

“I’m very serious. Ever since the three tribes of ponies came together, we’ve worked to resolve our differences with harmony, not violence. Everything that’s happened since Vanhoover flooded has shown us that we need to work together, not fight amongst ourselves.” He turned his sad gaze back toward Straightlace. “While you all were congratulating each other, I spoke with the members of the Royal Guard. They’ve agreed that since nopony was hurt, and the princesses don’t seem to be upset, they’re not going to charge anyone. But if things had gone even slightly differently, you could very well be a criminal right now, Straightlace. Is that the sort of pony you want to grow up to be?”

Recoiling at how let down his father sounded, Straightlace struggled to come up with an answer. “I…I was just trying to save everypony…”

But he didn’t get a chance to say anything else as Fruit Crunch moved in front of him, glaring at Straight Arrow. “You know what? Nuts to you, pal! Those guys were putting us all in danger, and Straightlace helped us stop them, and the only thing you can do is talk down to him for it?!” He sneered up at the older stallion then. “I don’t know why he quotes you all the time, because you quite clearly don’t know anything. Sometimes getting your hooves dirty is the right thing to do!”

Straight Arrow gave him a look of pity in response. “I’m sorry that you’ve been raised to believe that.” Then, with one last look at his son, he turned and walked away, heading back toward the camp.

A stricken expression spread across Straightlace’s face. “Listen, thanks for saying all that, but I gotta go,” he muttered, before breaking into a gallop. “Dad! Dad, wait up!” But the older stallion didn’t so much as glance back at his son’s pleading, leaving Straightlace running after his father.

Hanging his head, Feathercap’s mournful statement perfectly captured what had become of the formerly-jubilant atmosphere. “So much for forever…”