//------------------------------// // 390 - Battle of Wills // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// It was dark out when Lex woke up. The transition from nightmare-filled sleep to wakefulness was as jarring as ever, but this time the unpleasantness of his awakening was ameliorated by his current circumstances. Namely, the sleeping mares cuddled up against him. On his left was Sonata, still grinning widely despite being fast asleep. On his other side was Nosey, her hooves wrapped around his foreleg as though unwilling to let him go. And Aria was draped over his lower body, her face in his lap as if about to continue her earlier activities… The memory made the blood rush to his face, but despite his embarrassment Lex couldn’t help but feel vaguely pleased with himself. After what River had told him, Lex had known that he’d needed to find a way to make things right with Aria. Fortunately for him, Aria hadn’t wanted to have a conversation about what had happened the way Nosey or Sonata would have, affording him no opportunity to make things worse the way he so often did. Instead, she’d been intent on a contest of wills, and that was something that Lex was far better equipped to handle. Even if the actual contest had been on her terms… “Hey boyfriend,” announced Aria, a malicious grin on her face as she strode into the station lobby. Or rather, strutted in, because there was no other word for the casual swagger she was carrying herself with, her hips swaying with every movement as she advanced on him. “Guess who’s back?” The declaration made Lex frown. Although he’d asked Sonata to go and retrieve Aria, he had no time to deal with whatever mischief she was keen on now. Not if he wanted to figure out how to deal with the ultimatum that the Night Mare had given him. “This isn’t the time-” “I’m making it the time.” Her pace didn’t slow as she moved toward him, still smirking. “You owe me an apology, and I’m here to collect.” Lex’s frown deepened. Even without the mantle of supreme authority that he’d assumed, no one had the right to demand anything of him, especially for something he hadn’t done wrong. While he was now aware that he’d unintentionally hurt Aria’s feelings, her actions had warranted the harsh rebuke he’d given her. The fact that he felt bad about that now in no way validated Aria’s insistence that he give her a statement of contrition, and he fully intended to make sure she understood that, struggling to rise to his hooves. “Aria-” But he didn’t have a chance to finish as Aria reached out a hoof and casually pushed him over. Landing on the bench that had long since become their bed, Lex couldn’t help but be momentarily stunned, less by the fact that Aria had done that than by the fact that it had worked. While the additional magic that he’d used to bolster himself during his fight with the princesses had long since worn off, his array of permanent defensive spells were still active, as were the protective magic items that he was wearing. While they all functioned in slightly different ways, their collective capacity was to make it easier for him to avoid or resist incoming attacks, and that applied to attempts to knock him off balance as much as it did to strikes or blows. For him to be so easily shoved in spite of all those, Lex knew, was a testament to just how badly he was injured. Aria seemed to realize that as well. “Wow, Sonata and Nosey weren’t kidding. You are out of it!” Her grin widened then. “Oh, this is gonna be so much fun!” The statement was enough to make Lex grit his teeth. Despite having no real way to fight back – the only offensive magic he had left was his spell to encase an enemy in ice, which was far too deadly to use on another pony, let alone someone he cared about – he immediately moved to get up, despite how badly it made him ache to do so. If Aria thought she could push him around just because of his injuries, she was sorely mistaken! But he’d barely started to rise before Aria made her move, climbing on top of him and sitting on his lap, easily pinning him to the bench. “Now,” she purred, “let’s see how tough you are when you can’t go on the attack.” “Aria.” Nosey’s voice made Lex and the mare in question both look over at her. Frowning as she walked into the lobby alongside Sonata, Nosey nervously adjusted her glasses, her uncertainty written all over her face. “What are you doing?” Completely unperturbed by the appearance of the other two, Aria didn’t miss a beat. “Exactly what I said I was gonna do. Lover boy here owes me an apology for taking away my voice.” Her grin turned knowing then. “And he owes you one too, for kissing you and then tossing you aside. Don’t you want to wring them out of him?” The innuendo was enough to make Nosey blush, sputtering, but it was Sonata who spoke up. “I dunno. This really doesn’t seem like how I got Lex to say he was sorry to me that one time.” “Yeah,” drawled Aria, turning back to the stallion in question. “Sonata told me that you and she had a really sweet heart-to-heart before, that you turned on the waterworks and everything. And I’ll admit, I was a little jealous. I started wondering how I could get you to say sorry like that to me. But then I had a much better idea.” She leaned closer to him then, her voice lowering into a husky murmur as she put her lips by his ear, much like how she had last night. “I don’t want you to tell me you’re sorry. I want you to beg me for forgiveness.” Lex’s pride flared at that, his eyes shining green-and-purple in anger, but he didn’t have a chance to voice his outrage as Aria…began to gyrate on top of him. The pleasant sensation of her hips rubbing against his own was unexpected enough that Lex’s anger was immediately replaced by confusion, his eyes returning to their normal color. What was she doing…? Above him, Aria straightened up and grinned as she continued to dance in his lap. “That’s right,” she cooed. “Just lie back and enjoy it.” Flustered, Lex reached a hoof up to her chest, intent on shoving her off of him. But between his injuries and the lack of leverage afforded him by his current position, he couldn’t muster the force necessary to do so, accomplishing little more than roughly caressing her. Seeming pleased at the touch, Aria caught his hoof between hers, bringing it up to her mouth and slowly dragging her tongue across the bottom of it. The entire time her eyes never left his as she continued to grind against him in slow, languid motions that left him struggling to control himself. “W-wait, this is what you meant?!” Nosey couldn’t have sounded more shocked, but apparently not enough to avert her eyes, instead gaping at the erotic spectacle in front of her. The sudden reminder that they had an audience made Lex’s embarrassment skyrocket, unable to help but glance over at the other two. Nosey was still staring, turning redder and redder while Sonata was glancing between him and Aria, biting her lip and looking like she was trying to make up her mind about something. Neither seemed inclined to interfere with what Aria was doing, and for some reason that made Lex feel even more self-conscious. Desperate to try and regain some measure of control over the situation, he snatched his hoof back. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing,” he growled, forcing himself to sound irritated, “but I’m not in the mood.” “Oh, don’t worry,” chuckled Aria, before pressing her lower body against his just so, leaving Lex barely able to hold back a grunt. “You will be.” She didn’t stop her sensuous wriggling as she turned to look at the duo watching them. “Hey Sonata,” she called casually. “Why don’t you show Lex what you and blondie have been getting up to in your free time?” “Huh?” Nosey blinked, dazed from how caught up in the show she’d been. “Wait, what’d you say?” “Hmm…” Sonata hesitated for only a moment before shrugging, a carefree smile sliding across her lips. “Kay!” Lex was about to ask what they were talking about, but the words got lost between his brain and his mouth as Sonata turned to Nosey…and kissed her deeply. The sight was enough to shatter any pretensions of disinterest on his part, and he watched in utter shock – and rising appreciation – as the blonde pony flailed at first, squealing into Sonata’s lips and almost falling over, only to be slowly pacified as Sonata advanced on her as hungrily as Aria was on him. It took only a matter of seconds before Nosey was allowing herself to be moved onto her back, shaking and breathing heavily but not resisting as Sonata nuzzled her and slid one hoof down between her hind legs… “There we go,” snickered Aria as she felt what she’d been expecting. Changing her motions accordingly, she was rewarded as she heard Lex's breath catch. “Now,” she purred when his eyes slid back to her a moment later, “let’s see if I can get you to beg…” But you weren’t, were you? smirked Lex to himself as he glanced down at the sleeping Siren. As skilled as Aria was – and, he’d found out, she was very skilled indeed – she hadn’t been able to break Lex’s self-control. Thankfully, his injuries had actually helped in that regard, since the pain from his overtaxed muscles had given him something to focus on besides how exquisite Aria’s body felt. That, and once they’d finished Sonata had started pestering Aria to let her take a turn, dragging Nosey along with her… Despite her loss (as Lex preferred to think of it), Aria hadn’t seemed too upset about not getting what she wanted, draping herself over him after they’d all finished with a murmur about “next time it’ll just be you and me.” While he wasn’t sure if that meant she was still holding a grudge about his temporarily removing her voice, he couldn’t bring himself to be too worried over it. If anything, he found himself looking forward to it. But it might not happen now. The thought made him grimace, raising his left foreleg. The dim light from the campfires outside, barely able to get in past the shuttered windows, offered scarcely enough light to see it by. But he could still feel how much tighter the wire had become, wrapping around his leg tightly enough that it was now distinctly uncomfortable. By morning he knew the pain would become much worse, and by tomorrow night… Lex held back a sigh of frustration. The Night Mare would have to have her sacrifice by then, he knew. And if he went through with it, then what he’d just shared with the girls would never happen again. He’d realized it before, when he was confessing his feelings to Nosey: while he considered things like his intellect and his magic to be intrinsic facets of who he was, as well as necessary components for implementing his goals, what he found valuable – what brought actual joy to his life – was his relationship with the three mares that he’d come to love. That was what the Night Mare was demanding that he give up. It made perfect sense. Ending his relationship to the girls wouldn’t impair his abilities, nor would it prevent him from retaining their services, whether as spokesponies or newsmares or any other professional capacity. It would just mean that he couldn’t be with them romantically. And Lex knew he could do it, too. He’d proven that to himself when Sonata had left him on their journey to Tall Tale. Ending his relationship with the three of them would consign him to a state of perpetual misery, but Lex knew he wasn’t so weak as to be unable to live that way. Even so, it was something he wanted to avoid if at all possible. Which meant that he had roughly twenty-four hours left to figure out some sort of alternative. Some way to make the Night Mare rescind her threat, or offer her an acceptable alternative that he could live with sacrificing, or something else. But so far he hadn't been able to think of anything. The problem was one of information. Any solution he came up with would need to be one that the goddess would find satisfactory, and Lex had been forced to conclude that he simply didn't know enough about her to be able to make that particular judgment call. His information about her had come from what he'd learned on Everglow, but that had been before he'd struck his deal with her; at that point, he'd made only a passing study of the various religions there, more interested in that world's magical advancements. It was an oversight that he regretted now, but there was nothing he could do about it. The only people in Equestria who could have told him more about the Night Mare were Severance – whom he'd had banished – or possibly Cloudbank, who had briefly studied the Night Mare's dogma under Severance's tutelage. But she wasn't available either, and what little Lex had studied of that resurrection spell he'd been given had made it clear that he'd never be able to decipher it in only one more day. Which meant that there was no way to learn more about the goddess before he had to make his choice. No, he realized a moment later. There's one. It wasn't an option that he liked, and it carried some risk with it, but Lex knew that there was no other viable choice available to him in the time he had left. Slowly, doing his best not to disturb the girls, Lex started to get up…