//------------------------------// // 334 - Just Desserts // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// “And that’s it,” finished Fencer. “That’s our story.” The only answer she received was a stunned silence. The earth stallion that she and Granola Bar had flanked was simply staring at her, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, very clearly having a hard time digesting what she’d told him. On the other side of the table, the blonde unicorn – Coal Hopper, the stallion had called her before – wasn’t much better. She’d managed to keep her jaw from hanging open, but her face still had shock written all over it. Fencer couldn’t blame them. In an effort to convince them that they were ponies worth helping, she’d told them everything that had happened since Vanhoover had flooded. What she’d done to Pillowcase, being subjugated and cursed by Lex, fighting the horde of ghouls, and the drama they’d run into here in Canterlot; she’d left none of it out. Her friends had also chimed in frequently, adding numerous details and explanations. More than a few times, they’d broken in to tell her that she was being too hard on herself. The entire story had taken some time to relate, and now that it had there was nothing left to do but hope that these two would see fit to help them, otherwise they’d need a new plan. “So…” The leading question shook the two railway ponies out of their stupor, with Coal Hopper quickly shaking her head as if to clear her thoughts. “You guys are messed up,” she declared a moment later. “I mean, I get that it’s because you all went through so much bad stuff, but even so…a dozen freight cars couldn’t carry all of your baggage.” Fencer bit her lip, not sure what to make of that assessment but not liking where it was going. “I can’t say that you’re wrong,” she admitted. “And if both of you wanted to walk away right now, none of us would blame you for it.” “Says you,” muttered Slip ‘n’ Slide under his breath. At the same time, he surreptitiously moved the empty bowls of ice cream – and the spoons they held – away from Coal Hopper. “We’re not bad ponies,” added Funshine, repeating what he’d said earlier. “We’re good ponies who got caught in bad situations. We just need a little help.” Across the table, Coal Hopper’s date put his hooves to his head, as though dizzy. “I just…I can’t even…” He stared down at the table, clearly not seeing it. “Regenerating his horn? Using curses? Fighting off an entire army of monsters all on his own? I knew that guy was bad news, but all that…” Granola Bar frowned, looking between the sputtering stallion and Coal Hopper. “Is he okay?” The other mare shrugged. “Ticket Stub told me that he met that Lex guy on a train a little while back. He said he looked like trouble.” Ticket Stub gave a hollow laugh at that, his expression haunted. “‘Trouble’ is him making everypony else too uncomfortable to share a passenger car with him. But taking on, what,” he turned his gaze toward Fencer, “two thousand monsters by himself? And winning?” He looked back at Coal Hopper. “That’s not ‘trouble.’ That’s a catastrophe in the form of a pony!” Hopscotch gave Ticket Stub an unhappy look. “Lex didn’t fight those ghouls off all by himself,” she corrected. “Garden did a lot of the work too. Weren’t you listening?” The correction didn’t seem to ease Ticket Stub’s distress. If anything, it seemed to make it worse. “Right, well…” He shakily stood up. “I think we’ve heard enough. Thank you all for a very, er, memorable evening. We’ll just be going n-” “Sit back down,” snapped Coal Hopper. Ticket Stub’s eyebrows shot upward. “Sit ba-…are you kidding?” “Not even a little. Now park it, buster!” Slowly sinking back down into his seat, Ticket Stub gave Coal Hopper a horrified look. “You can’t really be thinking of getting mixed up in all this,” he pleaded, waving a hoof at Fencer and her friends to indicate what “this” was. Fencer held her breath as she waited for Coal Hopper to answer, idly noting the hopeful looks on her friends’ faces. Ticket Stub had clearly made up his mind about them. Now their hopes hinged on his date having a different opinion. “Look,” started Coal Hopper, before pursing her lips and giving a sigh. Her gaze fell to the tabletop, and she idly pushed one of the empty bowls of ice cream around (making Slip ‘n’ Slide wince slightly). “…you were…me…” she muttered quietly. A round of uncertain glances were exchanged. “I was…what?” asked Ticket Stub. Coal Hopper raised her eyes long enough to give him an irritated look. “I said…” Her eyes dropped from his. “You were…about me…” “Sorry, I still didn’t quite catch that,” chuckled Ticket Stub nervously. Coal Hopper slammed a hoof down on the table, making the empty bowl – and everypony else – jump. “I said you were right about me, okay?! You were right to push me to go talk to Princess Cadance and Shining Armor about what I saw in Vanhoover!” Fencer could see Funshine starting to open his mouth, either to complain about how Coal Hopper had startled him or to ask what she was talking about, and quickly held up a hoof in a gesture of restraint. He blinked at that but didn’t object, closing his jaw and leaning back a little. Fortunately, no one else seemed to be keen to interrupt the surly mare, and Fencer waited with baited breath for her to explain her strange statement. Huffing, Coal Hopper looked like she’d just eaten a lemon rather than two bowls of ice cream. “We talked about this before, remember?” she groused. “About closure?” Ticket Stub licked his lips before he answered. “I don’t understand.” Coal Hopper shot him a dark look, making him flinch, but she kept her temper in check. “That’s what this is about. It’s why these ponies are talking to us. The difference is that their stuff is bigger, so it’s harder to deal with.” Glancing at the other five ponies questioningly, Ticket Stub turned back to Coal Hopper when none of them answered. “It is?” “That’s how it works.” Coal Hopper went back to fiddling with her empty bowl then, her voice conveying her resentment that she had to say this out loud. “Vanhoover was just a misadventure for you; drop the stuff off and deliver the sick ponies to the hospital. Once you did all that, it was over, and you could move on to the next thing. No biggie.” Ticket Stub rubbed the back of his neck, not sure he agreed that it was “no biggie,” but he knew better than to argue. “Okay…” “My thing was worse,” continued Coal Hopper. “I just got a glimpse of what everypony in that camp went through, and it was horrible.” Her voice turned bitter then, slouching in her seat. “And just like when I was a filly, I ran away from it, not wanting to do what I had to do to get past it because I knew that it would be awful. The only difference was that instead of my dad pushing me to do it…” She didn’t finish, instead looking up at Ticket Stub. He gave a bashful smile at that. “I wasn’t trying to treat you like a foal or anything. I just, you know…you told me that story, so I thought that you needed some help the way you did then.” “Yeah, well, that’s what these guys are saying,” she huffed, nodding at the other ponies around their table. “Except that just talking to the Princess isn’t good enough, so they’re going back.” Now it was Ticket Stub’s turn to look at the other five ponies around their table, and while the reluctance hadn’t disappeared from his face, Fencer could tell that he was reconsidering what to do. Granola Bar must have sensed it too, because she gave him a thin smile. “All we really need is to get on board a train out of Canterlot. We’re not going to make you two come back to Vanhoover with us or anything. If you can sneak us past the guards and onto a train car, that’d be enough.” Ticket Stub shifted in his seat, wavering. “Are you guys sure you can’t just talk to Princess Cadance?” “We just want to go home.” Hopscotch’s voice was plaintive as she answered him. “We’re not running away from the Princess. If she wants to come talk to us in Vanhoover, that’ll be fine, but right now we just want to go back and figure out how to move on.” Ticket Stub turned that over for a moment before sighing, glancing down at his flank. “When I got my cutie mark, it was because I loved how trains could bring so much happiness to so many ponies. I never thought that would involve sneaking some ponies onto them right under the Royal Guard’s noses.” Fencer perked up at that. “So you’ll help us?” Giving Coal Hopper a long-suffering look, Ticket Stub nodded. “Yeah.” A chorus of relieved sighs went around the table, as everypony relaxed. “Okay,” smiled Funshine. “Now we just have to think of a plan, and we’re as good as home-free.” Slip ‘n’ Slide nodded towards their new friends. “How about we have one of these guys run up to the Royal Guard and say that they saw some ponies who looked like us in a nearby alley. The guards will all run to check it out, leaving the way in unguarded.” “That’s your plan?” snorted Coal Hopper derisively. “Just run up and say ‘they went that way!’? No wonder you guys need help.” “It’s not too bad,” countered Granola Bar. “If one of us tried that, there’s a chance we’d be recognized immediately, and it’s not like we could ask some random pony on the street to go and lie to the guards for us.” “Yeah, except the guards might not go running and leave the station wide open just because someone says they saw something suspicious,” pointed out Ticket Stub. “I mean, they’re not stupid.” Slip ‘n’ Slide gave Ticket Stub an incredulous look. “Okay, listen, I know you're freaked out by all that stuff Lex did, but did you really not hear that part about the guard we ran into when we were escaping from the castle a little while ago?” Ticket Stub flinched a little at that, looking like his feelings had been hurt, but Fencer jumped in before he could say anything. “You’re both right. If somepony goes out there and tells the guards that they saw ponies matching our descriptions, some of them will most likely go and check it out. But at least one or two will probably stay behind. So what we need is a way to distract those guards while the others are off on the wild goose-chase.” Hopscotch tilted her head. “So what can we use to do that?” “Ice cream!” announced the waitress, making everypony jump as she began to pass out bowls of the stuff to everyone. “I wasn’t sure what you all liked, so I put different flavors in every bowl and I brought you our sprinkle sampler platter! I figured that way you can trade your ice cream around and sprinkle them however you want!” “Oh that does it!” snarled Coal Hopper, starting to get up from her seat. Luckily, Fencer was faster. “I’m sorry, but we didn’t order any of this.” But the waitress waved a hoof in a gesture of refusal, giving them all a warm smile. “It’s on the house. I overheard your story while I was cleaning up, and it was incredible. You guys went through so much together! I know this isn’t a lot, but I wanted to do what I could to help you guys out. You all enjoy, okay?” She didn’t wait for a response, smiling as she went back to work. “That was really nice of her,” admitted Funshine, already reaching for the desserts. “I don’t know about you guys, but after the night we’ve had this is just what I needed.” Fencer blinked at that, glancing toward the edge of the nearby patio where they’d been seated previously. It was still the perfect vantage point to observe the guards, who by now had been guarding the station in the hot summer evening in their stifling armor for quite some time. Slowly, a smile formed on her face. “Something tells me you’re not the only one…”