Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

278 - Ambivalent Affections

“Dig faster!” Lex yelled at the ponies in the hole. “I want this to be ready to hold what’s left of those ghouls in twelve hours!”

Nosey, at her usual place by his side, nudged him gently. “Putting it that way isn’t exactly going to make them want to give it their all, Lex,” she chided him gently.

But the dour stallion was in no mood for it. “Then Sonata should be here to soften my words for me,” he answered darkly.

“I’m sure she will be,” replied Nosey in a soothing voice, “just as soon as she and Aria are done, er, talking things out.”

Lex snorted. He wasn’t skilled where euphemisms were concerned, but even he could tell that “talking things out” was Nosey’s way of saying that they were still fighting. Normally he wouldn’t have cared, but in this case he knew exactly what they were fighting over, and just the thought of it was enough to make him tense, thinking back to the discussion the four of them had just had…

The realization that the girls had thought he’d been making some sort of sexual advance had been as shocking as it had been mortifying. The very idea that they’d so wildly misread his actions had initially struck him as ludicrous – to the point where he’d briefly wondered if he was the butt of some coordinated joke on their part – but he’d eventually realized that, with no context for why he’d suddenly started examining them so closely, they’d genuinely believed that he was initiating some sort of liaison.

Lex was used to there being a comprehension gap in his interactions with other ponies, but it had been quite some time since it had been that bad. Worse, this wasn’t one that he could blame on the other party’s lack of acumen. In hindsight, there’d been no possible way they could have known what he was doing, but at the time he honestly hadn’t been aware that his intentions hadn’t been plainly obvious. In his mind, there hadn’t been anything else that it could have been. It was an oversight so egregious that made him want to isolate himself from everyone he knew until the event had faded from their collective memory and was never spoken of again. No matter that he’d been exhausted, recovering from numerous injuries, and attempting to manage the city’s recovery all on his own; such a lapse in judgment was as unforgivable as it was humiliating.

But as much as the memory made him want to crawl out of his skin, even that was nothing compared to how confused he felt about his relationship with the girls now.

They would have let me. Just the thought stirred up a maelstrom of emotions in him, ruining any attempt to approach the subject rationally. They thought I wanted them, and none of them said no.

Of course, he couldn’t rule out that they’d given some sort of nonverbal signal of rejection at the time and he simply hadn’t noticed it – at this point, almost nothing about what had happened last night could be conclusively ruled out – but that hadn’t been the premise of the conversation they’d just had. Rather, their questions and statements had all been predicated on them being upset not because his so-called “advances” had been unwanted, but because they hadn’t understood what had precipitated them, nor what had caused him to so abruptly cease. Even Sonata’s complaints earlier this morning had been presented as her being jealous and confused, rather than his having acted in a manner that she or the others had found unwelcome. Which strongly suggested that what they’d perceived as his desire for them had been welcome.

He’d tried to contextualize that, of course. In the short time since he’d left the train station, he’d struggled to integrate what he’d just learned into what he already knew about relationships, both generally and with regard to those three individuals. But it had been futile; nothing about what happened made any sort of sense when compared to what he knew, either as an abstraction or in his interpersonal connections to Sonata, Nosey, and Aria. If anything, it overturned what he’d thought had been reliable data. It was maddening!

Worse, he was now hyper-aware of the girls.

When Nosey had followed him after he’d left the station, eventually catching up to him and wordlessly pressing her side to his, he hadn’t said anything. Intellectually, he’d known that this was consistent with how she’d been acting recently: maintaining physical contact with him in the wake of her trauma as some sort of coping mechanism. But now every aspect of her femininity was thrust violently into his consciousness, constant and visceral and impossible to ignore.

Each breath he took brought with it the scent of her mane. The slightest little move that either of them made caused the curves of her body to rub against him. Every word she said was now compared to the heavy breaths and soft moans she’d made last night, sounds that he’d overlooked at the time but which now came back to him in exceptional detail. And he knew that it would be the same when Aria and Sonata finally rejoined him. Even the fact that he was already in a physical relationship with the latter Siren didn’t reduce his confusion, since he’d still never been confident as to how to initiate a bout of lovemaking between them.

The cocktail of embarrassment, confusion, and arousal was one that Lex wasn’t able to handle, and so he’d dealt with it the only way he knew how: by clamping down on it. Though directionless, his anger was easy to summon, holding his other emotions at bay, barely, as he turned his thoughts back toward the work of restoring Vanhoover. Everything else is too trivial for me to focus on right now, he told himself. It was a message that he’d needed to repeat numerous times.

Still, he had managed to get several things done. A squad of ponies had been given an allotment of bits and told to deliver them to the nearby farming communities; reparations for the goods they’d had stolen from them before, as well as a signal that Vanhoover was once again open for commerce. That was only barely the case, since he was appropriating what remained of the city’s funds in order to buy essential goods, but it was enough to begin resurrecting the local market’s economy. Without that, Vanhoover had only borrowed time instead of a future.

After all, they were likely going to have even more survivors trickling in soon. After dispatching the bit-laden ponies to the nearby farms, Lex had put together a troupe of pegasi, sending them into Vanhoover. Or rather, over Vanhoover; each of them had been told to fly over the city and verbally broadcast, as often and as loudly as they could, that the ghouls were gone and that the camp east of town was now under new management and would accept all ponies. There was no telling how many survivors would hear the message and come looking for aid, but Lex felt certain that the number would be greater that zero.

The next order of business had been corpse disposal. The pile of dead ghouls needed to be dealt with as soon as equinely possible. Already, the field of body parts was beginning to emit a malodorous stench, something which Lex had managed to keep away from the camp by having more pegasi flap their wings at the field, blowing the scent of rot and decay away from the camp. In the meantime, the ponies working to clear out the mass grave they’d need had been increased, thanks to the additional digging supplies he’d brought back from his latest foray into Vanhoover. Now they just needed to actually dig the hole in a timely manner.

For his part, the sole remaining thing that needed to be done was to replenish his long-range communication spell. Even if it only allowed each party to send a single twenty-five word message, that would be enough to let him inform Ribbon Cutting, the deputy mayor of Tall Tale, what had happened. More importantly, it would let him tell her to find a way to contact Cloudsdale and send an emergency supply of rainclouds. The cloud city wasn’t anywhere near here, of course, and it was unlikely that Tall Tale’s rail line had been repaired, but at least this way Ribbon would be able to send a message as soon as possible.

“Nosey, I need to confer with Severance,” Lex stated, not looking at her as he spoke. “Privately.”

He felt her tense at that. “Are you sure I can’t stay with you? I’ll be really quiet.”

“Out of the question!” The words came out harsher than he’d intended; in his mind her saying that she could be quiet was enough to conjure up more memories of her submissive whimpering, and he reached for a greater source of irritation to suppress it. The last thing I need is a reporter uncovering that I can’t replenish my strongest magic without Severance there! “Go find Sonata. Have her use her magic to keep you calm,” he continued, forcing equanimity into his voice.

Her ears folded back, and for a moment she looked like she wanted to protest. “I-, alright.” She took a deep breath, making a motion to step away from him, but stopped before following through, sighing. “Can you walk me back to the station?” she asked in a small voice.

Simultaneously thrilled and annoyed at the request, Lex paused for just a moment before giving a curt nod. He still wanted to reduce her discomfort as much as possible, and taking a little bit of time to personally escort her back wouldn’t impact anything. With one last glance back at the teams of ponies excavating the ground, he turned and led Nosey away.

Even with all the ponies he’d put to work, the camp still had numerous inhabitants, and Lex was painfully aware of the eyes watching him and Nosey as they headed for the train station. That was another thing he had to deal with: Sonata’s little outburst from earlier in the day had made what had happened public knowledge. As they walked, Lex distinctly heard snatches of hushed conversation, phrases like “all three of them” and “that other mare” reaching his ears. The gossip had apparently spread in record time.

Only barely aware that Nosey was turning bright red, Lex clenched his teeth. His immediate instinct was to inform everyone that they had no idea what they were talking about, and that Sonata’s words had been the product of a misunderstanding. But that impulse was immediately quashed. The misunderstanding had been caused by him, and the shame and embarrassment he felt from that wasn’t something he wanted to spread around. And I have no idea if the truth would make things better or worse for the girls, he admitted to himself, giving Nosey a sidelong glance. Besides, there was no compelling public interest with regards to what had happened, which meant that he wasn’t obligated to tell everypony the full story.

That was justification enough, and Lex stoically refused to acknowledge the chorus of whispers and muttered remarks that followed them to the station. Once there, he and Nosey barely said a word to each other before she slipped into the building, the sound of Sonata’s voice and Aria’s whispering leaking out as she did. But Lex was already turning to leave, wanting to focus on something else, anything else, and by the time he had made it back to the other end of the camp, he was thinking that maybe he should spend further time with Severance so that he could replenish more of his spells-

“Look!”

Lex’s eyes immediately turned to the pegasus stallion who’d raised his voice, recognizing him as one of C. Shells’ crew, Ocean Spray. He’d been in the middle of hauling dirt out of the hole, but had stopped in mid-air, a bucket dangling from one hoof as the other pointed out toward the city. Except it wasn’t toward the city, Lex realized as he tracked where the stallion was indicating. He was pointing too far to the southwest, and the only thing in that direction was water...

Lex stopped as he saw what Ocean Spray was pointing at.

Out past the bay, a boat was slowly making its way toward Vanhoover.

Author's Note:

Lex tries to deal with what passed between him and the girls last night. Unsurprisingly, he's not handling it very well.

But it seems that he's about to have something else to focus on instead. How will the new arrival in Vanhoover fare?

Comments

[Not so New Brony]

River Bank has finally arrived though whether her return to Vanhoover is beneficial or otherwise remains to be seen. Regardless, looks like Lex will need to investigate the new arrivals personally unless the pegasi he's sent over Vanhoover beat him to it and tell River the state Vanhoover is themselves.

I never thought Lex's awareness of the ladies' apparent attraction to him would be just as amusing to me as his initial cluelessness to it and yet here I am. I imagine that any future interactions with them, especially when it involves experimenting with methods to transform Aria are involved. I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to think back to how such attraction even developed in the first place like for example, the time he blurted out how attractive Aria was.

Of course, given everything on his plate, of which he constantly adds to before even finishing it, River's presence could become an unwelcome addition it. Then again, Twilight did inform him of the three families early on so he might have already formulated a plan or two back then to get them to cooperate with him though with circumstances as they are, they'll need to be tweaked a little.

I might be overestimating Lex here but with his list of accomplishments, it's better than underestimating him.

[Booster Spice]

The ship is a useful set of circumstances for arriving in previous port etc, or is it one o the controlling families so desperate to keep hold that given only a day or so theyre trying again even with teh slightest mistake in surveilance will mean total loss of ship and crew?

I beleive Barnes Wallis did calculations on optimum size of holes, linear circumference to cubic volume, relative to work force and equipment available.

[David Silver]

wings as the field -- wings at the field

[Alzrius]

9193854 Whoops! Fixed now; thanks for catching that!

[David Silver]

9194364
The battle against typos is one that we must all share.

[James Fire]

And here is River Bank. Hopefully she can control the Piggy Bank.

[Alzrius]

9223595 She's the family matriarch. Somehow I think she can.