//------------------------------// // 523 - Initial Negotiation // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// Starlight leaped to her hooves as the door to the parlor suddenly burst open, a group of ponies she didn’t recognize rushing in. “Who’re-” But the pony at the head of the group – a mare wearing a sea captain’s hat – wasn’t listening to her. “Sandbar!” she barked even as her eyes scanned the room. “Where-” “Captain?” Barely noticing as the soundproof bubble around Twilight and her friends popped, Starlight watched as the lone stallion stepped forward, the confused look he was wearing being a perfect fit for his not-so-bright face. “Is everything alright?” “That’s our question for you!” snapped the earth stallion from the group that had just burst in, a tense look on his face. “We were worried!” “What do you mean you guys were worried?” huffed Rainbow Dash, giving the newcomers an irked expression. The sight nearly made Starlight roll her eyes. Although she’d never seen these ponies before, it was obvious from how alarmed they were that they’d not only heard about her escape, but knew that Twilight and her friends had been involved. But Rainbow Dash apparently wasn’t able to put two and two together. “We’ve been sitting here waiting on you for forever!” “Were you able to talk to River Bank?” asked Spike, the little dragon somehow managing to sound even more naïve than Sandbar. “Did she make Sonata change her mind?” The pegasus stallion who’d come in right behind the mare in the captain’s hat scowled. “Do you think we’re complete idiots?” he snapped, before turning his attention to Twilight. “You used us! We were your excuse to get back in here so you could rescue your accomplice!” For a brief moment Twilight looked perplexed, but unlike Rainbow Dash she seemed to immediately intuit what the stallion was implying, her eyes widening. “Wait, you’ve got it all wrong! We didn’t know-” “That the mare sitting across from you is a killer?” The new voice came from a pegasus mare who had been at the back of the group of newcomers, pushing her way forward now, glaring at Starlight even though her words had been directed at Twilight. Nor was it a mystery why; with her brown coat, black mane and tail, and a cutie mark of a gust of wind, Starlight recognized her immediately, tensing up. “I didn’t kill anypony.” “Not for lack of trying,” sneered the pegasus mare. Starlight didn’t get a chance to respond as Fluttershy gingerly stepped forward. “Forgive me for interrupting, but is it okay if I ask who are you?” “And how you know Starlight?” added Applejack, frowning. It didn’t set Starlight’s nerves at ease that the orange mare was giving her a look of distrust just as much as she was that belligerent pegasus. But if it bothered the pegasus mare, she didn’t show it, continuing to look at Starlight darkly. “My name is Thermal Draft, and less than five hours ago Starlight Glimmer tried to kill me. The only reason she didn’t is that my girlfriend, Cloudbank, saved me, and Lex saved her.” “You and your girlfriend,” shot back Starlight, unwilling to let someone else control the narrative, “had just hit me with a storm cloud’s worth of lightning!” “Aw, that’s not so bad,” guffawed Pinkie. “Rainbow Dash goes around zapping ponies every Nightmare Night!” Starlight had to stop herself from giving the pink pony a dark look, River Bank’s warning about having no one on her side still fresh in her mind. “This wasn’t some little bolt with no power behind it! If I hadn’t raised a shield at the last second, I wouldn’t be here right now! And she’s talking about me nearly killing someone?!” “Don’t you dare!” Thermal Draft flared her wings in anger. “I’ve been a weather pony for almost ten years! I know how hard to jump to control how much electricity is discharged!” “That is Weather 101,” added Rainbow Dash. But her idle comment had the effect of drawing Thermal Draft’s attention, and she narrowed her eyes as she regarded the blue pegasus. “And you…I heard about what you did to Lex. It was cowardly, attacking him out of nowhere like that after he was already exhausted saving us.” “HEY!” Indignant at her courage being insulted, Rainbow lips drew back in a snarl, clearly intent on giving Thermal Draft a piece of her mind, but she didn’t have a chance to do so as Applejack cleared her throat loudly, giving Rainbow Dash a pointed look. For a moment the colorful pegasus looked just stared at the apple farmer in outraged disbelief, before throwing her head back and utterly a loud groan of frustration. “FINE! Fine, I’m sorry, okay?! I made a mistake and I’m sorry! I’ll tell all of Vanhoover if everypony will just let it go already!” But Thermal Draft didn’t seem even slightly appeased. If anything, she seemed to get even angrier, flapping her wings as she flew upward and got right in Rainbow Dash’s face. “You’re ‘sorry’?” she hissed. “Lex is fighting for his life because of what you did to him, and you’re ‘sorry’?! Do you have any idea how much he means to m-, to everypony here?! He’s not just some celebrity! He saved us! All of us, again and again! And now, because of you, he might die, and you’re ‘sorry’?!” “Yes, she is!” Joining the other two in the air, Twilight gently pushed Rainbow Dash back, placing herself directly in front of Thermal Draft. “We all are! That’s why we’ve been waiting here, because we want to make up for what happened!” “I’m still not clear on how rescuing the crazy lady over fits in with that,” murmured Sandbar, having moved over to rejoin the other nautical ponies. Slowly returning to the ground, Twilight took a deep breath. “Listen, I know that a lot of mistakes were made, by everypony, and that a lot of bad things have happened. But nothing’s going to get better if we can’t all find a way to move past that!” Her face was pleading as she looked at everyone in turn. “I know that a lot of the ponies here have suffered, and that there are those who’ve lost everything, but that’s why this fighting needs to stop! Today more than one pony almost died; if this keeps happening, then eventually it won’t be ‘almost’! Nopony wants that. Not Lex, not Starlight, and not me. Can’t we start from there and see if there’s a way to work this out?” “So you’re saying what, exactly?” Returning to the ground, Thermal Draft gave Twilight a flat look, her expression no less upset despite the alicorn’s speech. “That after your buddy Starlight here attacked this place, and then your other friend Rainbow Dash followed it up, and then you broke Starlight out after she’d finally been captured, we need to be willing to trust you now?” She shook her head. “No. Even if I believed you about Starlight not wanting to kill anyone – which I don’t – you have absolutely no credibility with me after what you’ve done, and I’m pretty sure that’s true for everypony here.” From his place among his friends, the rest of whom were nodding at Thermal Draft’s words, Sandbar mouthed “we’re still cool” at Rarity. Twilight’s ears folded back. “Please, tell me what I can do to convince you that I’m being sincere!” “How about you start by turning Starlight Glimmer back over to us?” The earth mare in the captain's hat turned a cold gaze to the unicorn in question. “After what she did, a lot of ponies will feel safer knowing that she won’t have the chance to hurt anyone again.” To Starlight’s mild horror, Twilight didn’t immediately reject the suggestion, instead turning to look at her. “Are you kidding me?” Starlight blurted, knowing that Twilight was about to ask if that was acceptable. “No way! Twilight, you talk a good game, but there’s no way Lex will go for what you’re saying! If he gets the chance, he’ll curse me for sure!” The time she’d spent talking to Sonata on their way to Vanhoover made her certain of that. “What about a magic item?” asked Soft Mane. The question earned her several curious looks, including one from Spike. “What do you mean?” Taking a breath, the half-pony looked at Thermal Draft. “Look, the reason you, Sonata, and everyone else don’t want us near Lex is because you think we’re lying about healing him, right? What if Twilight made a scroll or a potion or something that I could cast a healing spell into? That way you could examine it and use it on Lex yourselves once you were satisfied that it’s for real.” “You can do that?” Starlight couldn’t help but ask. Healing magic was unusual enough, but being able to put what sounded like a pre-cast spell in an item didn’t sound like any magic she’d ever heard of. But Twilight didn’t seem to share her skepticism. “Soft Mane, that’s a great idea!” But her enthusiasm died as quickly as it had come, her head lowering in dejection. “No, wait…I don’t know how to make spell-storing magic items.” Now it was Soft Mane’s turn to look dejected. “But you studied with the Seekers on Everglow! I thought that was one of the first things they taught wizards!” Twilight’s face screwed up with a look of someone berating themselves. “Under Score offered to teach me, but I said no. I had already started learning that world’s magic, so I figured that a way to store those spells in objects was pointless if I could just cast them myself! I asked him to teach me how to make permanent magic items instead, stuff like enchanted cloaks and amulets and other wondrous things that we don’t have here in Equestria!” “Um, Twilight?” Wincing slightly as several ponies looked at her, Fluttershy gulped before managing to find her voice. “Couldn’t you just maybe make some sort of permanent healing magic item somehow? I mean, if you know how to build those, and Soft Mane knows healing magic, wouldn’t that work?” “I don’t know.” Starlight could almost see the gears turning in Twilight’s head, the alicorn princess going from uncertain to intrigued. “Magic items that could generate healing energy on a permanent basis were pretty unusual on Everglow, but that was largely a matter of them not being cost-efficient. The standardization of magic item creation on that world came about because of a breakthrough that allowed for greater material enchantment to be formulaic rather than componential. Naturally, discrete applications of a given effect required far less in the way of intrinsic imbuement, even when applied in multiplicity, compared to continuous manifestations of particular spell sequences, and since applications of healing were typically only needed at irregular intervals, the-” “Twilight, darling, this is all very fascinating,” interrupted Rarity, her voice making it clear that she found it to be anything but. “However, I think what’s more pressing is whether or not you could create such an item quickly?” Biting her lip, Twilight thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m not even sure I can do it at all, and probably not in less than a few days.” “Well what good is that?” snorted the smaller of the seagoing stallions. “So long as Lex lasts until midnight, Cloudbank can-” “Scrubby!” hissed the captain. “Shut up!” snarled Thermal Draft. But the smaller stallion’s slip-up hadn’t gone unnoticed, especially not by Starlight. “What does that mean? What can Cloudbank do at midnight that a healing item from Twilight won’t matter?” Cloudbank, she knew, was Thermal Draft’s girlfriend – the mare herself had let the name slip a few minutes ago – and so was no doubt the other pegasus who had attacked her with that thundercloud. But what did that have to do with restoring Lex? I already took care of the snake that Cleansweep filly needed to use her healing magic, Starlight recalled. Does he have someone else among his followers with similar powers? The thought sent a shudder down her spine. Soft Mane and Fluttershy had told her, on the way here, about how Lex was far more injured than River Bank had let slip, thanks to Rainbow Dash. The news had been welcome, taking the edge off of Starlight's worry about him coming to personally retrieve her. But now, with the renewed prospect of her worst enemy recovering his strength quickly, Starlight couldn't help but remember River Bank's prediction: that Lex would put a curse worse than death on her for what she'd done. “This discussion is over.” The words brought Starlight out of her worrying, hearing the sea captain's voice cut off several questions about Lex, Cloudbank, and midnight from Twilight and her friends as she, Thermal Draft, and the other ponies in her group backed toward the door. “I’ve got my crew member back, so we’re leaving. I suggest you do the same and vacate this manor immediately, because nothing you've said has changed my mind.” Twilight was already protesting, nearly begging for the retreating ponies to stay, but it was futile. Only a few seconds later, Lex's minions had retreated into the hallway, with Thermal Draft giving them one last mistrustful look before she slammed the door in Twilight's face. It was all Starlight could do not to smile at the sight. Now hopefully Twilight would realize that there was no peace to be had where Lex Legis and his band of fanatics were concerned. Because once she did, she'd come to the same conclusion that Starlight had a few hours ago. That for the good of Equestria, Lex had to be eliminated.