//------------------------------// // 449 - Dry Spell // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// “There’s a train coming!” Glancing up at the earth stallion whose name she hadn’t bothered to remember, Aria raised an eyebrow. “So?” “So?!” echoed the pony, clearly shocked that she wasn’t as excited as he was. “So there’s a train coming! Listen!” He held still for a moment, putting a hoof by his ear. Sure enough, a few seconds later came the sound of a train whistle, faint but undeniably there. “Maybe some of the people who evacuated the city are on it! We should hurry back!” “Not until we’re done here,” huffed Aria, what little interest she’d had in this new development already fading. Instead she went back to what she’d been doing. Singing the words to a minor telekinesis spell – it wasn’t as good as what most unicorns had, unable to move more than four or five pounds at a slow drift, but it got the job done – she lifted a small rock to just the right height before releasing it as she gave it a sharp kick, watching it sail across the street and hit a few feet to the left of the window she’d been aiming for, one that still had an intact pane of glass. Cursing, she glanced around for another rock, and it was then that she realized that stallion was still there, giving her a discouraged look. “Did you not hear what I just said?” she growled, a note of irritation entering her voice. “B-but the train…” sputtered the earth pony, his expression making it plain that he didn’t understand why this wasn’t top priority. “You want to go see that train so badly?” This time her voice was a full-on snarl, advancing on the stallion slowly, causing his eyes to widen as he backed away. “Then get back in the bank and help the others finish emptying the vault! Because we’re not leaving until it's empty! Otherwise you can keep pushing me and SEE WHAT HAPPENS!” “Y-yes ma’am!” he squeaked, before turning and running back inside at top speed. “And don’t even think about pocketing any of those bits for yourself!” yelled Aria after him. Not that she really cared if he did, but she knew that Lex would hold it against her if he found out that any of them had, the same way he would if any of them ended up hurt. It was why she’d had to go on this stupid errand in the first place, since he didn’t trust anybody – oh, right, “anypony” – else to handle things if there was still a ghoul lurking around. And so she’d had to trudge through that smelly, filthy bank, checking every nook and cranny and alcove to make sure that there were no undead hiding anywhere. There hadn’t been, and Aria still felt mildly irritated about that; she really could have used something to take her anger out on. Fortunately, the combination to the vault Lex had given her had worked, so the grunts he’d sent with her could take it from there, meaning that she was free to sit outside and wait for them to finish hauling everything out and into the wagon they’d brought. Now if only they’d hurry up; train or no train, she was so bored… Another rock missed the window, this time going too high, causing Aria to utter another round of profanity. She was half-tempted to steal some of the money herself, purely to stick it to Lex for sending her on these hideously dull assignments. There’d been at least one every day for almost a week now, and the monotony was grating on her. But as much as she wanted to pay him back for making her do this, she knew better than to try. After all, she was still suffering under the results of what had happened the last time she’d pushed him too far… “I’m not in the mood.” “Oh come on!” groaned Aria. This was the second night in a row Lex had used that excuse. She’d let it go before; between his having gotten into another fight with Sonata and how the two of them were both obviously upset that Nosey had left (unlike Aria, who totally hadn’t been sad to see her leave or anything), it had been obvious that they wouldn’t be using the huge bed in River’s guest room for anything but sleeping in. But tonight was different. He’d had a full day to get Nosey out of his system, and Sonata had taken off for her one-mare tour of all the hick farms north of Vanhoover that morning. Now that night had fallen, it was the first time Aria would get to have Lex all to herself, and she’d been looking forward to it. Except now he was being difficult for whatever reason. But that’s fine, she decided. I know how to get a rise out of him in more ways than one. After all, she’d done it before… “Well, I guess that makes sense,” she drawled in a syrupy voice, separating herself from where she’d been nuzzling him and wandering back toward the bed. “After all, Blondie took your family jewels with her when she left, didn’t she? Or was that Sonata?” The insult earned her a dark look from Lex, glaring at her from where he was seated at the small writing desk on the other side of the room, reviewing that ledger River had left him. “Don’t test my patience, Aria. Shut up and go to sleep.” “Or maybe,” she continued as if she hadn’t heard him, crawling onto the bed and stretching lithely, “you’ve finally figured out that I’m just too much mare for you to handle.” She gave him a mocking grin as she continued. “After all, the last time we did it, I was the one on top.” She rolled her hips lazily, briefly pantomiming the lap dance she’d given him a few nights previous when he’d been too exhausted to resist. “And before that you ran away with your tail between your legs instead of going all the way with me.” “Aria…” There was a dangerous tone in his voice now, his eyes having flared green-and-purple the way they did when he was either very upset or casting a spell. And he definitely wasn’t casting a spell now. But rather than worry her, the sight sent an excited thrill through her. After all, that was exactly how he’d sounded right before he’d almost taken her back at the train station. And this time there wouldn’t be any blonde four-eyes to mess things up. Now all he needed was another little push… “I guess I’ll just have to go find another stallion who can satisfy me then,” she mock-sighed, rolling off the bed and lazily sauntering toward the door, making sure to put a little extra sway in her step as she did. “I wonder if I should go give that premature pegasus another chance. Or maybe that old butler who runs this place. I bet he’d love to stick it to a mare who looks just like his boss, except younger and hotter.” She’d almost reached the door by then, extending a hoof toward the handle- Only to be stopped as black crystals grew across the door, sealing it shut. Fighting down the urge to grin in triumph, she glanced back over her shoulder, her expression one of mild irritation. “Do you mind? I’ve got places to go and ponies to do.” “I can assure you,” answered Lex coldly, rising from where he’d been seated, “you have neither.” “Is that a fact?” This time she did smirk, her cocky grin silently daring him to back his words up with action. “You don’t seem to understand that our relationship has changed.” Slowly, Lex stalked toward her, his eyes still blazing. The sight sent a rush of fear through Aria, and she reveled in it, feeling herself heat up. “When I declared you incompetent to function on your own, you stopped being my girlfriend. From that moment on, you’ve been a ward of the state, and I AM THE STATE!” He struck a hoof on the ground then, and Aria almost jumped. “That means that I am the one who makes all of your decisions! I decide where you go! I decide what you do! And I decide who you spread your legs for!” He was right in front of her now, glaring down at her imperiously as he got right in her face, his voice lowering to a growl that was no less intense than his shouting had been. “And you don’t spread them for anyone except me.” The heat that had spread through her had become an inferno by then, making her breath quicken and her tail twitch. His anger carried the promise of passion, and she knew that one more little push was all it would take, and he’d stop holding back. “Prove it,” she whispered, voice husky. The smile that crossed his lips then was pure evil. “Very well.” She expected him to fling her onto the bed and mount her roughly, rutting her like an animal until she screamed in joy. She hadn’t expected to see his horn suddenly flare with a purple aura, followed immediately by a sudden sense of discomfort similar to when a leg had fallen asleep, except across her entire body. Belatedly realizing that he was casting a spell – no, a curse! – on her, she tried to resist it, attempting to flex her own magic and shake it off before it could get ahold of her, but it was already too late. A second later she felt his magic sink deeper into her, and the uncomfortable tingling passed. “What did you do?!” she demanded, her heart slowing down a moment later as she realized she could hear herself. Whatever he’d done, he’d left her voice intact. It was enough to make her hope that this was some sort of magical foreplay on his part; that this was a curse that somehow made things better in the bedroom, like that pleasure-touch spell of his that Sonata had told her about. But that hope was dashed a moment later as Lex gave a vindictive chuckle, his horn still glowing as he telekinetically retrieved the ledger from where he’d left it at the desk. “Exactly what I said.” He didn’t give her a chance to ask what that meant as he moved passed her, the black crystals covering the door turning to dust in an instant. “I’m going to go over these figures somewhere quieter. Enjoy your evening, Aria…if you can.” “What does that m-, ah!” Aria’s question was cut off as Lex exited the room. In the instant that he’d moved a few paces away from her, it was like a bucket of cold water had been poured over her, her libido instantly shutting down. “No…!” A horrible suspicion sprouting in her mind then, Aria practically flung herself onto her back, reaching a hoof down between her hind legs and rubbing frantically. Nothing. She might as well have been scratching her head for how lackluster it felt. “No no no no no no no!” Leaping to her hooves, Aria charged out of the room, fury and anxiety coursing through her as she went to go confirm the curse that Lex had put on her… The next several hours had been frustrating in the extreme. She’d rushed through River’s manor until she’d found one of the butlers – a younger one who looked like he was still a teenager – going around and snuffing any candles that had been left lit. Practically pouncing on the surprised fellow, she’d started to nuzzle him passionately only to immediately feel the uncomfortable sensation return, stronger than it had been when Lex had first laid that curse on her. The feeling of the other stallion against her body, both directly and through his clothes, had been like diving into a pit of centipedes, and she’d flung herself off of him in revulsion, rushing out and leaving the poor stallion lying there in confusion. The same thing had happened when she’d run across Feather Duster a few minutes later, grabbing her as she’d been coming back from giving Tiddlywinks a late-night feeding. She hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep that night, trying everything she could to get rid of – or at least bypass – Lex’s curse. Since she still had her voice, she’d tried to use her dispelling spell to lift it, to no avail. Equally useless were the makeshift toys she’d tried; everything from using a carrot to sitting on a washing machine while it was running had been no more stimulating than her hoof had. She’d briefly considered rounding up a few stallions and having them pleasure themselves all over her, but abandoned the idea; while that might upset Lex, it wouldn’t do anything for her, save for probably causing his curse to activate in some other horrible way that she didn’t want to think about. But it hadn’t been until the following morning that she’d realized the full extent of what Lex had done to her. She’d been trudging to the dining room, intent on ordering the manor staff to bring her some breakfast (and hoping to catch them gossiping about how she’d been acting last night, so she could unleash her pent-up frustrations on them in a decidedly violent fashion), only to find Lex there. He didn’t even look up as she entered, eating that horrible porridge of his and reviewing that wretched ledger. She’d stalked toward him then, intent on having him remove that curse even if it required another magical battle…only to be left gasping as she got within a few feet of him. All of a sudden her libido was working again, the lust that she’d felt last night back like it had never left. With how frustrated she’d been all night, the sensation had been heady, and she’d been ready to climb into his lap and start bouncing right there while the servants watched. But Lex didn’t give her a chance to act, speaking without lifting his eyes from the pages in front of him. “This is how it’s going to be from now on. You will feel neither amorous desire nor carnal pleasure unless you’re within five feet of me. If you aren’t, then you won’t be able to stimulate yourself, and the touch of others will bring only revulsion.” “You can’t do this!” she’d snarled at him, still not sure if she wanted to kill him or jump him. He’d looked at her then, his expression calm and collected. “I believe I’ve made it very plain that I can,” he’d replied matter-of-factly, before producing a piece of paper with some writing on it from one of his saddlebags, sliding it over to her. “Now, you’re going to lead a group of ponies into Vanhoover today to retrieve some more bits from one of River’s banks. You’ll be responsible for their safety, as well as making sure that they don’t help themselves to anything that doesn’t belong to them. The combination is on here. There should be a ledger like this one in the vault as well. Bring it-” “I won’t do it!” Her voice had been a hiss, furious that he thought he could treat her like this. Or at least, she told herself that she was furious. Her body, now able to feel the aching need that she’d been trying to recapture all night, had other ideas. “I absolutely won’t!” He’d looked at her then, his features hardening. “Yes,” he said in a voice that made it clear he would not be denied, “you will.” He’d leaned forward then, his voice lowering to a whisper, and the sensation of his breath in her ear had made her bite her lip to keep from moaning. “Because if you’re a good girl, I’ll reward you later tonight.” She’d wanted to dump that disgusting porridge over his head. To tell him that she was walking out of his life forever, and that she’d find a way to break his curse even if it killed her. To rip his precious ledger into pieces right in front of him before she went and used her magic to knock down part of the manor on her way out. But she hadn’t done any of that. Instead… Instead she’d been a good girl. And the reward had been so worth it. “So worth it,” murmured Aria to herself, as she kicked another rock, this time missing the window only by inches. “Worth what?” came an unexpected voice, making her jump. Turning around, she saw the stallion from before had returned, this time with the rest of the crew that she’d led here, tossing bags onto the now-fully-loaded wagon. “Is that everything?” she demanded, vaguely irritated that this nobody – or nopony, whatever – had caught her daydreaming. He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Everything in the vault, ledger included. Can we head back now?” His obvious eagerness almost made Aria roll her eyes, but she resisted the urge. “Fine. Let’s get out of here.” Despite her irritability, she couldn’t help but feel slightly excited. Another errand completed without incident, which would hopefully mean that Lex would reward her again tonight. After all, she’d been a good girl. Pausing at that thought, Aria lifted another rock. Taking a long moment to aim carefully, her leg lashed out, and a moment later she heard the sweet sound of glass shattering, chuckling. Sure, if Lex wanted her to be a good girl, she could do that. When I’m not being bad.