Lateral Movement

by Alzrius


516 - Overly Kind

“Quick!” whispered Pixie, galloping across the room to where Fluttershy and Soft Mane were still trying to pick themselves up. “Under the bed! You can finish healing him later!”

“Pixie!” hissed Soft Mane, her voice filled with alarm. “This isn’t-”

“No time!” Not daring to conjure a light, lest it be seen from beneath the door, Pixie reached out with her forehooves and blindly grabbed the other two, hauling them down and shoving them under the bed before crawling in after them, giving them a quick “Shhh!” as she did.

She’d barely finished before the door opened, four hooves being the only part of the newcomer visible from Pixie’s new vantage point. Leaving the door open, they proceeded to cross the room, stopping right next to the bed, mere inches away from where Pixie was holding her breath, able to feel Fluttershy shaking like a leaf next to her. Pixie could sympathize; from what she and Soft Mane had told her on their way here, River and everypony else were very suspicious of them already. She could only imagine how badly they’d react if someone found them in Lex’s room before they’d had a chance to heal him!

Fortunately, the pony who’d entered didn’t seem to have any clue they were there, giving a soft sigh that sounded distinctly annoyed. “Two doctors were just here, and they still had to send a nurse to change their patient’s bandages. Unbelievable.”

But the comment, clearly intended to go unheard by anyone else, received an unexpected response. “…nnngh…wha-…what’s going…?”

Pixie’s eyes went wide at the new voice. That it was coming from on top of the bed they were hiding under was unexpected enough, but that it was decidedly female was something else altogether! Trying to figure out what happening, she glanced at her companions, able to see them thanks to the light spilling in from the open doorway. Fluttershy looked back at her with an expression of barely-controlled panic, but past her Soft Mane was wearing an expression that was both tense and irritated. “Wrong room!” mouthed the half-pony, causing Pixie’s ears to flatten. This wasn’t Lex’s room? Then who…?

Her question was answered a moment later as the nurse gasped. “Oh! Miss Glimmer? Miss Glimmer, can you hear me?”

If Pixie’s eyes had been wide before, she was sure they were almost bugging out now. This was Starlight Glimmer’s room?! She’d managed to hear bits and pieces about the madmare who’d attacked this place, defeating all of Lex’s subordinates before the stallion himself had arrived to put her down. And apparently Fluttershy and Soft Mane had heard those stories as well, because they looked just as shocked. Or at least, Soft Mane looked shocked. Fluttershy looked like she was about to pass out.

“Wh-where am I?” Starlight’s voice was gradually getting stronger. “What hap-, huh?!” Several strained grunts were heard before Starlight spoke again, her voice suddenly panicked. “Why am I tied up?! Let me go this instant!”

“Miss Glimmer, please try to calm down. You’ll only make your injuries-, no! Don’t!”

“AAAAUGH!!!”

Pixie froze at the pained scream that came from Starlight then, the other two doing the same.

“Miss Glimmer, stop!” yelled the nurse. “Your horn is hurt too badly for you to use magic!”

Several tense seconds passed, broken only by the sound of Starlight’s labored breathing, before the mare in question spoke up again. “What did you do to me?!” she demanded, sounding like she was struggling not to descend into hysteria. “Where am I?! How long have I been unconscious?!”

“No one has done anything to you, Miss Glimmer, except treat the injuries you sustained during your fight,” replied the nurse in a soothing voice. They moved over to where the curtains were drawn then, opening them and letting sunlight come pouring in before their hooves strode back to the bedside. “One of the worst of those is a hairline fracture in your horn, which is going to keep you from using any magic for a while. Honestly, I’m amazed you were even able to make the attempt with the state you’re in.” A rustling of cloth was heard then before the nurse continued speaking. “To answer your other questions, you’re in what’s been designated as the medical wing of River Bank’s mansion, just outside of Vanhoover, and have been for the last few hours. Now please hold still so I can change your bandages.”

“Why? So I’ll be in tip-top shape when Lex tortures me later?” snapped Starlight, her voice no less tense despite sounding more in control of herself. “I’ve heard about what he’s done to the ponies who cross him. Was he just waiting for me to wake up before he puts some horrible curse on me?”

This time the nurse didn’t say anything, and Pixie couldn’t help but bite her lip at what that meant, sharing a worried look with Soft Mane and Fluttershy.

Finally, the medical pony spoke up. “I’ll go inform Doctor House Call that you’re awake. He’ll probably be along to examine you in a few minutes. Do you want me to leave the curtains open in the meantime?”

“Oh sure,” sneered Starlight, her voice thick with sarcasm. “The view of the ocean almost makes me forget that I’m tied up and waiting for a supervillain to do Celestia-knows-what to me. By all means, leave the curtains drawn.”

“…I’ll inform Doctor House Call that you’re awake,” repeated the nurse, somehow managing to sound only mildly exasperated. Then the medical pony crossed the room and left, closing the door behind them.

Starlight let out a sigh, and the sound of her head hitting the pillow could be heard. But Pixie was less concerned about that than she was with trying to figure out what to do next, giving a questioning look to the pair in hiding with her.

“You’re the magician!” mouthed Soft Mane frantically. “You figure out how to get us out of here!”

“It doesn’t work like that!” mouthed back Pixie. “Those tricks take a lot of setup! I can’t just- Fluttershy!”

That last word came out as a strangled whisper, Pixie’s eyes widening in horror as Fluttershy – who had looked unusually pensive for the last minute or so – suddenly climbed out from under the bed and stood up.

Her appearance wasn’t missed by Starlight Glimmer, with the bed giving a sudden shake as she no doubt jerked in response to the pegasus mare’s sudden appearance. “Who’re you?!”

“Please don’t be scared,” replied the pink-maned pony, cringing a little. “My name’s Fluttershy, and, well, you’re probably wondering why we were hiding under your bed-”

“‘We’?” interrupted Starlight, her voice suspicious.

Groaning, Soft Mane climbed out a moment later, and after a moment’s hesitation, Pixie did the same, watching as Starlight barely glanced at her in favor of staring at Soft Mane with wide eyes. “Wh-who are all of you?” she gulped. “Are you more of Lex’s minions?”

“Hardly,” snorted Soft Mane, crossing her arms under her chest.

Pixie, for her part, couldn’t help but feel a little surprised. “You seriously don’t recognize the Element of Kindness herself? Have you been living in a cave for the last few years?”

“My village doesn’t have newspaper service, and I was traveling before I lived there,” growled Starlight through gritted teeth. “Now somepony tell me what’s going on!”

Deciding it was better to forgo clarifying how she hadn’t actually been the Element of Kindness itself, Fluttershy tried again. “Maybe I should start over. I’m Fluttershy, this is Soft Mane, and this is Pixie,” she began, pointing to each of her friends in turn. “We were, um, looking for someone else, and came into your room by accident. We overheard what you were saying and, well…I couldn’t just leave. Not when I heard how scared you sounded about what Lex is going to do to you.”

Pixie felt a nervous thrill run through her then, and not just because there was a very real chance that the doctor that nurse had gone to fetch might walk through the door at any moment. “Should we be doing this?” she asked pointedly. “I overheard what everypony was saying on the way here, and this mare hurt a lot of ponies.”

“I didn’t start those fights!” protested Starlight. “Listen to me! My village is a place where everypony lives in happiness through equality! I came here because I wanted to help the ponies here find that same harmony! It was Lex and his flunkies who attacked me when I tried to tell them that there was a better way!”

“That does sound like something Lex would do,” admitted Soft Mane, recalling everything that she’d heard at Princess Celestia’s summit before the lhaksharut had attacked.

Fluttershy nodded. “And if we leave Starlight here and go help Lex recover, and he curses her later, then whatever he does to her will be our fault!” She looked ready to start bawling at the prospect.

But Starlight tilted her head. “What do you mean ‘help him recover’?”

Soft Mane opened her mouth to answer, but Pixie cut her off, not liking where this is going. “So what are you saying?” she asked, giving Fluttershy an uncomfortable look. “That you want to help her escape? Because if you’re trying to teach Lex about the magic of friendship, I don’t think helping the mare who put a lot of the ponies he cares about in the hospital is the best way to do it.”

Fluttershy flinched at that. “Maybe we should listen to her side of the story? I know if I went someplace new and everypony was mean to me just because I was a little different, I’d want someone to give me the benefit of the doubt.”

“…so would I,” murmured Soft Mane.

“Besides,” added Fluttershy with an embarrassed smile, “I’m a little interested in hearing more about how ponies can find happiness through equality.”

“I really don’t think this is a good idea,” protested Pixie, pointing at Starlight. “You should hear how everypony is talking about this mare! She’s public enemy number one!”

“Didn’t you tell us before that everypony is making up horrible rumors about you and your husband back in Las Pegasus?” pointed out Soft Mane.

The rebuke caused Pixie’s eyes to widen, not having thought about that. “That’s not-”

“You don’t have to decide right now,” cut in Starlight suddenly, causing everypony to look at her. “Listen, you heard that nurse: some doctor is probably already on his way here. Get back under the bed, and you can think it over while he’s examining me. Then, if you want, you can listen to my side of the story. If you’re still not convinced that I’m worth saving, that’s fine. Either way, I swear I’ll never tell anypony that you were here.”

Fluttershy’s eyes shone at that. “You see? Would someone who was a bad pony say something like that?”

They would if they were trying to gain sympathy points, thought Pixie ruefully. Hadn’t somepony said something about Starlight manipulating Sonata and some other ponies from that village of hers?

But she didn’t give voice to her doubts, still shaken by Soft Mane comparing her situation back home to the one Starlight was in now. Instead, Pixie simply sighed. “Okay, but I still think this is a bad idea. Even if you guys decide to help her escape, it’ll be really hard to get out of this place without being seen.”

“Luckily we have a talented magician who knows a lot about disappearing acts,” teased Soft Mane as she flattened herself down, crawling back under the bed.

Pixie snickered at that, rolling her eyes as she followed the half-pony hybrid. “I suppose we could consider this a trial run for our future partnership.”

“Don’t worry.” Fluttershy gave Starlight a reassuring smile before she moved to join the others back in hiding. “No matter what happens, I’m sure we’ll be able to figure things out.”

Starlight smiled back at her, relaxing back onto the bed despite her legs being bound. “So am I, now.”