//------------------------------// // 603 - Kiss and Tell // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// “Was the entertainment to your satisfaction?” Lex watched as Nosey glanced at him, only to avert her eyes a moment later, looking back out the window of their carriage. “Y-yeah. It was nice.” That was a far kinder characterization than Lex would have made about the show they’d just seen – an utterly banal stage adaptation of the adventures of some mare he’d never heard of named Daring Do – but he didn’t bother saying so. Sonata had been quite clear that he should frequently inquire as to Nosey’s state of mind, regardless of whether or not there was any evidence to suggest a change in her disposition. Aria, begrudgingly, had agreed. When Lex had pressed them on their reasoning, the Sirens had explained that simply inquiring was apparently a demonstration of concern, something which had only confused Lex more. For one thing, his experiences with repeatedly querying someone for the same information over and over had been decidedly negative. Likewise, demonstrating concern seemed highly inappropriate; with Nosey having ended their romantic relationship, he no longer had the requisite standing to be invested in her emotional well-being, or at least no investment beyond that which he’d have for anyone else. That last point was a bitter admission on his part, since the sight of her still sent a pang through him, but he knew his own feelings on the matter had no bearing on the situation. Nosey had made her choice, and since there was no compelling governmental interest in her personal life – and unlike with Sonata and Aria, there was no pretext upon which to declare her incompetent to manage her own affairs – that left Lex with no choice but to accept her decision. Particularly since his vow to the Night Mare to abstain from formal relationships of an amorous nature was still in effect. “Lex?” “Hm?” Glancing at him again, Nosey seemed to need a moment to find her voice. “I, um…I just wanted to thank you for these last few days. For what you did for my folks, I mean.” She smiled at him then, and the sight made his heart ache. “It really means a lot to me.” Now it was his turn to look somewhere else. “The decision was a strategic one,” he replied gruffly. “Based on what your mother told me, Silhouette’s tactics were covert. By placing Tranquila and the ponies assisting her at your parents’ disposal, any chance that he might target them here is minimized.” Her ears folded back at that, but only for a moment. “I know. But I still appreciate it. I was feeling bad that I was horning in on their anniversary. Now they’re having a vacation fit for royalty. I’m just glad I was able to talk them out of cancelling everything and heading back early.” Lex wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he elected to remain silent. For her part, Nosey fidgeted in place, glancing around the interior of their ride. But there was little to hold her gaze – his more spacious transportation having been loaned to Nosey’s parents, forcing them to use a smaller method of conveyance – and so after a moment she went back to looking out the window. But only a few seconds had passed before she spoke up again, seemingly unable to bear the silence. “So, um…what are Sonata and Aria up to?” “Shopping,” answered Lex, not bothering to hide his distaste. For some reason, that got a giggle out of Nosey. “They’re already out spending your money, huh?” “They’re not spending anything,” answered Lex with a frown. “They simply walk into a store and ponies offer them whatever they want.” The entire thing was unseemly, but there was little he could do to put a stop to it. If ponies wanted to offer their wares to Sonata and Aria free of charge, that was entirely their prerogative. And while he’d made it clear that he didn’t think that the two of them should accept such overt obsequiousness, his admonishment was toothless and they knew it; simply accepting gifts wasn’t any sort of misdeed, let alone one worthy of a curse. As such, the Siren sisters’ shopping trip continued unabated; if anything, Sonata had seemed oddly intent on their outing, despite Aria protesting that it would mean leaving him alone with Nosey. Lex could only hope that Coat Tail would find a way to curb the worst of their excesses. But apparently Nosey saw little wrong with the situation, still snickering as she shrugged. “I guess that’s one of the perks of being the prince’s girlfriends.” “They’re not my girlfriends.” Nosey’s good humor faded at that. “Right…your vow.” This time neither of them broke the silence, and it was only when the carriage stopped in front of her hotel that Nosey spoke again, knowing what was coming. “You don’t have to escort me upstairs. I’m certain everything is fine.” “I’m not certain,” growled Lex, opening the door before the chauffer could, stepping out and looking back at her. “Which is why I’m going to continue checking until I am.” Lex couldn’t read the emotion that passed across Nosey’s face then, but after a long moment she nodded, stepping down to join him. “Alright.” Glad that was settled, Lex led her inside. Although it had been several days since he’d found out what had happened to Nosey, the thought of Silhouette brutalizing her still sent a rush of rage through Lex, and it was only with deliberate effort that he was able to maintain his temper. He’d given little thought to Silhouette after Celestia and Luna had fled Vanhoover in the wake of their defeat, but now he found himself almost hoping that crazed stallion – his initial attempt to pump Nosey for information having been foiled by her editor’s timely intervention – had followed her to Las Pegasus. The need to punish the stallion for what he’d done, for having beaten and terrorized Nosey, was so powerful that it bordered on overwhelming. Nor was Silhouette the only one Lex blamed. The Royal Guard’s treating Nosey like a suspect rather than a victim had only inflamed his outrage further, heightening the contempt he felt for the princesses whom they answered to. For that matter, while he’d stopped short of holding Celestia and Luna responsible for Silhouette’s actions – what he’d done was so far outside the purview of the Royal Guard that the doctrine of respondeat superior couldn’t be applied – Lex still found his contempt for the pair deepening, since they’d apparently been aware that Silhouette’s actions in the wake of his resurrection had been highly suspect (he’d apparently gotten into a physical altercation with Shining Armor) yet had taken insufficient measures to mitigate whatever had driven him to such reprehensible actions. It was yet another example of why they were unfit to lead. That was why, after they made their way upstairs, Lex proceeded to check the suite that he’d secured for Nosey and her parents, inch by painstaking inch. Every closet, cabinet, cupboard, and crawlspace was examined. Every ceiling tile moved jostled and moved aside. Every window had its lock checked. It wasn’t until he’d looked through everything he could possibly think of that Lex finally ceased his efforts, and even then he wasn’t satisfied, knowing that if he’d only been able to enhance his senses, he would have been able to search far more thoroughly in far less time. “It seems secure,” pronounced Lex at last, emphasizing the second word. “I’ll confer with the manager on my way out to make sure they’re still taking precautions. No hotel staff coming to this floor who haven’t worked here for at least a year. No guests on this floor who haven’t booked their rooms at least three months in advance and can prove their identity. No unauthorized stairwell access, and the elevators will continue to be monitored.” He wasn’t sure if she needed him to reiterate that each and every time he checked her room, but presumably doing so fell under the purview of Sonata’s advice about repetition being a good thing. But that seemed to be in doubt as Nosey gave him an odd look. “Lex…you know I never blamed you, right? You don’t have to feel guilty for what happened.” “Of course I don’t,” snorted Lex, scowling at the implication. “My actions are in no way responsible for what Silhouette did.” That much was obvious. Regardless of the fact that Silhouette’s apparent motivation had been to gather information about him, presumably for some ill-considered attempt at revenge for either his death or Luna’s curse, Lex knew full well that it was facile to suggest that there was a causal chain between either of those events and Silhouette’s subsequent crimes. The two-toned stallion had neither been under orders nor could he claim any sort of circumstantial impetus to attack anyone else, and so he bore sole culpability for his actions. Despite the mild rebuke, Nosey was smiling as she shook her head. “I meant for what my mom said the other day, back in the restaurant.” She paused then, taking a breath and licking her lips before continuing. “You didn’t take advantage of me, after what happened with Xiriel. I wasn’t…I may not have been at my best, then, but I’d already decided that I, you know…liked you.” Lex felt a knot of tension inside him unclench at that. “Nosey…” “Besides,” she continued, her face reddening as she looked away, “if I was going to blame someone, it would be Sonata. I swear, she’s my best friend, but I still wanna smack her for using magic to seduce me like that.” Lex blinked. “She did what?” Nosey cocked her head. “Yeah, right before you fought Celestia and Luna. I thought she told you?” Stunned, Lex could only shake his head. Nosey looked similarly perplexed. “She didn’t say anything about it at all? I thought with how upset she was that she couldn’t get in touch with Kara-” “Kara?!” echoed Lex, horrified. “The goddess?! What does she have to do with this?!” Cringing a little, Nosey gulped. “She told me that she’d been talking to her for a little while, asking for advice on her relationship with you. But for some reason Kara stopped responding, so Sonata thought that if the two of us…did it, that might-” “Are you telling me,” interrupted Lex, his voice a hiss of fury and alarm, “that not only did Sonata use her magic to beguile you into an unwilling sexual encounter, but that she’s also been clandestinely feeding information about me to a deity other than my own?!” “W-well, like I said, Kara had stopped responding to her,” repeated Nosey. “She was pretty upset about that, since she wasn’t sure what to do about you and Aria. And I, um, wasn’t exactly unwilling…” she admitted, red-faced. “I mean, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go through with it, but when her spell wore off I…didn’t want to stop. So, I guess I sort of agreed to it after the fact?” “…I’m going to put a curse on her such as this world has NEVER SEEN!” snarled Lex, his eyes blazing and his jaw clenched as he turned and started for the door. “Wh-, Lex, no! No! Stop!” Rushing past him, Nosey threw herself in front of the exit, blocking his path. Furious, he glared at her, black crystals sprouting around the two of them. “Get out of my way, Nosey!” “No! This isn’t why I told you that!” Desperate, she stood up on her hind legs, leaning back against the door. “Look, I’m telling you, I’m fine with her having used her magic on me, okay? I know I said I was mad at her for it, but I didn’t mean it! So please please please, don’t punish her because of me!” “That doesn’t mean what she did was okay!” roared Lex. “And it certainly doesn’t excuse her passing sensitive information about me to a foreign divinity!” Only the knowledge that he would have lost all sensory awareness kept him from changing into shadow-form in order to bypass her, not wanting to take the chance that he’d rematerialize inside a solid object. Instead, his horn lit up as he tried to move her telekinetically. “She did it for you!” An aura sprung into being around Nosey’s horn, her telekinesis fighting with his as she tried to keep herself in place. “Lex, she did it because she was in love with you and didn’t want to lose you!” Lex ignored her pleading, focusing on moving the coal-coated mare. For a moment he considered augmenting his magic, but decided against it; he could already feel Nosey’s grasp slipping. Apparently, Nosey felt it too. “Kara was the one who talked her into taking you back after you broke up!” Freezing at that, Lex let his aura dissipate, shocked for the third time in as many minutes. “What?” Panting from the brief struggle, Nosey nodded. “She told me. She was feeling terrible about what happened, so she asked Kara what to do, and she helped Sonata realize that she still loved you.” “…” There was nothing Lex could say to that. Sonata’s leaving him remained one of his most painful memories, and while renewing their relationship had been an arduous process, it was one he remained intensely appreciative of. And Kara was responsible for that…? “Lex?” Tentatively taking a step forward, Nosey took a breath, steadying herself. “Listen, I know I don’t get a say in things now, since we’re not together anymore, but…please just listen to her side of things before you go all curse-happy, okay? Talk to her instead of berating her. Please?” “…fine,” muttered Lex, still reeling from the revelations of the past few minutes. A ghost of a smile crossed her lips. “You promise?” He gave her a dark look at that, but couldn’t hold onto his anger. “Yes.” Giving a relieved sigh, Nosey crossed the distance between them, wrapping him in a hug. “Thank you,” she murmured as she planted a kiss on his cheek. Not sure how to respond, Lex half-heartedly returned the embrace, then moved toward the door. This time Nosey didn’t block him. “And Lex?” she called as he crossed the threshold, making him pause to look back at her. “Don’t forget how much you love her. Not for a second.” Then she closed the door behind him. Lex still hadn’t figured out how he felt by the time he made his way back to his own hotel. That his tulpa hadn’t begun berating was the best that he could come up with, but that wasn’t much of a point with which to anchor his feelings. The anger and betrayal were still there, but they were marred by confusion and ambivalence, along with a growing concern for how much Sonata had kept from him. But despite the maelstrom of emotions whirling within him, Lex wasn’t so out of it that he failed to notice something was wrong as soon as he opened the door to his suite. The entrance was dark, despite it only being late afternoon. The lights had all been turned off, and across the room Lex could see that the curtains had been drawn, the heavy drapes shutting out all of the light from the windows. But the dim lighting bothered him far less than how no one was there to greet him. “Feather Duster?” “That you, Lex?” came Sonata’s voice from the direction of their bedroom. “I sent the maid on an errand. She’ll be gone for a little while.” The reply made Lex frown, not having expected Sonata back from her shopping trip so soon. Still, it was just as well, and he stalked toward the open doorway. “Sonata, we need to t-” His voice died on his lips as he beheld the sight that was waiting for him. The entire room was lit with candles, clusters of them spread around on various tables and ledges. A sweet scent hung in the air, as though the entire room had been bathed with perfume. Rose petals were scattered across the floor, as well as the foot of the bed. But those were nothing compared to the mare who was at the center of the room. Sonata had let her hair down, her mane flowing over her reclining form like a gauzy curtain as she laid back on the bedspread. The pink négligée she wore clung to her in all the right places, outlining her proportions in a way that accentuated her curves. Her back legs were clad in stockings of a matching color, climbing all the way up her legs only to end at mid-thigh, leaving the upper portions of her limbs tantalizing unclad, and Lex found himself staring as she teasingly rubbed her legs together, the motion making her hips wriggle. “Welcome back, baby,” she purred, her voice thick with desire. “I’ve been waiting for you.”