//------------------------------// // 417 - Catching Up // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// Ribbon Cutter’s unexpected arrival brought Lex’s speech to a sudden halt as he tried to figure out what her being here meant. The obvious course of action in that regard was to eschew finishing his public address and go speak to her immediately. But Lex had just barely started to turn toward the steps down from the station platform when Aria’s frantic whisper reached his ears. “What’re you doing?!” she hissed. “You need to congratulate those kids and then tell everyone here your version of what happened with the princesses like you said you would!” Lex barely glanced at her as he whispered a reply. “There’s a situation-” “I’m sure it’s fine!” cut in Sonata. The assurance was so absurd that Lex couldn’t resist shooting her a sour look. He’d already mollified the Night Mare. Was the rest of this public accounting of his myriad failures and inadequacies really necessary? Apparently Sonata thought that it was. “Listen! I’m, like, totes surprised Ribbon’s here too, but we both know she’s no dummy! If there was some kind of big emergency she wouldn’t come strolling into camp like this! She’d be running at top speed and yelling ‘Hey! There’s some kind of big emergency!’” She gave him a pleading look then, not even trying to pretend that she wasn’t begging. “Lex, you’ve got everypony right where you want them! You need to keep going! Please!” Indecision made Lex grit his teeth. Under any other circumstances he would have discounted Sonata’s take on the situation, but her social acumen wasn’t something he could easily dismiss, not when the suggestions that she and Aria had been giving him – as unpleasant and arbitrary as he’d found them – had been going over so well with everypony. That…and there was the fact that Ribbon Cutter hadn’t arrived alone. Several ponies whom Lex recognized as the remnants of C. Shells’ crew were with her, as were Fruit Crunch and his friends. As Sonata had said, Ribbon Cutter was no fool; if there had been some sort of dire situation in Tall Tale, she wouldn’t have kept it to herself. The fact that the ponies around her – all of whom had seen battle one way or another – were casually leading her toward the back of the crowd, talking in what looked to him like a relaxed manner, suggested that whatever had brought her to Vanhoover wasn’t something that required urgent attention. Of course, that was entirely presumptive. Lex could easily think of numerous circumstances where it would be appropriate for Ribbon to withhold information from the ponies around her, exhibiting a calm demeanor despite a dire situation. But there was no evidence for or against any of those possibilities, leaving him with nothing to go on…except Sonata and Aria’s judgment. Letting out a slow breath, Lex turned back toward the crowd. Ignoring the twin sighs of relief coming from behind him, he began speaking again, fighting down the urge to grimace as Sonata quietly insisted that he use that grandiloquent name those foals had chosen for themselves. “Finally, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of the Night Mare’s Knights…” Ribbon couldn’t help but giggle as she watched those foals, and their animals, rush toward the front of the crowd, squealing with excitement. The serious demeanor that they’d adopted on the trip through the city – warning her to stay in the sunlight and away from nearby buildings, marching in a perimeter around her and everypony else, and even reassuring the traumatized butlers from River Bank’s household (at least until they’d gotten outside of the city proper, when those butlers had immediately fled back to her manor) – all fell away in an instant at the recognition from their hero. It was an adorable sight, and one that made her feel better about everything she’d heard in the last few days. But her opinion apparently wasn’t shared by her companions. “I can’t believe they’re buying this,” muttered Ocean Spray disdainfully. Ribbon raised an eyebrow, glancing around. They were at the back of the crowd, far enough that a quiet conversation wouldn’t disturb anyone. “You don’t think Lex is being sincere?” The pegasus stallion gave her a dark look. “Lex offered us his ‘condolences’ about what happened to the captain and Sandbar a few days ago. I’ve heard waiters apologizing for spilling a glass of orange juice who sounded sorrier than he did then. This is just him stepping his game up a little.” “Everypony was applauding him just now,” pointed out Compass Rose, her voice making it clear that she was neutral on the issue. “Clearly some of them think he’s being genuine.” “He might have threatened to curse them if they didn’t,” ventured Scrubby, mopping his brow for the third time in ten seconds. “And why’s the train station a pile of rubble now?” “I heard it was a lover’s spat,” came a new voice. Ribbon glanced over at the mare heading toward them, a guarded smile crossing her lips. “River.” “Ribbon,” replied River Bank without missing a beat. “Still coloring your mane, I see.” “I’m impressed your eyes are that sharp, given how wrinkled their corners have become,” shot back Ribbon easily. Ocean Spray arched an eyebrow at the exchange, glancing at Ribbon. “Friend of yours?” The mare who’d approached them gave him a look that most ponies would have reserved for a cockroach they’d found in their kitchen. “My name is River Bank, and if you’re one of the bumpkins who’ve been using my yacht, then I hope for your sake you made sure to scrub the hull free of barnacles before you disembarked. Otherwise you’ll have a hard time finding work in this city from now on.” Looking like he’d just been slapped across the face, Ocean Spray was already starting to turn red. But he didn’t have a chance to answer before Compass Rose spoke up. “Our priority has been speed, as per Lex’s directions.” She nodded toward the platform, where the stallion in question was still speaking. “I assume you’re not saying we should have ignored his instructions?” River snorted at the blatant deflection, but knew better than to answer the question. “The trip to Tall Tale and back should have taken a day at most, even for a crew of middling ability. But it’s taken you several days to return from ferrying those poor injured ponies to the hospital there, something Lex has been quite frustrated about. Did you have trouble operating a vessel that doesn’t need to be rowed?” Ocean Spray opened his mouth to reply, but Ribbon cut him off before he had a chance. “Actually, River, I’m the reason that they’re late coming back. I wanted to talk to them about everything that’s happened here. Of course, I’ll take full responsibility if Lex is upset.” Without missing a beat, she turned to look at the Ocean Spray, Compass Rose, and Scrubby. “Would the three of you excuse us, please? River and I haven’t seen each other since the last Sister Cities Cooperation Council meeting, and we need to catch up.” For a minute Ocean Spray looked ready to tear River a new one, but Compass Rose gently but firmly nudged him back, and the two of them moved away, Scrubby following behind them anxiously. “That old nag needs someone to scrape the barnacles out from inside her-” The rest of Ocean Spray’s insult was lost as the crowd began to applaud another of Lex’s platitudes, leaving River and Ribbon alone as they disappeared into the throng of ponies a moment later. Ribbon waited until the clapping died down before turning back to River. “You better hope they don’t run into one of the Hoofingfords,” she teased lightly. “Otherwise they might find out who actually runs the dockyards here.” But River didn’t return her relaxed expression. “If any of the Hoofingfords made it out alive, then those louts can appeal to them if and when they turn up.” The smile slowly slid off of Ribbon’s face. “It’s really been that bad?” River raised a brow. “You saw the state the city was in on your trip here, didn’t you? I imagine those three had plenty to say about it.” “They did,” admitted Ribbon. “But they didn’t try to hide that they hate Lex, the same way those kids up there obviously love him. I tried speaking to the ponies those three brought back on your yacht, but they weren’t in any condition to talk…” “I’m not surprised,” muttered River darkly, cradling her foreleg. The gesture made Ribbon tilt her head a little; from what she could see there was nothing wrong with the other mare’s leg. After a moment she licked her lips, hesitating before asking what she knew she needed to. “Mounte and Piggy…?” “Piggy’s back at my manor,” replied River after a tense moment. “But Mounte…” She shook her head. Ribbon bit her lip. “River, I’m so sorry.” “Thank you.” The words were delivered emotionlessly, and an awkward silence fell as the two of them listened to Lex talk about how those foals had shown dedication beyond their years. This time River was the one to break it, sighing after several seconds had gone by. “So are you going to tell me exactly why you’re here? I doubt you showed up in person just so you could review that proposal for an inter-city logrolling team at the next Equestria Games.” The corners of Ribbon’s lips managed to turn up a little at that. “Well, I still think that we have a few things we could teach your town about that,” she quipped. But this time she turned serious almost immediately. “I came here because people are starting to get worried. When those injured ponies arrived, word started to spread about how bad things were here, and…” She paused for a moment, grimacing a bit. “Lucy accidentally let it slip that I contacted Cloudsdale about sending emergency rainclouds to Vanhoover. That didn’t help.” River snorted. “You really should fire that little twit.” “She’s family to me.” Shaking her head, Ribbon moved on. “Then the princesses showed up. At first everypony thought they’d come because of what happened with the dragon – everypony is already saying that they were there when Lex fought that thing, or that they had a neighbor or a relative or a best friend who was – but Celestia and Luna had barely arrived when they had their guards fly them up here. I didn’t even have a chance to go out and greet them! And then with the sun setting for five minutes in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, you can’t believe the rumors I’m hearing!” The ghost of a wry smile tugged at River’s lips. “Well, your town is called Tall Tale.” Ribbon gave her a grim look. “I’ve got a dozen ponies willing to swear on their cutie marks that they saw the Royal Guard touch down in the train station yesterday and commandeer a locomotive back to Canterlot. Now if it was just one or two I might be inclined to think that they were just pulling a few legs, but they’re all telling the same story, saying how the princesses were rushing back home like their tails were on fire. And some of them…” She paused, leaning closer to River as she lowered her voice. “Some of them were saying that they were carrying a body. Others were saying that the princesses were injured. A few aren’t sure Princess Luna was even there. Everyone’s nervous, so I came here to find out for myself what’s been going on.” She paused for a long moment, giving the other mare a penetrating look. “And in all the time I’ve known you, you’ve always had your hoof on the pulse of what’s happening in your city. So would you care to clue me in?” “And now, I’d like to avail myself of this chance to expound on the events of the last few days.” River chuckled dryly at Lex’s announcement. “It looks like I won’t have to. Get comfortable,” she advised. “This is going to be a lot to take in.”