//------------------------------// // 18 - Questions and Answers // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// Lex stared at the mare, caught completely off-guard by her statement. “What?” Nosey apparently didn’t hear him, holding her notepad and pencil at the ready in her yellow aura. “First, how did you survive that last battle at the Crystal Empire? According to witness statements you sort of…” she paused to flip through her notes, nodding to herself before continuing, “exploded.” Lex frowned. “You’re a reporter.” It was a statement, rather than a question. He had no particular antipathy towards reporters, since their ability to disseminate information performed a valuable public service…at least, when they did it right. Still, if this mare was at least halfway decent at her job, then maybe she’d know what was happening in Tall Tale. “Darn tootin’!” Nosey puffed up pride at the label. “One of the best in all Equestria, if I do say so myself. You know that scandal about the food in Canterlot from a few months back? The one that totally rocked the city? I was the one who broke the story.” She turned her head to regard a bag sitting on the desk behind her, and telekinetically withdrew a newspaper clipping, holding it up for Lex. “‘Bakery Fakery’,” he read the headline out loud. “‘Local Confectioners Advertise Pure White Sugar, Use Brown Instead.’” He gave her a flat look, clearly unimpressed. The effect was lost on her, as she had already withdrawn the clipping and was regarding it with a thorough sense of self-satisfaction. “It was all anypony could talk about for a week,” she mused. “Let me tell you, I made some pretty powerful enemies with that scoop; almost got me run right out of Canterlot. Even today, I can’t so much as buy a cupcake in that town.” Rather than being upset, she sounded like she was bragging. “Ever since then,” she continued, “I’ve been going around writing pony interest stories. Those’re okay, especially after all the craziness from those ‘elemental bleeds’ and all, but I’m really ready to get back to the hard-hitting investigative stuff, which is what made it so great that I heard you assaulting that mare!” She put her clipping away, again lifting up her notepad and pencil, starting to jot something down. “So, what evil schemes are you up to now? No, wait.” She turned her pencil over, quickly erasing something. “I should say ‘nefarious’ instead. ‘Nefarious schemes.’ That’s a lot better, don’t you th-” “Listen to me,” Lex interjected. He had let her babble on as long as he had only because he had been eating. Having cleaned his plate, he was no longer interested in doing so. “I am not King Sombra, and I’m not up to any ‘schemes,’ nefarious or otherwise. I’m trying to save Tall Tale from an impending disaster, so I need you to tell me what’s been happening here.” Nosey was scribbling furiously, unconsciously poking the tip of her tongue out and pressing it against her upper lip as she did. “Wait wait wait…if you’re not King Sombra then who are you, and why do look and act so much like him? I covered the Equestria Games, and while the crystal ponies didn’t want to talk about you, er, him a lot, they did give me some basic details.” She flipped through her notes again, before reading them off. “‘Red horn with purple aura. Dark gray coat. Green eyes with purple fire from the corners. Black mane and tail.’” She paused there to glance over at Lex, and he could have sworn he heard her mutter “dye job” under her breath before she continued. “‘Nasty attitude. Shadow-based magic.” She threw a pointed glance at Lex’s own shadow, currently rising up on the wall behind him, before meeting his eyes again. “So if you aren’t him then you’re sure doing a good job acting like it. Are you some sort of groupie, maybe? Or-, oh!” Her eyes widened. “Are you his son?! Oh wow, that’d be incredible! I can just see the headline now! ‘Son of Sombra!’ Oh this is so much better than a bakery scandal! I can’t wait to-, hey! Where are you going?!” “To find somepony else that can actually tell me something useful,” Lex shot back, already moving for the door. This was the second mare he’d met that was so wrapped up in herself that she couldn’t be made to focus on the big picture. Even if she was a reporter, she was useless if she couldn’t tell him anything! Nosey started to protest, but Lex ignored her as he yanked open the door to the hotel room…and stopped dead. The hotel was the sort where the individual rooms opened directly outside, and once the door was open, Lex immediately realized that the sun was shining from the wrong angle. He knew what that meant, what it had to mean given that he felt so rested now, but he still turned back to Nosey for confirmation. “What time is it right now?” “Huh? It’s six-thirty in the evening. Why?” Cursing softly, Lex closed the door without exiting. Turning back around to face Nosey, he gave her a sour look. He hadn’t confirmed that she was up to date about current events in Tall Tale, but there wasn’t much chance of him finding another pony that was simply by wandering the streets; he’d tried that earlier and it hadn’t worked. Worse, in a few hours the equinox would begin, and he’d need most of the day to start preparing his spells. As much as he hated to admit it, she was his best bet at the moment. “Listen to me,” he spoke slowly, the way he would to a particularly stupid child. “Something terrible is going to happen here, probably sooner rather than later. I need you to tell me everything you know about what’s been happening, so that I can stop it.” “Hmm.” A sly grin spread across Nosey’s features. “Well, if you’ve got questions for me, and I’ve got questions for you, then how about we trade?” “Trade?” echoed Lex, arching an eyebrow skeptically. Nodding, Nosey pushed her glasses up from where they’d been sliding down her muzzle. “That’s right. I ask a question, you answer it. Then you ask a question, and I answer it. Back and forth. Deal?” Lex grit his teeth in frustration. “This entire city is in danger, and you’re playing games?” Nosey frowned. “If there really is this big, terrible danger, then everypony deserves to know about it. Hence why I want to write about it.” “Then I’ll give you an interview afterwards!” “Nothing doing!” Nosey retorted. “I’ve been burned by that whole ‘help me now and you can interview me later’ bit before. Not this time. Some big disaster and King Sombra’s kid brother? No way I’m waiting until later on this!” “Did it ever occur to you that if I was King Sombra, I could use my magic to make you tell me what I wanted?” Lex hissed at her, hackles rising. “Yeah? Well you’re the one who said you’re not him. Besides,” she rooted in her bag for a moment before extracting a small card. “I have a press pass, which means that I’m off-limits.” She said that with a voice full of certainty, and for a moment Lex could only gape at her. “You can’t possibly be that stupid, to think something like that would protect you.” “Hey! I’ll have you know that everypony respects the press!” Nosey raised her nose in the air. “They have to, otherwise we’d totally trash them in the court of public opinion.” “I don’t recall King Sombra being too put out by whatever drivel was being written about him,” Lex replied, but there was no heat in his voice. Returning to the room’s bed, he sat on it. Recognizing that she’d won the argument, Nosey likewise returned to her seat, all smiles once again. “Now,” she began, “first question: what’s your name?” “Lex Legis,” he answered immediately. “My turn. That mare from before-” “The one you were attacking?” cut in Nosey. “I wasn’t attacking her!” snapped Lex. “I was trying to interrupt her monologue of inanity to get her to tell me something that was actually informative, and she panicked!” “I’ll corroborate that with her later.” “Whatever! She said that there was something with giant spiders attacking the city. What do you know about that?” “Let’s see here,” Nosey checked her notes some more. “According to some of the statements I got, several days ago a group of loggers were attacked by giant spiders just outside the city. They managed to get away, but said that they had strange powers, which was confirmed,” she flipped a page, “when some more spiders appeared just outside of a pet store in the downtown area two days ago. Several witnesses described one of them sending bolts of acid into a crowd, another made some sort of ray appear that made those it hit feel weak, and a third made a cloud of fog that they vanished into when they were done.” Lex was silent for a long moment, brooding over what he’d been told. That was undoubtedly spellcasting, and given what little he knew about Fireflower’s elemental inclinations, these sounded like his missing siblings. But why were they attacking ponies here in Tall Tale? Unless he’d been right to assume that those creatures were savages in the first place. The streak of regret that went through him at that thought was so powerful that he almost winced. It had been that kind of thinking that had cost him the love of his life. Even if he hadn’t been wrong per se to react the way he did, it had still turned out to be incorrect. For now, it would be better not to draw any conclusions about the other araneas before he had all the facts. “Next question,” continued Nosey. “Why are you so much like King Sombra?” Lex sighed. “That’s a long story.” “Good,” came the immediate answer. “I like writing long stories.” Nosey grinned again as she held her pencil at the ready, awaiting his answer. Shadowvine sipped her drink, the cloying sweetness causing her to grimace. “What’s this supposed to be, again?” “The waiter said it was an ‘apple cider latte.’” The answer came from Shadowvine’s left, where a lime-green mare with a mane and tail of ice blue was sipping the same drink with more enjoyment. “So that’s supposed to be what? Apples and milk together?” Shadowvine grimaced, giving her head a shake as though that would dispel the lingering flavor in her mouth. But all she accomplished was making her black mane whip around for a moment before settling back down against her dark purple coat. “Disgusting. I really don’t know how you can drink that stuff, Breezyleaf.” “It’s not so bad,” the green mare protested. “I mean, it’s a little on the strong side and all, but it’s still good.” “You can have mine, then.” Shadowvine pushed her drink towards her sister, instead focusing on the salad in front of her. She clearly didn’t approve of this either, face twisting at her first bite. “Weeds, all of it. Do these ponies really eat nothing but plants and candy?” “It’s their nature,” came the voice of the remaining pony at their table. Sitting to Shadowvine’s right, the evening light made the café’s interior subdued enough that the stallion’s chocolate-brown coat looked even darker, contrasting with his dark gray mane. He looked up from his own salad to address the other two. “You should eat. We all need to keep our strength up.” Breezyleaf nodded, turning her attention back to her food, but Shadowvine frowned at the instructions. “We should just out into the forest and hunt for our own food, Rockwood. Come to think of it, how are we even paying for all of this, anyway?” “We can’t go hunting,” replied Rockwood, taking another bite of his meal. “They’ve got ponies watching the forest, so we’d be spotted if we left. As for how we’re paying,” he paused to swallow a mouthful of lettuce, “I picked up some wallets that were dropped when the ponies were running away before.” “I hope it’s enough to last us for a while,” spoke up Breezyleaf. “I don’t want to have to do that again, at least not anytime soon. I feel so bad for these ponies, they’re really scared.” Shadowvine slammed a hoof down on the table. “Brightrose is the one who’s really scared! Can you imagine, being all alone in the back of that cave, trapped by that, that…monster! If you want to feel sorry for someone, feel sorry for him!” Breezyleaf looked down, eyes brimming with tears. “I do! I do, but these ponies…they’re not bad. I thought that they’d be all standoffish like you said, but they seem really nice.” She sniffled, turning her attention to her brother. “I bet Fireflower’s found some of them who’ll help us by now. He’ll find his way back soon, right?” Her voice was almost pleading. Rockwood looked down for a moment, before making himself meet his sister’s gaze. “Maybe.” Breezyleaf brightened for a moment, but Rockwood continued. “But we can’t count on that. In the meantime, we have to do what we can to protect Brightrose…and that means we have to do keep frightening the ponies here.” Breezyleaf sniffled, but Shadowvine just snorted. “Fine by me. What do we care if some ponies freak out a little, if that means that we don’t lose any more of us…” she trailed off, not sure that she could keep her voice steady. The others didn’t say anything, all of them thinking of what had happened to Waterlily. After several moments of silence, Rockwood gestured to the food in front of them. “Finish up. We’re going to need to go again soon.” “When?” asked Shadowvine, before forcing herself to shovel more greens into her mouth. “Tomorrow morning, before the mayor’s speech,” replied Rockwood. “We’re supposed to make sure that the ponies are scared enough that none of them want to stay behind when she starts the evacuation.”