//------------------------------// // 15 - Warm Welcomes // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// Despite his weariness and fatigue, Lex knew something was wrong even before he set hoof into Tall Tale. The train station was set slightly outside the city. To Lex, it was obvious that that had been done so that the lumber from the surrounding forest could be more easily loaded onto train cars, rather than needing to haul it into the center of town just to ship it out again. Tall Tale was, after all, a city whose central export was wood. But as he began to close the last of the distance between himself and the station, Lex could tell that logging had ceased, and not just because night had fallen. In the distance he could just barely make out a worksite, and it painted a grim picture. A number of tools lay scattered about haphazardly, axes and saws tossed carelessly to the ground in a way that suggested they had been discarded carelessly, as though the workers couldn’t be bothered to put them away properly…or hadn’t been able to. That alone was enough to cause worry, but a half-hour later, as Lex finally walked up to the train station, there was another indication that something had happened. When he was a stone’s throw away from the receiving platform, the door to the station entrance opened and a half-dozen ponies came spilling out. Each of them was carrying a weapon. The sight was unusual enough to make Lex stop where he was, from surprise more than alarm. While it had been commonplace in Everglow, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen ponies in Equestria going about armed, save only for the Royal Guard that surrounded the princesses. And these ponies, a rag-tag group dressed in flannel and wielding axes and saws like those at the abandoned logging site, were quite clearly not with that august company. What had happened here that ponies would start guarding the city at night? “I’m tellin’ you, I saw something out there!” insisted a pegasus mare, obviously used to the hacksaw she was wielding in her mouth to be able to speak so clearly around it. “It’s just your mind playing tricks on you,” replied a burly earth pony stallion holding an axe. His nervous tone belied his words, and he glanced around nervously, his eyes passing over Lex without stopping. Frowning at their inability to see him, it took Lex a moment to remember that they didn't have magic to see in the dark the way he did. For them, the only thing to see by was what was pouring out of the station windows, along with the lantern one of them was carrying. Neither was enough to push back the darkness very far. Knowing that his eyes were glowing green and sprouting purple contrails from the dark magic he was using to see through the blackness, Lex let the magic strengthening his vision fade. They were already nervous, and approaching them while he looked even more threatening would only make it more difficult to extract any useful information from them. Preparing himself, he stepped forward until he was within the light from their lantern, making sure to move with deliberate slowness so as to showcase nonviolent intent. For all his precautions, the group on the platform still reacted as though he was a creature that had just crawled from the depths of Tartarus. Giving a collective shriek of fright, they surged backwards, two of them bolting and running for the door to the station. The pegasus mare shot upward, only to crack her head on the overhang covering the platform and fall back down, swaying woozily. The other three hefted their weapons, faces wrought with fear at the sight of the stony-faced unicorn with the weird horn and the freaky-looking shadow that had come lurching out of the darkness. “S-stay back!” barked the earth pony stallion that had spoken before. “Who are you and what do you want?!” “My name is Lex Legis,” replied Lex calmly, not moving from where he’d initially appeared. “I need to speak to whoever’s in charge about what’s happened here.” “‘What’s happened here’?” asked the pegasus mare, rubbing her head as she got up, her hacksaw forgotten. “You mean with the spiders?” Lex’s ears perked at that, his eyes widening. “Spiders? What spiders?” Thoughts of Fireflower suddenly filled his mind. There was no way that this was a coincidence! “Hold on now, first things first!” the burly stallion spoke up again. Motioning to his two friends who hadn’t run, they slowly stepped forward, moving to stand directly in Lex’s path. Apparently now that they’d determined that there was no imminent threat, they found it much easier to be brave. “Why’re you walking into town on the railroad tracks all by your lonesome? And where’s the train? It was supposed to arrive almost two days ago!” “The train was forced to stop due to damage to the tracks one hundred miles back,” replied Lex. He felt irritated that they were asking questions rather than giving him answers, but he was too wrung out to take them to task. “We’re the…” he trailed off for a moment, remembering that he was alone now. Gritting his teeth, he corrected himself. “I’m the only one who decided to proceed on hoof.” “And you got here all on your own without those spiders getting you? Sounds mighty suspicious to me,” frowned the burly stallion, hefting his axe in a way that Lex suspected was supposed to be threatening. Lex’s only response was to step forward, already regretting his earlier decision not to simply demand the answers he wanted. He opened his mouth to do just that when the pegasus mare stepped forward. “For Celestia’s sake, Lumber, look at him!” she nudged the burly stallion as she gestured at Lex. “He’s clearly on his last legs, especially if he’s dragging himself into town at this time of night. Poor fellow’s gonna collapse before you get done interrogating him.” Having admonished her companion, she flapped her wings and flew down Lex’s side, smiling at him. “You’ll have to excuse the poor welcome, it’s been a bad last few days for all of us. I’m Tender Tree, and that lunkhead there,” she indicated the earth pony she’d just chastised, who despite his frown had put his axe down, “is my hubby, Lumber Jack.” Lex nodded curtly. “What happened here? What was he saying about spiders?” Tender held up a hoof to forestall answering. “This isn’t a place to settle in for a nice long chat, and you look like you’re about to keel on over anyway.” Lex started to protest, but Tender kept right on going, throwing a hoof around him as though they were old friends. “C’mon, my sister runs the nicest little bed and breakfast. Since the train’s apparently not coming in, there should be plenty of room for you.” Unwilling to use magic to forcibly free himself from the overbearing mare, there was little Lex could do but let her drag him towards town. “I have to say, I’ve been wondering how you were doing. I can’t tell you how happy it made me when I heard you calling out to me before.” Kara’s words instantly made Sonata feel better, and she righted herself before rushing up to the beautiful alicorn. “Kara! Oh my gosh, I’m so glad to see you!” Sonata caught herself just as she was about to throw her forelegs around Kara, suddenly unsure of herself. Was it okay to hug a goddess? A lot of the ponies she’d met on Everglow had talked about their gods as if they were all high-and-mighty, and she was pretty sure you weren’t supposed to be quite that friendly with somepony like that, were you? But then again, Kara had been so nice to her the last time they’d met. Sonata’s indecision was answered for her a moment later when Kara reached out and gently pulled her closer. “Don’t worry, I accept all affection that’s directed towards me,” she said softly, as though she’d read Sonata’s mind. “I’m not like some of those stuck-up gods that think they have to be aloof.” “You’re so nice,” murmured Sonata from where her face was pressed against Kara’s chest. “I wish everypony was as nice as you.” “Everypony, or a certain pony in particular?” asked Kara in a knowing voice. Sonata let out a shudder that ended in a sigh as she slowly disentangled herself from Kara. Even though she had originally called out to her for help in figuring out how to deal with Lex, that had been before…before she… “I left him,” she blurted out suddenly. Kara’s eyes widened slightly. “You don’t love him anymore?” “No!” replied Sonata immediately. “I mean, no I don’t not love him…er, I mean I haven’t stopped, um, not being in love…” she trailed off into mumbles, confused both by what she was saying and what she meant to say. Kara placed a hoof over Sonata’s lips, silencing her. “If you feel that confused, then it means you still have feelings for him.” Sonata’s ears lowered, knowing that she was right. One of the friends she’d made back on Everglow, a purrsian – a winged cat-person – named Willow had once told her the same thing. “Tell me what happened.” Kara gently guided Sonata to a large cushion that she hadn’t noticed before, and the two of them curled up on it. “Well, it all started last night,” began Sonata. She explained how Lex had suddenly gotten so mad at her when she’d tried to get him to be nicer to Fireflower, followed by how he’d done such an awful thing the next morning, and then refused to say he was sorry. Eventually finishing, she looked at Kara expectantly, clearly waiting for her opinion. “Poor dear, that sounds like it must have been so awful for you, seeing your beloved do such a terrible thing and then refusing to take responsibility for it.” Kara stretched out a hoof and languidly stroked Sonata’s flank as she spoke. As she did, Sonata suddenly felt tired, as if describing what had happened had drained her. She lay down, letting the goddess pet her slowly. Kara continued speaking. “You were probably right to do what you did. After all, if your stallion would try to kill someone as sweet at this ‘Fireflower,’ then it was probably only a matter of time before he’d try to do the same to you, right?” Sonata shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t…” she paused for a long moment, before shaking her head. “No. He wouldn’t do that. I mean, I felt afraid when he wouldn’t say he was sorry, but…not that kind of afraid.” “No?” Kara tilted her head, her face the picture of incomprehension. “What kind of afraid did you feel?” Sonata bit her lip, not sure how to explain it. “It was like…like walking into your house and falling into a hole, you know what I mean? Like something you know really well suddenly turned into something totally different.” “If he had apologized, would you have felt that way?” Sonata shook her head. “Uh-uh. I mean, then it would have meant he’d known what he’d done wrong and would try not to do it again. Everyone makes mistakes.” Kara nodded as she began to stroke Sonata’s mane. “You’re right. There’s no way that a stallion like him would ever change his ways without admitting he was wrong first. After all, he never has before, right?” Sonata started to voice her agreement, then stopped as a memory came to her suddenly. She had changed Lex’s ways before; it was the entire reason they’d started their journey together. Sonata sat up as her thoughts began to spin, Kara silently watching her. Before they’d gone back to Equestria together, Sonata had spent several weeks living with Lex at an inn in Viljatown on Everglow. During that time, Lex had often ranted about how he was the only pony fit to rule Equestria, going on about all sorts of weird ideas and philosophies that Sonata didn’t understand at all. Apparently Equestria’s princesses hadn’t either, because Lex had frequently mentioned that he’d presented his ideas to them, and they’d shot him down. The consequence of that was that Lex had been insisting that the only way left was to fight the princesses, a point on which Sonata had fervently disagreed with him, trying to explain that it was better not to fight, even if that meant he only got some of what he wanted. They had debated that a lot, and Lex had never once agreed with her…until they’d gone back to actually speak to the princesses again. Suddenly, without explaining why, he’d agreed to try things her way, and the result had been that they’d been given Vanhoover to rule over. He’d admitted that she’d been right and he’d been wrong. He just hadn’t wanted to say it out loud. “I made a mistake.” Although Sonata’s voice was quiet, it was heavy with realization. “I did it wrong and I made a mistake.” “Then you’ll need to hurry back and fix it,” said Kara, another knowing smile on her face. She stood up, and Sonata did the same. Giving the goddess a grateful smile, Sonata turned and hurried from the room, charging back into the tunnels. As she did so, Kara’s last words followed her. “And remember, if you need my help again, you just need to call out my name.” Because Sonata’s back was turned to her, she couldn’t see the wolfish smile on Kara’s face.