Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

118 - Depraved Indifference

Lex still hadn’t thought of what to say when Cloudbank came trotting out of the shelter.

“Hey.” Her cordial greeting was accompanied by a small smile, which momentarily darkened as her eyes slid over to Severance. Ignoring the weapon, she turned her gaze back towards Lex. “You wanted to talk to me?” she asked as she approached him.

“Yes.”

An awkward moment ensued as Cloudbank waited for Lex to continue, but instead he just stood there, an uncomfortable look on his face. It was enough to make her shift her weight, suddenly self-conscious. What was he doing? If she hadn’t known better, she’d have thought that he was trying to work up the courage to ask her out on a…oh. “I, uh, I think I know what this is about.”

“You do?” He couldn’t entirely keep the relief off of his face. “Good, that will make this easier.”

She nodded, fighting back the urge to bite her lip. Drafty had told her how she’d asked him and Sonata to go on a double-date with them after things had calmed down, and Cloudbank hadn’t been nearly as thrilled as her new girlfriend was. She’d wanted their first official date to be just between the two of them. But she hadn’t been able to bring herself to protest, not when she’d seen how excited Drafty was at the prospect of the four of them going out together. So she’d pushed down her reservations and smiled and said that she was excited too, which was technically true. After all, she was still going out on a date with Drafty…just not in quite the way she’d wanted. “Yeah…listen, I’m going to be completely honest with you. I don’t know that I’m entirely comfortable with this. I mean, I agreed to it and all, but it just happened really fast, you know?”

She hadn’t been sure what his reaction would be, but thankfully he didn’t seem to be upset. Instead, he gave a rather solemn nod. “I know. But you did agree to it, which is why I was concerned that you were taking this too lightly.”

Cloudbank blinked, then frowned. He must have seen her putting on a front for Drafty’s sake. “I’m not taking it lightly!” she protested. “And I don’t need you to tell me how important this is!” She could feel herself starting to get annoyed. There was no way she’d ever forget what Lex had done for them, and she was extremely grateful, but that didn’t mean that he had any right to stick his muzzle into her relationship with her girlfriend!

“I needed to make sure you knew that,” Lex replied flatly. “This is too serious to let sit undeveloped for long. Right now I have other things that I need to focus on, but as soon as Vanhoover’s situation is stabilized further this will be one of my top priorities. In the meantime, I want you to start coming up with ideas in anticipation of that.”

Cloudbank felt her indignation ebb as her surprise grew. This was one of his top priorities? Was he that into the thought of the four of them going out together, or was he really just that intense about everything? “I…okay.” She let out a breath as she shook off her doubts. She couldn’t let somepony else treat a date with Drafty more seriously than she did! “I’ll start working on some stuff now and get back to you. Sound good?”

“That should be fine.” His tone was dismissive, and sure enough he turned away from her and started walking without another word, causing her to snort at his attitude. Now that she thought about it, it made perfect sense that someone like him would have to try so hard to make a date go well, given his personality. She could only imagine what his outings with Sonata were like!

---

As he headed back towards where Sonata and Fencer were, Lex couldn’t help but feel exceptionally pleased with himself. That had gone better than he’d hoped! He had been concerned that Cloudbank didn’t fully appreciate what it meant to have a working relationship with the Night Mare. Thankfully, she seemed to have some degree of cognizance of the magnitude of what she was involved in. Hopefully she’d come up with some workable ideas for institutionalizing religious devotion. That would take much of the burden off of him with regards to finding further acolytes. In the meantime, however, he had other tasks that needed to be handled.

Rounding a corner, he almost collided with Fencer as she headed in the opposite direction, causing him to frown. “Where are you going?”

“To find something to replace my dress that you ruined,” she replied coolly as she started to move past him.

He held out a hoof to block her way. “Did you tell Sonata what happened with Pillowcase?”

“Ask her yourself,” she shot back as she went around him, not bothering to look at him as she did.

He watched her go, and for a moment considered forcing her to give him a straight answer, but decided to check with Sonata first. Heading back to where she was, he found her looking down with a miserable look on her face, her ears folded. “Sonata?”

“Huh? Oh, hey…” She grimaced as she saw him, and her lack of vigor was enough to give him pause. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her this down; even when they fought she was more enthusiastic in her demeanor than she was right now.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” he demanded. She bit her lip for a moment, hesitating. “Is it Fencer?” he pressed. “Were you unable to make her tell you about Pillowcase?”

“No, no, I got her talking, but...” She licked her lips as she trailed off, then plunged ahead. “Lex, it’s, like, not good news.”

His eyes narrowed. “Tell me.”

Sonata fidgeted, then complied. “She said that she and some of the other ponies in her group were searching along the waterfront a few days ago, and they spotted a crystal stallion in some worn clothes.”

He nodded, and when she didn’t immediately continue he spoke up. “We knew that already. Go on.”

“He didn’t run away when he saw them, though. Instead, he asked them if they were from the shelter…from here.” A pained look crossed her face. “He was looking for us, Lex.”

A confused look crossed his face. “He was trying to get here? How would he have known about-” He stopped speaking as a sudden memory came to him, of when he’d brought Cozy and her group back.

Finally opening her eyes, she managed a wan smile. “Besides, I left him a note in our room, telling him that there’s a shelter at the docks, and that if he heads west for three hours at a walking pace, he’ll find it. That’s where it is, right?” She looked at Lex, who nodded in reply before turning back to the doorway.

“Cozy’s note,” he murmured softly.

“Huh?” Now it was Sonata’s turn to look confused.

“When I brought Cozy and the others here, her husband was already missing. She didn’t want to leave without him for fear that he’d return only to find them gone, so she left him a note saying where I was taking them.”

“But Fencer said that they saw him down at the other end of the wharf, coming out of a different warehouse. Why didn’t he come straight here if she told him where to go?”

Lex shook his head, already having figured out the answer. “Because all she knew was that the shelter I was talking about was in a warehouse on the waterfront. She didn’t know which warehouse. He must have been checking them all one by one and simply hadn’t reached this one yet.”

“Oh…” Sonata seemed reluctant to keep going, but marshalled herself after taking a deep breath. “Well, Fencer told him that they were, even though that was a lie, and she said he nearly collapsed with relief. She thought it was for himself, because he looked pretty awful-”

“How, exactly?” interrupted Lex sharply.

“Exhausted, stumbling, like he hadn’t eaten or slept in a while. She didn’t go into details.” Sonata shifted uncomfortably, deciding to omit the part about how Fencer had characterized him as looking like easy prey. “But the thing was, he wasn’t worried about himself, Lex. When they told him that they would take him to the shelter, he said ‘Thank Celestia. A friend of mine is sick, but I found medicine.’” She paused. “That was Drafty, right? Aisle told me about it a few days ago.”

Lex nodded, grinding his teeth. That Fencer and her group were preying on others wasn’t news to him – it was how he’d met them, after all – but to victimize somepony that was on a mission of mercy expressed an indifference toward others that was depraved. Now he understood why Sonata looked so upset. “What then?”

“Exactly what you’d expect. They brought him into another warehouse, and when he tried to protest that he’d been there before, they beat him up. They, like, took everything he had…his clothes, the medicine he’d found, all of it, and when he tried to stop them they just hit him until he stopped.” She shuddered as she recalled the dispassionate way Fencer had described it, her only visible emotion being a sneer when she’d described how Pillowcase had started to sob when they’d taken the medicine he’d gotten for Drafty, begging them not to. For a moment it had reminded Sonata of how she’d been terrified of Lex when he’d almost killed Fireflower and wouldn’t apologize for it.

“She said this happened days ago?” Lex’s voice brought Sonata back to herself, and she nodded, causing him to frown in thought. “How many days, exactly?”

“She said it was ‘about’ three,” she replied, her voice still miserable. For once, she knew what he was thinking, having already come to the conclusion that she knew he was reaching now.

“Three days…the wharf doesn’t have so many warehouses that he could have kept searching and not been here by now.” There was a grim tone in his voice, the most obvious explanation for Pillowcase’s continued absence hanging in the air, obvious but unspoken.

“I pointed that out to her just now, before you showed up. She, like, said that he was alive when they left him, but…” In that moment Sonata desperately wanted to go over and hug Lex, but the severe look on his face made her hesitate.

“But?” he hissed.

“…when he wouldn’t give up the medicine he had, Fencer said she cut his forelegs pretty bad to make him drop it, and that he…he might not have been able to walk on them. He was bleeding pretty bad when they left.” She paused for a moment, then blurted. “She didn’t even need it! I asked her if one of her group was sick, if that was why she wanted it so bad, but she shook her head and said that she took it because she might have needed it later!”

In response to her outburst, Lex simply stood there, an unreadable expression on his face. Then he turned and walked past her without a word, heading back the way he came. “H-hey! Lex! Wait up!” She rushed to catch up to him. “Where are you going?”

“To retrieve Fencer,” he replied in a voice thick with malice. “And after that, she and I are going out to retrieve Pillowcase from where she left him.”

“But that was three days ago! By now he’s probably-”

“Dead?” Lex spat the word as if it were a curse, his eyes turning the familiar shade of green as they sprouted purple contrails from their corners. Around them, black crystals were starting to sprout of their own accord.

“If he is, then I can assure you that her punishment will make that seem tame by comparison.”

Author's Note:

Lex and Sonata find out exactly what Fencer did to Cozy's husband.

Is there any hope that they'll find him alive? Or will Cozy learn that she's a widow?

Comments

[Not so New Brony]

Well, my happy mood from Lex's conversation with Cloudbank was suddenly shifted to depression with news of what happened to Pillowcase, followed by anger at Fencer and her group.

This explains why the others from Fencer's group would have been reluctant to reveal their encounter with Pillowcase. They likely feared that the shelter and hospitality would be taken away and replaced with shock and disgust. Aisle and his fellow survivors might be more sympathetic and maybe attempt to defend Fencer's actions though Cozy is a whole other matter. Hearing that her husband was robbed and possibly left for dead might drive her to do something drastic.

Of course, suddenly punishing Fencer in front of the others will have repercussions for everyone involved, regardless of what she and the others have done,

[RandomName1]

Good Lex... Good...
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/954/200/958.jpg

Makes me wonder if Lex plans on bringing Severance. If yes, Fencer might be able to turn this around.
Theeeeen again, that would kinda end the story XD

[Alzrius]

8257177 The two scenes in this chapter did have rather different tones, didn't they?

Fencer quite clearly wasn't wrong that none of the rest of her group would want to talk about what happened to Pillowcase (or anypony else they encountered, in all likelihood). I suspect that they instinctively know - even if they can't precisely articulate - that such actions, regardless of the level of justification (honest or not) involved, wouldn't be forgiven when they tried to re-enter pony society. None of them want to be stigmatized, which raises questions of if they deserve to be or not. I suspect Cozy would think so...though I wonder if her faith in the goddess of love has any tenets that talk about forgiveness.

Of course, as you noted, that might be less of an issue than what Lex does to Fencer if he goes over the edge...

[Alzrius]

8257232 It'll be interesting to see what Lex does about Fencer, given that he needs (and quite clearly wants) to punish her for her actions, but at the same time holds himself to high moral standards of conduct (and that all pony life is precious), which will presumably put a damper on what sort of criminal punishments he can levy...right?

[RandomName1]

8257394
Well, he did say that he wants her to have hoped he'd kill her... So yeah, even if she "lives", legs, eyes, skin and teeth aren't exactly vital organs. Not to mention that he can heal, so there's nothing stopping him from doing it again.

[Alzrius]

8257579 No, he said that her punishment would make death seem tame by comparison. That's not the same thing.

I'll mention that it's fairly self-evident that Lex's moral code forbids torture, as well. While certain things can be justified in terms of criminal penalties, cruelty isn't one of them.

[Booster Spice]

Is Fencer so psychopathic, that she wouldnt respond the way Lex hopes when he gives her a condensed list of what she could look forward to, with the option of without warning, then doing absolutely nothing so her own paranoia and fears take over?

[Alzrius]

8257698 The real question is whether or not Fencer - who was presumably a good pony before Vanhoover turned into a horror show - can reconnect with who she was, or if that pony is gone forever.

[James Fire]

Typo. Let Fencer at it, just for fun.

but as soon as Vanhoover’s situation is stabilized further this this will be one of my top priorities.

You seem to have an extra word.

Well, that was a misunderstanding of epic proportions. Of course, it was to be expected with Lex.

[Alzrius]

8384788 Typo fixed!

And yeah, this was the sort of social screw-up that's par for the course with Lex. One can only imagine what this will lead to later...