//------------------------------// // 10 - Fireflower // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// Everglow. The parallel world that was similar to Equestria in so many ways, but profoundly different from it in all the ways that, to Lex, really mattered. He had been there twice, the first time due to an accident and the second time fleeing there in desperation, and had come to the conclusion that he hated the place. For all that he had gained while he was there, it didn’t excuse the fact that the world was one that was far more hostile to ponies than Equestria was, and Lex could not forgive it that. He would have been happy never to go back there again. But with three words, this spider-pony thing – this “aranea” – had made it clear to Lex that he didn’t need to go back; Everglow was apparently able to come to him. “How did you get here from Everglow?” Lex almost snarled the question, stamping a hoof in agitation. Crossing the planar divide between Equestria and Everglow was no small feat. He could do it, and he knew that powerful spellcasters like Twilight or Princess Celestia could as well, but anything less than that should have found the barrier between dimensions to be insurmountable. That meant that either this thing had exceptional magical abilities, or had access to an entity or item that did. “I don’t know,” the yellow stallion answered miserably, likely knowing how his answer would be taken. “You’re lying,” snapped Lex. “No, I’m not!” Desperation was written all over their captive’s face. “I swear, I don’t know how we got here, it just happened!” “Nothing ‘just happens’!” Lex was yelling now. He’d chased this pony, or aranea, or whatever it was, because he’d wanted answers. But so far all it was giving them was more questions! “Every effect has a cause, and I want to know what caused you to be here, or else I’ll-” “Okay, time out!” Sonata, who had been watching the exchange silently up until now, suddenly interrupted, placing herself in front of Lex so that she blocked his line of vision to the yellow stallion. Gently putting a hoof on his shoulder, Sonata ushered Lex into a huddle on the other side of the room, lowering her voice. “Look, I wanted to play the bad cop, but since you’re already doing such a good job of it, how about you, like, take five and let me play the other role, ‘kay?” Lex paused for a moment, trying to parse her statement, before admitting, “I have absolutely no idea what you just said.” She snorted in amusement. “Just watch.” Turning back to the chained pony, Sonata gave him a warm smile, trotting over to him and sitting down. “We got off to a bad start before. Let’s try again. I’m Sonata, and this-” she pointed a hoof at Lex, who was glowering in their direction, “is Lex.” She leaned in closer and stage-whispered, “Don’t worry, he always looks like that.” Sitting up, she resumed speaking normally. “What’s your name?” Looking only slightly less fearful, the yellow stallion paused for several moments, before softly saying, “Fireflower.” “Aw, that’s adorable!” gushed Sonata. “It fits your cutie mark perfectly!” She pointed to the stallion’s flank, where a picture of a flower with petals made out of flames could be seen. “I-is that what it’s called?” Fireflower asked. “I thought ponies referred to these as ‘brands of destiny.’” Lex groaned softly, closing his eyes in consternation. He’d believed this thing when it had said that it was from Everglow before – how else would it even have known the name of that world otherwise? – but it had just given a corroborating detail. “Brand of destiny” was the overly-grandiose term by which the ponies of that world referred to their cutie marks, and was the sort of thing that a liar would have likely tripped over. And if this creature was telling the truth about that, then it was likely telling the truth about not knowing how it got here either… Sonata ignored her boyfriend’s theatrics and kept talking. “They’re called cutie marks here in Equestria.” She paused for a moment, having picked up on a different detail in Fireflower’s question than Lex had. “You sound like you didn’t have one before. Did you just get it?” Fireflower looked uncertain, but hesitantly ventured, “No. Well, kind of…I guess.” He flattened his ears, as though just trying to explain was difficult. “It’s okay,” encouraged Sonata, never letting her smile falter. “Take your time.” Glancing back and forth at the two of them from where he lay on the floor, Fireflower licked his lips before speaking up. “Can…I’m sorry, do you have any food? I haven’t eaten in days.” Sonata was about to make a show of being concerned for his health, but to her surprise Lex beat her to it, taking his haversack off and pulling out one of her raspberry oat cakes. Holding it in his purple aura, he silently offered it to the bound pony. Fireflower didn’t hesitate to gobble it up, offering a muffled thanks around a mouthful of food. Once he was finished, he laid down as best he could around with the chains around him. Calmer now, he took several slow breaths and looked up at the ceiling, not making eye contact with anyone as he started to speak. “Back on Everglow, we didn’t look like this. I mean, we were still arachnids, but our other form wasn’t a pony…it was a human.” Lex’s lip curled. A creature that combined a spider and a human? And he hadn’t thought anything could be more disgusting than that human-pony hybrid he’d met on Everglow. “That’s part of what made it so confusing when we arrived here. We had changed and the world had changed and we didn’t know why…and then when we were attacked it just…” Fireflower's voice cracked, and for a moment he looked like he was going to cry. Sonata opened her mouth to speak, but Lex beat her to it. “What attacked you?” From what it had just said, it sounded like there was more than one of these things, and that something had frightened it after it had arrived in Equestria. Fireflower was silent for a long moment, and Lex was about to repeat the question when he began to speak. “There were six of us, altogether. Waterlily had invited us to the edge of the lake so she could show off the new spell she’d discovered.” He smiled in remembrance, letting out a breath that was halfway between a laugh and a sob. “She, um, she always spun her webs between the trees that were closest to the water’s edge, you know? No matter how many times the wind whipped up the waves and soaked them, she would just make new ones.” He shook his head ruefully. “She said that it was a small price to pay to wake up seeing the sun shining on the water every morning.” No one missed that he had spoken in the past tense. Licking his lips, he continued. “So we all got there, and she started casting, and then just…I don’t know, everything went crazy.” “How?” asked Sonata quietly. “I don’t know,” Fireflower sighed. “It felt like, like being dizzy, I guess. That way you feel when you’ve spun around too fast for too long, but without being nauseous. And there was a sound like a huge wave of water, even though the lake was calm at the time. Next thing I know we’re underwater and struggling to get to shore…and when we do the forest isn’t anywhere nearby.” “Could she-” Lex paused as he realized he’d referred to Fireflower’s absent friend as ‘she’ rather than ‘it,’ and tried his question again. “Could your friend have miscast the spell, causing this?” Fireflower’s head was shaking before Lex even finished his question. “Waterlily never miscast a spell, not since she was a child and accidentally froze her back-left legs in a block of ice for an entire day.” He smiled again at the memory. “We never stopped teasing her about that.” Silence fell for a moment, until Lex prompted him to continue. “After we all got to shore, Rockwood took charge. He was always the most practical-minded of us. He saw some trees to the south – I think it was south – and had us head over some marshes to get to them. At some point we realized that we were turning into ponies and we started freaking out…he was the only one of us who kept his head, telling us not to focus on it until after we got to safety.” Fireflower let out a snort, muttering “safety” again derisively. Lex’s eyes narrowed at the story. If he remembered correctly, there was a stretch of marshland to the north of Tall Tale, separating it from Vanhoover. Between that and the water-based nature of however they’d crossed over, he was starting to put a theory together as to how these araneas had come to Equestria. “We got to the forest,” continued Fireflower, “but it wasn’t anyplace we knew. I mean we knew our forest like the back of our, er, our hooves,” he offered a sheepish grin to the pair, which only Sonata returned. “But this place was completely different. It was nice and all, but it wasn’t home, you know?” Lex frowned. As much as he hated to admit it, he could sympathize with what that felt like, having not only lost his native time, but twice having lost his native world as well. “What happened next?” he prompted. Fireflower turned his gaze away again before he resumed his story. “We found a cave, and we thought we would hide in it for a while until we figured out where we were and how to get back. We’d barely gotten inside when its owner came back.” “Its owner?” Sonata tilted her head. “Who’d own a cave?” Fireflower shuddered. “A dragon.” “WOO!” Sonata’s yelp caught the two stallions by surprise, though not nearly as much as the impromptu dance number she broke out into. “Alright! I knew there was a dragon around here! I totes knew it!” She turned to Lex, grinning from ear to ear. “How do you like that, Mister ‘it could be anything’?” She didn’t wait for an answer, spinning back to Fireflower. “So, like, what kind of dragon was it? Big and nasty, right?” For the first time since they’d captured him, a reproachful look crossed Fireflower’s face, clearly disapproving of Sonata’s celebratory attitude towards the dragon’s existence. “‘Big and nasty’? Yeah, it was big and nasty. It killed Waterlily. It did it right in front of me.” He paused, slumping down. “After that we all ran for our lives. We got split up…for all I know, I’m the only one that made it.” Sonata’s good mood was swept away, instantly replaced with mortification. “Oh! Oh gosh! I’m, like, so sorry!” Lex, whose expression had yet to change during the story, stamped a hoof to gain the others’ attention. “When and where did this happen?” Fireflower shrugged as best he could through his chains. “At least a couple of days ago. Maybe more. I don’t know where though. I got lost after I ran, and I’ve been wandering ever since. I haven’t seen anyone else before I spotted you two.” His stomach rumbled loudly then, as if to underline how long he’d gone without food. Lex reached for his haversack again, but Sonata stopped him. “Let me.” He gave her a brief nod, and she fished another oat cake out of it, taking it over to Fireflower, who accepted it – and her implicit apology – with a grateful smile. “Have you seen this dragon since then?” asked Lex. “Is it what’s been ruining the train tracks?” “I haven’t seen it since then,” answered Fireflower, licking the last of the crumbs off his lips, “and I don’t want to. I hadn’t even come across the train tracks before now.” Lex nodded, as though he’d expected that answer. “Alright then, here’s what we’re going to do. Once the sun comes up, we’re going to resume heading for Tall Tale. You,” he pointed at Fireflower, “will accompany us there. Once we’ve confirmed the situation, we’ll see if we can retrace your steps.” “What? Why?” Fireflower asked nervously, as though he knew what the answer would be. Sonata, by contrast, couldn’t help her look of anticipation. “We’re going to track down this dragon,” answered Lex. “And then we’re going to slay it.”