Lateral Movement

by Alzrius


493 - Held in Reserve

“Your Highness, are you sure this is alright?”

Pixie’s question made Prince Blueblood snicker, his face the picture of condescending amusement despite not bothering to look at her, instead inspecting his hoof with a critical eye. “My dear, everything that royalty does is ‘alright,’ as you so inelegantly put it, so long as it’s done with refinement and regality.” Apparently finding nothing out of place, he turned to give her a patronizing look. “But I confess myself curious as to what exactly you’re referring to.”

“Well, it’s just…” Gesturing toward the crowd of ponies in the distance, Pixie swallowed nervously. “We saw that ‘Lex’ monster rush toward those ponies, and now…” She bit her lip as a clamor of gasps and worried cries rang out from the assembled ponies, clearly witnessing something upsetting. “If he’s hurting somepony, shouldn’t we hurry over there instead of, um…stopping for a makeover?”

Reclining on the silken blanket that one of his servants had produced, and surrounded by a half-dozen attendants who were brushing his coat, combing his hair, shining his hooves, cleaning his tail, and applying a touch of foundation to his face, Blueblood rolled his eyes in a dramatic show of exasperation. “I can assure you, my dear Pansy-”

“Pixie.”

“Of course,” replied Blueblood dismissively as another servant applied a few sprays of cologne. “But I can assure you, only a common pony such as yourself would think that this is a mere makeover. Rather, this is how a prince prepares to go into battle on his people’s behalf.” His voice dripping with self-satisfaction, Blueblood gestured toward the distant collection of ponies. “In a few minutes, I’ll confront the knave who dared to besmirch the honor of my fellow royals. And when I take to the field, it’s vital that both that ‘Lex Legis’ reprobate and the assembled ponies witness me in all my resplendence, so that they can fully understand the scope of the magnificence that he dared to sully.”

“Um, Your Highness?” Trotting over from where several other servants were preparing for the prince’s grand entrance, the reedy valet from before bowed, keeping his head low as he spoke. “We’ve polished your crown, but I’m afraid that your velvet mantle has some wrinkles in it that will take a little while longer to remove. Should we start, or would you prefer to go with the cashmere one instead?”

The question made Blueblood shoot to his hooves, sending the servants clustered around him stumbling as he rounded on his valet in a rage. “You nincompoop!” he sputtered. “You absolute, blithering ninny! That mantle is my finest piece of outerwear! How am I supposed to make Lex Legis regret the weight of his transgressions if I can’t impress on him the full splendor and glory that is Equestrian royalty?!”

Flinching at the verbal assault, the valet lowered his head even further. “I’m very sorry, Your Highess.”

“Oh well isn’t that simply marvelous?” huffed Blueblood sarcastically. “Because of my servants’ incompetence, my regalia – the lustrous finery which serves to both communicate and enhance my stature – has been critically compromised just as I need it the most! But it’s going to be just dandy because you’re sorry.” A gesture brought another attendant scurrying over, placing a pillow on the ground so that Blueblood had something clean to stomp on. “Now there’s a chance that the villain won’t be overawed at the sight of me! Can you imagine what would have happened if I hadn’t come prepared for the possibility of escalation?!”

“I’m very sorry, Your Highness.”

“Oh, do be quiet, won’t you?!” scowled Blueblood. “Just stand back and be ready in case the grand entrance you ruined doesn’t dissuade that Lex fellow.” Sighing, Blueblood laid back down, glancing at the serving ponies clustered around him. “The rest of you, back to work! I can’t very well make a proper presentation if I’m starting to sweat now, can I?”

As the attendants returned to making sure that Blueblood looked immaculate, Pretty Penny crept closer. “Your attention to noble bearing is an inspiration to us all, Your Highness,” she cooed obsequiously. “It’s much the same in the hospitality industry, since we take pride in making sure our accommodations are fit for a prince!”

Not to be outdone, Razzle Dazzle snorted. “Oh please, anypony can vacuum a rug and turn down some sheets. If you want to get a glimpse of grandeur fit for royalty, everypony knows that you need to go to a Palace.”

Pretty Penny chuckled, even as she glared daggers at the older mare. “Oh, I think you’re having a senior moment, Razzle dear. I’m sure somepony as sophisticated as the prince would prefer to relax in a more refined venue, rather than hobnobbing with lowlifes who enjoy watching floozies shake their tails.”

“You mean lowlifes like your son?” sneered Razzle. “Because he certainly didn’t seem very ‘refined’ when he was putting his hooves all over one of my girls.”

“My soon is a good boy!” shot back Penny, her façade of civility dropping away as her temper flared. “Your bimbos took advantage of his innocent nature!”

“Please,” scoffed Razzle. “He’s a brute, as low-class as his mother’s cheap hotels.”

“So,” interrupted Pixie, wearing her dismay openly, “no one else is worried about what Lex might be doing to those ponies?”

Her question hadn’t been directed at anyone in particular, but she swept her gaze across everyone in the group. Blueblood ignored her entirely, as did his servants. Penny and Razzle simply scowled at her, clearly resenting having been interrupted. Gladmane, Checkered Cab, Rant ‘n’ Rave, and the other ponies who had come from Las Pegasus either rolled their eyes or sneered at her.

Finally, she turned to River, who had watched both Blueblood’s temper tantrum and Penny and Razzle’s bickering with unusual passivity. But to Pixie’s disappointment, she didn’t seem concerned about everypony else either, simply giving a resigned shrug. “It’s out of our hooves now,” she sighed. “Lex and the prince are both going to do what they’re going to do.”

Her shoulders slumping, Pixie was about to protest her friend’s apathy when Gladmane piped up. “Now there’s an odd sight.”

Curious despite herself, Pixie followed Gladmane’s gaze, blinking in confusion a second later. That was an odd sight, she had to admit.

Rushing past them, headed toward the crowd of ponies, were a pair of pegasi mares. Wings flapping, the two of them were pushing a cloud ahead of them, the first one that Pixie could recall seeing since she’d arrived in Vanhoover. By itself, that wasn’t really noteworthy; every town had weather ponies.

What made those two unusual was that they, and their cloud, were flying just a few feet off the ground.


“Are you sure this is a good idea?” fretted Thermal Draft.

“I’m sure,” nodded Cloudbank. “There aren’t any other clouds in the sky, so if we go in high there’s a good chance that we’ll be spotted by whoever Lex is fighting, and I doubt they’ll just stand still while we position our cloud right over them and start jumping on it. Now that all those houses have been built, we can sneak in, circle around, and hopefully get into position without them knowing.”

“I just wish there was some way we could let Lex know what we’re doing,” moaned Thermal Draft. “Not being able to help would be bad, but if we screw up and make things worse for him, I’ll never forgive myself!”

Fighting down a twinge of jealousy, Cloudbank made herself put on a confident smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out.”

“But you still only have one spell left, right? One that helps boost the recipient’s courage?”

Cloudbank nodded. Despite having been deceased for several weeks, from her perspective – as well as Drafty’s – only a few hours had passed since they’d fought their way through a bunch of ghouls in order to get to the bank vault. During the battle, Cloudbank had expended almost all of the spells that she’d prayed to the Night Mare for, leaving only the courage-boosting spell remaining. Since being resurrected she hadn’t had a chance to pray to the goddess for more.

But after being told that she was the reason Drafty could be brave, Cloudbank felt obligated to keep her spirits up now, even if she didn’t have all the answers. “We’ll figure something out,” she repeated.

Drafty didn’t look nearly as reassured as Cloudbank would have liked, but there was no time to try bucking her up more as they reached the edge of the crowd. Stowing their cloud behind one of the featureless houses, the two flapped their wings harder, moving up onto the roof of the building in order to get a better vantage point. What they saw made them gasp.

The train station had been completely destroyed, pieces of the building scattered across the landscape. Unconscious ponies dotted the area as well, and it took Cloudbank a moment to realize that she knew one of them, recognizing Fencer sprawled out next to an unknown mare who was extraordinarily beautiful despite her ragged state. A stone’s throw away were several children, two colts and a filly lying unmoving. A third colt was likewise unconscious, his head being cradled by a bright yellow pegasus filly, and it was with a start that Cloudbank realized they were the two she'd met back at the manor house, their animals nowhere to be seen now.

And Lex…

“I’VE GOT YOU NOW!”

Both Cloudbank and Thermal Draft gasped as they watched a unicorn mare they’d never seen before unleash a series of blasts all around Lex. Although they didn’t connect with him, the shards of debris that they flung every which way made him lurch as he was peppered with shrapnel, the impacts jerking him about before he finally laid still, facing toward them.

For a second both mares couldn’t do anything, paralyzed with shock. Then Drafty dove back down to retrieve their cloud, shouting for Cloudbank to follow her. But Cloudbank lingered, suddenly needing some sort of confirmation that Lex was still alive after what had just happened. Thankfully, she got one a second later as he opened his eyes…

And looked right at her.

It was a coincidence, of course. He had been spun around by the hit, and just happened to be looking in her direction. But for a brief second Cloudbank couldn’t look away, a powerful feeling of divine providence washing over her as she saw Lex make a brief gesture, his lips moving as he laid there with his back to the purple unicorn…

“Cloudy! Let’s go!” Thermal Draft’s words snapped her out of her reverie, and she dove back down to join her at their cloud, the two of them pushing it along the outside of the assembled ponies as fast as they could. A few stopped to look at what they were doing, but most couldn’t take their eyes off of what was happening. More than a few were softly intoning for Lex to get up, and several – to Cloudbank’s surprise – were calling out soft pleas to the Night Mare to help him.

“Okay, this should do it!” Drafty’s declaration was enough to pull Cloudbank away from contemplating how popular Lex, and his goddess, had become. Glancing over the top of their cloud, she could see that had finally circled behind the purple unicorn, still standing a short distance from Lex. Oddly, she didn't seem to be doing anything, instead just fiddling with a gem that was circling her head for some odd reason-

“Sonata?!”

Drafty’s yelp of surprise made Cloudbank look away, following her girlfriend’s gaze to where a group of almost a half-dozen ponies were watching the fight, standing apart from the rest of the crowd. It took Cloudbank a second to recognize that Lex’s paramour was among them, since her hair was braided and her cutie mark…what? No, it didn't matter now. "Keep your voice down!" she whispered. "If that unicorn notices us before we get this cloud over her, we won't be able to zap her in time to help Lex! Now come on, we-"

“…Cloudbank…”

Hearing Lex's voice whispering in her ear almost made Cloudbank shriek. "Huh?!"

"I'm using a spell…to transmit whispers…between us…" came his pained murmur. "I heard…what you said. Get into position…and wait…for my signal…"