• Published 2nd Nov 2015
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Lateral Movement - Alzrius



Having been granted rulership over the city of Vanhoover, and confessed their feelings for each other, Lex Legis and Sonata Dusk have started a new life together. But the challenges of rulership, and a relationship, are more than they bargained for.

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216 - Outpouring of Emotion

“Cozy! Cozy, wait!”

Aisle broke into a run as Cozy refused to slow down, and he quickly circled around in front of her, planting himself directly in her path. “Just hold on a second! Leaving like this-”

“Move, Aisle.”

“-is a terrible idea! The distance from here to the Crystal Empire would take, I don’t know, weeks to cross on hoof! You’d have to go around the mountains and then cross the plains to-”

“I don’t care,” she answered wearily. “I can’t stay here anymore.”

Noticing that they were attracting stares, Aisle lowered his voice, stepping closer to her. “Listen, I know you’re upset about what happened to Cloudbank and Drafty. I am too. But you’re not thinking clearly right now.”

She shook her head, still wearing that haunted expression. “My thoughts are completely clear. I need to go home. I need to be someplace where there’s laughter and singing and hope, rather than here. Here the only things to look forward to are hunger and disasters and bad news, and I can’t take it anymore.” She gave him a pleading look then, silently begging him to understand. “I can’t take it anymore. I was happy before I came here. Now, I feel the same way I did when King Sombra was in power, and it’s horrible!” Her lower lip quivered then, and she rubbed a foreleg across her eyes. “I have to leave, before things get even worse.”

“Cozy…” Seeing her like this was enough to break Aisle’s heart, but that didn’t change the fact that what she was proposing simply wasn’t feasible. “I know how you feel, but you can’t just walk all the way back to the Crystal Empire.” He flailed for a moment, trying to come up with something that would stop her from embarking on such a foolish course of action, and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “What about Sonata?”

“What about her?” shrugged Cozy tiredly.

“You said that Lex doesn’t really love her, remember?” Personally, Aisle wasn’t entirely sure about that, but then again he thought it was a bad idea to stick his nose into other ponies’ love-lives to begin with. But that didn’t matter right now. “Would Lashtada want you to walk away before you’ve convinced her?” Silently, he hoped that would never come to pass; he was certain that if Cozy ever managed to talk Sonata into breaking things off with Lex, none of them would escape the ensuing storm unscathed. Keep Cozy from marching off into the wilderness was the more pressing concern, however, and hopefully this would do it.

But it wasn’t to be, as Cozy shook her head again, sagging in place. “I can’t convince her,” she sighed, her eyes vacant. “Maybe I could have before, but now all I’ve done is make her hate me.” Her ears folded back and she seemed to crumple in on herself. “I didn’t want to admit it before, but I’m in over my head. I thought maybe that this was a test from Lashtada, but it’s not…or maybe it is and I’m just not up to the task. I don’t know. All I know is that I can’t do it. The only thing I can do now is go back home and warn Princess Cadance about what’s happening here. Maybe she’ll succeed where I failed.”

“Cozy, you’re not a fail-” But he wasn’t able to finish speaking as she lifted a hoof and gently placed it against his lips, silencing him.

“Will you come back with me?” she asked. Her voice was barely above a whisper, as though it was taking everything she had to continue speaking. “I know we didn’t finish speaking about it before, but…Aisle, I can’t do this without you.” She lowered her hoof from his mouth, looking at him with eyes that were shimmering with another round of tears. “You’re probably right about this being a bad idea. I don’t even…” She trailed off, and for a moment it looked like she was going to break down again, but somehow she summoned the strength to keep going. “I know I’m not strong enough to carry Pillow…to carry his body by myself, and that there’s only so long before…before it’ll start to…” She couldn’t keep speaking then, unable to face the reality that soon, the preservation magic on her husband’s body would wear off and it would start to decay. Instead, she shook her head, pushing past that terrible truth. “That’s why I need your help. Will you come back with me?”

Aisle froze, caught between wanting to do everything he could for her and the knowledge that “everything he could” wouldn’t be enough, not for what she was asking of him. “Cozy, I…”

“Please Aisle. I’ll beg if I have to.”

She actually started to get on her knees then, and that was all Aisle could take, reaching out and stopping her before she could abase herself. “Of course I’ll come with you,” he said hurriedly, blinking as he felt his own eyes starting to water. He’d known she was hurting, but he was starting to realize that he’d underestimated, perhaps severely, just how bad things were for her. It was enough to silently make him wish that Cloudbank and Drafty were here; both pegasi had been more spirited than he was, and had never been afraid to tackle problems head on. If Cozy had told them that she’d wanted to leave, they would have immediately started thinking of ways to try and make it happen, rather than reiterating all the reasons that it couldn’t. The thought sent an ache through his chest, knowing that he’d never see them again now. “How…how about we at least wait until tomorrow morning, okay?” It was already late afternoon, maybe even early evening. One more night would give him some time to think of the best way to proceed.

But even that seemed to be more than Cozy could stand, shaking her head again. “No. We have to leave right now.”

Aisle’s brow furrowed at that, but it was in confusion more than frustration. “Why?”

“Because something else might happen!” she yelled, the sudden increase in volume startling Aisle. “Because every minute we stay around Lex is another minute where we’re in danger!” She glanced behind her then, looking sidelong at the train station before giving a shudder, turning back to him. “Vanhoover was bad when Pillow and I first got here, but ever since we met him everything has gotten worse! That little apartment we were all holed up in was awful, but at least we were all together! Now look at us…!”

Glancing around, Aisle realized that they were starting to draw attention again, with several ponies openly looking at the two of them. “Um, Cozy, we should-”

But she wasn’t listening. “Ever since Lex found us, we’ve been less safe, not more!” Her voice leveled off then, but only so that she was speaking normally instead of shouting, her words still easily audible to everypony around them. Cozy herself didn’t seem to realize that, still looking only at Aisle. “Right from the beginning, he’s been leading us into danger. Remember that trap with the dummy lights that he fell for? You almost died, but he came through just fine!”

Scattered murmuring broke out around them at that, making Aisle wince. “That’s true, but-”

“And then he got us attacked again before we ever made it to that warehouse of his! If Cloudbank hadn’t acted when she had, we’d all have been killed by those monsters!”

More voices broke out among the crowd in response to that, and Aisle felt a cold shudder go down his spine. “You know what, maybe we should go right now.” He nodded toward the medical tent. “Let’s head over and get Pillow’s body, and we-”

“And then Pillow! After everything we did…all the carnage he made us go through against those sea creatures, creatures we wouldn’t have faced if he hadn’t taken us to his ‘shelter’ in the first place, he couldn’t even rescue one pony by himself! And now Cloudy and Drafty are dead because of him!” She stepped forward then, wrapping a foreleg around Aisle’s neck and pulling him close as she rested her head against his neck, closing her eyes as she embraced him. “That’s why I don’t want to be here anymore. Being around Lex cost me my husband. He cost me my friends. I don’t want him to cost me you too.”

Aisle wrapped a foreleg around her reflexively, but his eyes were on the crowd of ponies watching them. Most of them looked moved by Cozy’s display, giving her sympathetic looks while others were hugging or pressing against other ponies dear to them. Quite a few were also casting dark looks at the train station, and Aisle could hear an undercurrent of angry muttering going around. This is my fault, he realized with a shudder. I pushed her too far. I should have just told her what she wanted to hear from the beginning and waited for her to calm down. It was with that thought in mind that Aisle chose his next words carefully. “I understand. Let’s get going, okay?”

She nodded, not letting go of him, an Aisle awkwardly guided her forward, shepherding her toward the medical tent, the crowd parting in front of them. Maybe once she saw the practical issues with trying to leave here, particularly with no provisions and no way to transport a dead body, she’d come around. But until then, pushing her to reconsider would probably only make things worse, since she had apparently decided that Lex was the source of all her woes. Maybe then she’d realize that what she was talking about simply wasn’t realistically possible.

But as he listened to the upset voices coming from the crowd, all of them apparently directed toward Lex, Aisle couldn’t help but wonder if maybe they should just leave after all. He somehow doubted that the red-horned unicorn would appreciate how Cozy had apparently just turned everypony against him. Sharing her opinion was one thing; whipping up an angry mob would probably be something else again.


Aria watched the pair of ponies leave, eyes narrowed in consideration.

She’d heard the raised voice, and had gone to investigate out of sheer boredom, since anything was better than sitting around and waiting for Lex to hurry up and fulfill his promise to her. What she’d found had actually been mildly interesting, as that crystal pony had managed to put together an impressive number of half-truths, making Lex sound like the bad guy instead of the person who’d pulled off a one-in-a-million plan to save everypony from the Great Lord of the Deep. She’d have made a decent Siren, she decided, almost able to see the negative emotions pouring off of the assembled ponies.

Of course, her efforts weren’t going to amount to anything, Aria knew. If Lex could defeat her, Monitor, and Lirtkra all on his own, an unruly mob wouldn’t phase him even slightly; quite the opposite, they’d just make themselves into a target for his anger, since he was no doubt still upset about learning that his friends had died. Which means he’s going to want to tear that instigator limb from limb, she was certain. And if I bring the little upstart to him, then I’ll be able to rub it in Sonata’s face just how much more useful I am than her. That, and Lex might get off his butt about fixing her voice. He might still have five more days before his self-imposed deadline arrived, but the waiting was driving her crazy. Anything that could make him go faster was worth a shot, and if it ticked Sonata off in the process, so much the better. The thought made Aria smile, quite pleased with herself.

Whispering the words to invoke the new magic she’d learned, Aria cast an invisibility spell on herself, followed by a flight spell, and took off after the pair.

Author's Note:

Aisle tries to talk Cozy down, but ends up making things worse in the process, while Aria detects an opportunity.

How will this play out?

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