Lateral Movement

by Alzrius


623 - Falling Hope

Lex’s mind went into overdrive as Dark Streak swooped directly toward them, analyzing every aspect of what was happening.

How the assassin had found them was obvious. With the light from the fire, there was no way to keep a group as large as theirs hidden from view. Not when Dark Streak was viewing their position from above, her initial ascent having taken her to just below where the smoke was collecting near the ceiling. For that matter, the back of the factory was the only part of the place that wasn’t covered in flames yet, meaning that she wouldn’t have needed to look very far to find them anyway.

And now that she had, there was no way to fight her off. For all the injuries that Sonata and Aria had dealt her – on top of the ones he’d managed to inflict on the griffon during their previous altercations – Lex couldn’t see anything to suggest that Dark Streak was significantly injured. Her wings beat steadily, her talons clutched her daggers tightly, and both of her eyes were locked onto his remaining one. With her bandoliers still strapped across her chest and her bags still held securely around her middle – minus the one he’d managed to take from her – she was very clearly still in fighting condition.

That was more than could be said for his group.

Feather Duster had yet to regain consciousness, making her worse than useless in a fight since she’d need to be protected. Nosey and Thermal Draft were little better; both had some minor combat experience after what they’d been through in Vanhoover, but neither were anywhere near Dark Streak’s level. Sonata and Aria had the ability to meaningfully fight back, but based on what Lex had seen of their previous fight, neither of them were a match for the assassin.

Nor was he, for that matter. In all of his previous encounters with the griffon, it had taken everything he had just to drive her back, and each time had come at a high cost in terms of how many injuries he’d taken. Now he desperately clinging to consciousness, barely able to move, and the only magic he had left was a spell that would let them run away…so long as he left someone else behind to face the assassin’s wrath in his place.

But that idea – of abandoning someone else while he fled to safety – was utterly beyond Lex’s ability to accept.

The plan that he came up with in response to that wasn’t really a plan at all. It was a gamble, one that had almost no hope of working, and would put everyone’s lives at risk. But it was also the only course of action that offered any hope of getting them all out alive.

It was also a course of action which took him a half-second too long to come up with, realizing too late that Dark Streak wasn’t pulling out of her dive, either confident in her ability to arrest her forward motion in an instant or intending to slam into him full-force.

Which one was a question that would never be answered, however, as Sonata and Aria chose that moment to begin singing.

Voices raised in tandem, both Sirens sped through their chants in a single breath, unleashing a wave of magic at the plunging griffon.

“Twenty feet ahead!” shrieked Aria, a small orange ball of light shooting from the end of her hoof.

Sonata’s cry was far louder. “STAY BAAAAAAAAACK!!!”

Although the wave of sonic force wasn’t visible, Dark Streak somehow swerved around it anyway, wings angling sharply in the air as she banked hard to her right. The power concentrated in Sonata’s voice pummeled a nearby stack of shipping pallets, the wooden slats sent flying as they were reduced to a storm of splinters, but Dark Streak didn’t seem to notice as the shards of wood went flying past her harmlessly.

Instead, the assassin tucked her wings in close to her body, letting her mid-air turn become a fall. That lowered her elevation just enough that when Aria’s fireball exploded an instant later, she was already out of its radius. Somersaulting as she hit the ground, Dark Streak didn’t let her momentum go to waste, coming up into a crouch and springing forward with only slightly less speed than when she’d been flying.

The acrobatic display left Sonata and Aria gaping, and neither mare was able to do anything more than gasp in alarm as the assassin was suddenly right in front of them, her daggers flickering in the firelight as she struck out at both of their necks.

Her eyes never left Lex the entire time.

That was likely the only reason that Nosey and Thermal Draft were able to reach Sonata and Aria in time, the former yanking on Sonata’s tail with her telekinesis while the latter tackled Aria. Neither was able to save the Sirens from being injured, but the cries of pain each mare gave made it clear that the assassin’s strikes hadn’t been lethal, leaving deep cuts across their cheeks instead.

If Dark Streak was upset that she hadn’t killed either mare, she didn’t show it. Instead, she continued advancing, making her way directly toward where Lex was slumped against the back wall of the factory. She clutched her weapons tighter as she approached him, her knuckles turning white as she stalked forward, her tail whipping back and forth behind her. “Do you have any,” she snarled, her voice trembling with repressed fury, “any idea what you did to me?!”

“…” Lex made no response, instead eyeing her coldly as he attempted to struggle to his hooves. But even with his gemstones still orbiting his body, the effort was more than he was capable of, and he collapsed to the ground, unable to so much as raise his head.

Despite his condition, the lack of an answer only made Dark Streak angrier. “It wasn’t personal!” she screamed. “It was just a job! But you made me live through my worst memories all over again! And after all the restraint I showed!”

“What are you saying?” croaked Aria from behind her.

The question made Dark Streak glance back at her sharply. But the injured mare was struggling just to disentangle herself from the pegasus that had bowled her over, looking back at her and Lex with a desperate expression on her face.

The sight made Dark Streak snort in disgust, turning back to Lex. “When I took this contract, part of it stipulated that I didn’t kill anyone except you. If I do, then the other half of the money is forfeit. And while I don’t mind breaking the rules if sticking to them is too much trouble, all I really cared about was getting paid. But now it isn’t about money anymore. Now, I’m going to kill you because I WANT YOU DEAD!”

“No,” muttered Sonata from where she’d collapsed against Nosey and Feather Duster, opposite of Aria and Thermal Draft. “No…”

“Yeah,” sneered Dark Streak, giving the mare a look of contempt before returning her gaze to Lex, who was still lying face down on the floor. “But before you die, I’m going to make you live through your worst memory, just like you made me. And since you breathed in that poison and it didn’t affect you, I’ll just have to make sure that your worst memories…” Her voice lowered, but the wrathful tone it possessed wasn’t any lesser for it. “…are right now.”

In the back of her mind, Dark Streak knew she was making a mistake, knew that she should just kill him and be done with it. This pony had already proven that he was incredibly resourceful and extremely dangerous. Taunting him like this was an invitation to disaster.

But this was no longer about what was tactically sound. Regardless of whether he’d known what he was doing or not, Lex Legis had found the part of her that hurt the most and stomped on it. Simply killing him wasn’t enough, now. She needed to hurt him, to break his spirit, in a way that mere physical injury never could.

She hefted her daggers then, a cruel glint flashing in her eyes. “That’s why I’m going to slaughter your little harem right in front of you.” Her back legs came forward then, giving him a kick in the ribs. “Do you hear me, Lex Legis? You’re going to watch them die, crying and screaming and begging for you to save them, while you lay there powerless to do anything!”

Nearly trembling, she waited for his reaction. For him to look at her in impotent rage and fear. For him to tremble pathetically and try to pick himself up. For his horn to start glowing or for him to begin chanting, either of which would immediately find her dagger carving another gash across his body so as to disrupt whatever spell he’d try to cast.

But instead, Lex Legis did nothing.

It was the last thing Dark Streak had expected, and the worst thing he could have done, leaving her clenching her beak so hard it nearly cracked as her frustration boiled over. “SAY SOMETHING!” she screamed, kicking him again, this time hard enough to make him turn over. “Say something, you bastard!”

And he did, in a whisper which – now that his voice was no longer muffled by facing the ground – just barely reached her ears.

“Do it now, both of you!”

And then Dark Streak heard the sound of Sonata and Aria singing. It made her whirl in place, turning to face the two of them, certain that they were trying to attack her mind. After all, she was standing right in front of Lex, which meant they couldn’t attack her with fireballs or sonic screams again; they’d hit him too.

Except this time, the Sirens weren’t aiming at her.


The plan that Lex had come up with wasn’t really a plan at all. It was a gamble, one that had almost no hope of working, and would put everyone’s lives at risk. But it was also the only course of action that offered any hope of getting them all out alive.

It was also a course of action that relied on others to pull off, specifically Sonata and Aria. But with Dark Streak right in front of him, Lex knew he couldn’t simply say his idea out loud. Not when so much relied on trying to catch the assassin – who was fast enough to dodge magical attacks in mid-air from little more than a dozen feet away – off-guard.

That was why, when she’d approached him and started talking instead of finishing him off, Lex had seized on the opportunity she’d so stupidly given him, making sure to collapse in a way that hid his face from her eyes.

While deception was something that Lex objected to in principle, he knew it had its uses. Primarily when it came to employing misdirection against an enemy. He’d made good use of such tactics during his duel with Twilight, manipulating her into disadvantageous circumstances repeatedly so that he could maneuver her into a trap. And while Dark Streak was far shrewder than the youngest alicorn when it came to battlefield stratagems, her sudden loquacity was an error he intended to take full advantage of.

“Sonata, Aria,” he whispered, keeping his voice as low as he possibly could, knowing that his whisper-spell was still in effect. “On my signal, I want the two of you to fire your most destructive spells directly above us. If I’m right, that should be enough to bring the airducts on the ceiling crashing down.”

That was an idea that he’d gotten from Nosey and Thermal Draft. The latter had mentioned that they’d crawled in through the building’s ductwork, while Nosey had speculated that they’d break under the weight of six ponies. Presuming that she was speaking from experience, that something had happened while she and Thermal Draft were entering the factory, that meant that – combined with how the metal had to already be starting to warp under the heat from the expanding blaze collecting up near the ceiling – a powerful shock would bring them down.

“What are you saying?” croaked Aria, and her voice was loud enough that Lex felt certain that she’d remembered that he couldn’t hear whispers sent to him in return.

“As soon as you cast your spells, grab the ponies next to you and run for the exit,” he continued. “If you move fast enough, you should be able to get clear of any falling debris and make it into the fire. You’re already wearing the gel, so you’ll be alright, and if those vials were Dark Streak’s only way of resisting heat damage, she won’t be able to follow you.”

“No,” moaned Sonata. “No.”

Lex wasn’t sure which part of his plan she was objecting to, but he could guess. “While you’re doing that, I’ll cast my spell and teleport to the front of the building. We’ll meet up there. Now, as quietly as you can, tell Nosey and Thermal Draft what’s about to happen, and get ready…”

Neither mare said anything else, and Lex could only hope that they were following his instructions and telling the other two about the plan. Such as it is, he scoffed to himself. The sequence of events he’d outlined was predicated on guesswork and chance, with very little room for error. He could easily think of a dozen things that could go wrong, ranging from the girls’ magical attacks – despite the range they covered – not hitting anything due to all of the smoke obscuring the ceiling to the debris hitting some or all of them if they didn’t run away fast enough to Dark Streak having some contingency that he couldn’t possibly have anticipated.

But it was the only way, now. His teleportation spell required that he be touching anyone he wanted to take with him, and Dark Streak was standing between himself and everyone else. Nor could he simply teleport himself and the murderous assassin elsewhere to let the girls escape unhindered; the same limited energy expenditure that kept the spell from being able to cross more than a small distance prevented it from bringing an unwilling passenger along. Any resistance from whoever was touching him when he cast it meant that the teleportation would automatically exclude them.

The only chance of everyone making it was for something to draw away Dark Streak’s attention – something like the unignorable danger of a huge pile of metal falling toward her – just long enough for everyone else to flee the scene. If that worked, and if she had no way of reacting or escaping, and if nothing else went wrong…then they’d all make it out, leaving the assassin behind.

Although the fact that – even with how agitated she’d become – Dark Streak was apparently so unperturbed about being inside a burning building without her fire ward gel was a source of concern all its own…

But there was no more time to consider that as Lex felt Dark Streak’s paw hit his ribs, first with only moderate force, but then again hard enough to turn him over. “SAY SOMETHING!” she screamed as knocked him onto his back. “Say something, you bastard!”

Wanting to keep Dark Streak away from the others in order to give them as much of a headstart as possible, Lex knew that he couldn’t delay any longer. Even another second or two of hesitation might goad her into acting on her sadistic promise to begin killing everyone right in front of him. There was no more time to deliberate; only to act.

“Do it now, both of you!”