//------------------------------// // 389 - Clarity of Purpose // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// The sun was just touching the horizon as everypony flopped down into their seats, dropping their bags and releasing sighs of relief as they sat down. “My poor hooves,” whimpered Slip ‘n’ Slide, reaching down to gingerly rub his back legs. Even that was enough to make him wince. “I don’t suppose there’s a pair of tweezers anywhere?” asked Funshine, examining his rear hooves with a grimace. “I think I have splinters.” “That’s because you were trying too hard,” chastised Granola Bar. Funshine gave her a sullen look, hearing the self-satisfaction in her voice. For whatever reason, she’d picked up on the intricacies of their job the fastest out of all of them. “Well maybe if that guy had given us better instructions…” “I thought it was kind of fun,” offered Hopscotch with a tired smile, before hefting one of the bags that they’d carried on board with them. “And we got all this food.” “We’re just lucky that family needed help so badly,” murmured Fencer, directing her attention out the window. “We were able to negotiate for enough money for all five of us to buy tickets to Vanhoover, and take a cut of their crops as well.” “Yeah, except for the part where they got to pick which ones we got,” groused Slip ‘n’ Slide. As if to demonstrate his point, he reached down and picked up an apple from the bag next to him, biting into it. A moment later he grimaced. “Muthy.” Granola Bar frowned slightly. “Don’t talk with your mouth full.” “And don’t complain,” added Fencer. “It wasn’t that long ago that we would have been ecstatic to have discovered a bag of mushy apples.” Her voice was gentle, but the rebuke was still enough to make Slip ‘n’ Slide wince, and he ate the rest of his apple in silence. The sound of his chewing acted as a signal, and the others all dug out apples from their own bags, eating quietly as other passengers filled up the train car, taking the seats around them. It was only when they’d all finished that Hopscotch spoke up. “I feel bad for those apple farmers.” Funshine paused in examining his rear hooves to her a quizzical look. “Why? That Big Mac guy seemed like he could have kept bucking those trees without getting so much as a bruise. Not like – ow! – us.” Wincing as he pulled a splinter from his hoof, he tossed it out the window with a sigh. “They just seemed so desperate, since there were more trees than he and his family could handle on their own.” Hopscotch’s ears folded back with guilt. “And we used that to take advantage of them.” “After how hard they worked us, I think it was a fair deal,” scoffed Slip ‘n’ Slide. Granola Bar put a hoof around Hopscotch reassuringly. “They’ll be fine. Remember what we heard Spike say when he read Twilight’s letter? Big Mac’s sister will be back tomorrow. She’ll be able to help them turn things around.” But Hopscotch didn’t look like she felt any better. “We could at least have told him that. He seemed really worried about how they hadn’t been able to buck enough apples with her having been gone for so long, and I know I overheard that poor old lady say something about how they were in danger of losing the farm. They would have been relieved to know that she was coming back.” Slip ‘n’ Slide snorted. “Yeah, and then they would have asked us how we knew that, and we would have had to mention how we were eavesdropping on Twilight Sparkle’s pet dragon.” “We weren’t eavesdropping,” frowned Funshine. “We just happened to bump into him when he got that letter, and he was the one who read it out loud anyway.” “And Spike isn’t a pet,” added Hopscotch with a frown of her own. Slip ‘n’ Slide huffed. “Yeah, well, I’m just saying I still don’t get why asking Rarity for help would have been too dangerous, but going to Applejack’s family farm was apparently fine.” “We’ve been over this, Slip,” sighed Granola Bar. “Nopony else had any better ideas, and since Twilight’s letter to Spike let us know that Applejack herself wasn’t there, it was the best we could do.” “And it worked,” added Funshine. “We got enough money for the train, and enough apples for all of us for the trip.” But Slip ‘n’ Slide’s response was to paw at the cushion-covered seat beneath him. “Yeah, well, getting enough money for a sleeping car would have been better, instead of having to spend the entire way there in coach.” When nopony replied to his complaint, he heaved a sigh. “How long is it going to take us to get to Vanhoover anyway?” “Five days.” The answer came from Fencer, looking away from the window at last. “I asked the attendant as we were getting on,” she added. “It’s a five-day trip from Ponyville to Vanhoover.” Funshine cocked his head, looking confused. “But we got to Canterlot from there in almost half that time.” “That was because it was an emergency,” explained Granola Bar. “We were carrying injured ponies who needed medical attention, which was why Lex told the train to get to Canterlot as fast as it could. It didn’t slow down at any other stops or try and conserve fuel. But that won’t be the case now.” “Maybe it should be, with how the sun fell out of the sky for a couple minutes,” muttered Slip ‘n’ Slide. The comment sent a shudder through Fencer, nor was she the only among them to react that like. There’d been more than enough clues for them to put the pieces together. First was how neither Princess Celestia nor Princess Luna had been in Canterlot, with Princess Cadance and her husband having come down from the Crystal Empire to watch over the city in their stead. Then there’d been Fencer’s meeting with Princess Luna in her dream, and how agitated the princess had become at Fencer’s inadvertent admission that Lex had been cursing ponies. Then there’d been Soft Mane’s comment about “that awful stallion and what he did to Princess Luna,” to which Spike had mentioned Lex in response. That Twilight Sparkle – the pony who had, with the help of her friends, saved Equestria from monsters such as Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Tirek – was apparently hurrying back in response to whatever had happened had been enough to tie Fencer’s stomach in knots. But it had been the incident with the sun that had truly worried her. That the sun had, earlier that afternoon, suddenly set had taken everypony by surprise. But while most ponies had apparently been relieved when it had returned to its previous position a few minutes later and gone about their day with an “all’s well that ends well” attitude, Fencer hadn’t been one of them. For her, it had served as the final confirmation that something had gone horribly wrong. The princesses had gone to Vanhoover, encountered Lex, and something terrible had happened as a result. And it might be my fault. From a rational point of view, she knew that wasn’t a fair assessment. Based on her reaction when she’d let slip that Lex was cursing other ponies, it was obvious to Fencer that Princess Luna had already been suspicious of him. Moreover, Lex had never tried to hide his use of curses as instruments of punishment against those ponies that had committed terrible misdeeds, which meant the princesses would have learned about it soon after arriving in Vanhoover anyway. Thus, in her head, Fencer knew she had nothing to feel guilty about. But in her heart, she couldn’t help but worry that this was like when she’d unwittingly sent Turbo to his death all over again. That thought was bad enough on its own, but with how much had happened to her over the last few days, the mere prospect of even more guilt made Fencer want to scream. Not because of the pain that thought brought her, but because it was yet another shock to her system. Having gone from being a heartless criminal to being punished and forced into repentance, only to then be declared reformed and subsequently forgiven by the ponies she’d hurt most, had left her reeling. The prospect, no matter how remote, that she had more to feel guilty over was quite simply more than she could handle right now. The one bright spot had been that all indications of disaster had been related to the princesses, rather than Lex. Princess Luna had apparently had something bad done to her, and the incident with the sun had been an ominous sign about Princess Celestia. But as for what had happened to Lex himself, there had been no indication. That thought had been a source of hope for her, enough so that Fencer had been surprised at herself. While she still felt a lingering resentment at the princesses for never having come to their rescue when she and her friends had been trapped in Vanhoover, to say nothing of their failure to prevent the city from falling in the first place, that had been weak even before Luna had apologized to her in her dream. It certainly wasn’t enough to explain why she was apparently more worried for Lex than for them. But eventually, she’d come upon the answer. Lex Legis was someone she admired. The thought had been shocking enough that, when she’d first had it, Fencer had managed to miss her apple tree completely, instead bucking her empty bucket through the air and onto Slip ‘n’ Slide’s head. But she’d barely heard Slip’s indignant yells or Granny Smith’s peals of laughter, too thunderstruck to do anything but figure out why she apparently idolized the pony that had cursed her. In fact, the answer had been quite simple. Lex wasn’t just the pony that had cursed her; he was the one who had redeemed her. If it hadn’t been for him, she’d still have been the monster she was, cruelly preying on others for her own sake. But Lex had forced her to change, for the better. He’d had the strength to not only resist everything she’d thrown at him, but to push back with even greater power, driving her to such desperation that it had shattered the walls she’d built around her heart, letting her hear her father’s voice again. He’d refused to accept the remorse that she’d shown, cursing her for her crimes instead, which in turn had made his subsequent declaration that she’d been reformed – and that he was willing to trust her with other ponies’ lives – feel worthwhile because she’d earned it. And he’d kept her alive until she’d been able to do that, saving her even when she’d been intent on throwing her life away in a suicidal charge against the ghoul horde. Lex Legis had excised the darkness within her, saved her life, and given her back her self-respect. And just like that, Fencer had known the real reason why she’d wanted to go back to Vanhoover so badly. The stability she’d wanted wasn’t the stability of a familiar place; it was the stability of the pony whose spirit, unlike her own, had never wavered no matter what had happened. The help she wanted to give wasn’t directed towards the ponies still at the refugee camp; it was directed towards the pony who had been the one to help her. Lex had been there for her when she’d needed someone, and now she wanted to be there for him. I might be too late for whatever’s happened with the princesses, Fencer vowed as she felt the train begin to move, barely hearing the blare of the whistle, but there’s one thing I can do right now. It was nothing more than a symbolic gesture, but right now it seemed like the perfect way to express her appreciation for the second chance she’d been given. After all, Lex hadn't worked so hard to help her just so she could remain the pony she'd been when he'd found her... “I’ve decided.” “Hm?” Granola Bar blinked, sharing an uncomprehending look with the others before turning back toward her. “Decided what?” “On my name.” Banishing the last of her doubts, she took a deep breath. “I’m going back to being Garden Gate. For good.”