Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

49 - 'Tis Better

Lex was silent as he led Waterlily through the woods.

Since she didn’t know the way, he’d had to lead her, meaning that she was walking behind him. It wasn’t an optimal arrangement, since not having her in his sight at all times would place him at a disadvantage if she ran off again. To compensate for that, he’d quietly ordered Severance to alert him if she fled, since it quite obviously had some sort of sensory apparatus with which to perceive the world around it.

From its place on his back, Lex mentally “heard” the scythe’s compliant response. He’d placed it there despite its ability to move about on its own. Allowing it to fly about unattended could constitute having drawn the weapon – another thing he’d overlooked during his initial meeting with Waterlily – and a drawn weapon was a threat that justified immediate retaliation from those within its threat range, even if no attack had been made. Since he could hardly walk into town that way, he’d stowed Severance, which to his surprise had not protested the arrangement. But then, it wasn’t as though it couldn’t spring up any time it wanted to.

As Tall Tale came into view, Waterlily began to shiver. Looking at her for a moment, Lex paused as something occurred to him. “Have you ever been inside a city before?”

She shook her head in reply, but offered nothing further. In fact, she hadn’t spoken at all since he’d released his control of her. It was enough to make Lex frown, but not enough of a concern to take any action over. Whatever lingering trauma she was dealing with would be handled by her family, rather than himself.

At the moment, he was more concerned with trying to figure out the limits of his new powers. He’d been quietly experimenting with them during the walk back, attempting to use them to ensnare local wildlife that had gotten too close during their trek through the forest. The results had not been encouraging.

While he’d been able to direct that power outward with a few moments of concentration, it had steadfastly refused to affect any of the animals that had crossed their path. Lex had felt it reach out to entangle them, only to be unable to influence them in any way. There hadn’t been any sense of resistance or struggle. Rather, it had been more like…like that power simply couldn’t affect them, any more than a light – no matter how bright – could push a boulder up a mountain.

And yet he’d been able to affect Waterlily so easily…

Putting away his speculations for the moment, Lex turned his thoughts back to his companion. “Stay close to me at all times. No one here will hurt you, but I don’t want you to get lost.”

She looked like she wanted to protest, but bit her lip instead, edging slightly closer to him. Taking that as a sign of her acquiescence, Lex started towards town, keeping a wary eye on Waterlily as he did.

As he entered the city, several of the surrounding ponies noticed him and trotted over, raising friendly voices in greeting. The sight was enough to make Waterlily tense, and Lex quickly waved them off, worried that she was about to bolt again. Cursing under his breath, he quickened his pace through the city, ushering his charge along as he did.

He needed to stop and ask directions several times before he finally found his destination, each time with Waterlily shrinking under the gaze of the ponies he spoke to. Finally, they arrived, and Lex silently hoped that her siblings were inside and not out among the jubilant throngs. He was eager to be done with this errand and move on to other matters that needed his attention.

Opening the door, Lex bid Waterlily to follow him as he entered. Once inside, he walked towards the first doorway he saw…and stopped as he beheld who was inside.

Fireflower and Sonata.

---

As Brightrose ushered Nosey out of the room, Fireflower shot his brother a helpless look, only to receive a knowing grin in reply. The sight made Fireflower fight down a blush as he turned his eyes back to Sonata. It was obvious that Brightrose thought she was there for reasons that were entirely tawdry, but Fireflower knew her better than that.

…or perhaps not, since he realized he had no idea why she was there. And if Brightrose was right… Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Fireflower focused on the mare in front of him. “What are you doing here?”

Sonata smiled guilelessly. “Looking for you, obviously! I mean, that’s not the reason I’m up and about at this hour, but after finding out that my hotel didn’t have room service I went out to get something to eat, and it occurred to me that if most of the city was still awake, you might be too.”

She moved as she spoke, guiding him over to a booth in the back of the room. “Of course, I didn’t know where to go looking for you, but then I totes remembered Tender was taking you guys to her sister’s place. I asked around, and was finally told to come here!” She smiled, quite clearly proud of her deductive skills. Fireflower nodded idly, noting that they were now quite secluded, the booth not having line of sight to the door.

“That’s, um, great and all, but…why are you here?” Even as he asked the question, Fireflower could feel his stomach tightening into knots. He suddenly recalled that this was the same nervous excitement he’d felt back when they were in that hotel room together and he’d made up his mind to confess his feelings to her. But that made no sense now! He’d realized that she was too stuck on Lex! So why…?

Oblivious to his discomfort, Sonata leaned forward, her smile becoming softer as she did. “I wanted to thank you for everything you did, you and your family. I didn’t have a chance to thank whatshisname who ran off with Nosey just now, but if it wasn’t for you and him, Lex would have died. I can’t tell you h-”

“Why do you love him so much?”

In the silence that followed, it took Fireflower a moment to realize that he’d said that out loud. Across from him, Sonata blinked in surprise, clearly caught off-guard by the question. “Huh?”

For a moment, Fireflower wanted to wave the question off. He felt sure that if he did, they could pretend he’d never asked it, and then-

“I still think you should tell her.”

Brightrose’s words suddenly came to mind, and Fireflower felt his resolve harden. Taking a deep breath, trying to stop himself from trembling, he asked her again. “Why do you love him so much?”

“Why…?” For a moment, Sonata looked confused, unable to fathom why he was asking her this. She almost thought he was joking with her, but the look on his face was entirely serious. It was enough to make her shift in her seat uncomfortably. “Because…there’s a lot of reasons, I guess.”

“You guess?”

The question made her flinch, and she wasn’t sure why. “Look, I know he can be kinda prickly sometimes, but he has a lot of good points too! I mean, he saved all those ponies, including both of us!”

“He’s strong and he’s brave, there’s no denying that,” granted Fireflower, “and he clearly wants to do the right thing. But has he ever made you laugh? Even once?”

Sonata folded her ears back, looking away without answering. But Fireflower kept going. “Has he ever gotten you a gift, just because he wanted to do something nice for you? Has he ever asked you about what kind of future you two have together? Has he-”

“Stop it!” yelled Sonata, clamoring out of the booth. “Just stop it! Why are you saying all this?!” She turned for the door. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you but I don’t want to be around you if you’re gonna be like this!”

“Wait!” Fireflower rushed to cut her off, putting himself between her and the door, his face imploring. “Don’t go!”

“Why not?!” snapped Sonata, giving him a look that was as much hurt as it was anger. “If you’re going to talk this way about my boyfriend for no good reason-”

“I have a reason!”

“Oh yeah? Then what is it?”

“It’s…” he paused, realizing that this was it. This was the moment. This hadn’t been how he’d envisioned it, but here it was. Do or die.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, holding it for just a moment before slowly releasing it. All of a sudden, his nervousness was gone. Opening his eyes, he took a single step closer to Sonata, bringing him slightly closer to her than he knew was polite.

“Sonata…I love you.”

For a moment, she just stared, as though she hadn’t understood what he’d said, before a look of surprise blossomed on her face. Fireflower could feel his sudden calm shattering in the wake of his confession, and desperately searched her features for any sign of how she felt, but all he could see was shock.

Unnerved by her silence, Fireflower opened his mouth again, having no idea what he was going to say even as he spoke. “I love you so much, Sonata. You’ve always been so kind to me. When I was at my lowest point you were there to help me get back on my feet. No matter how bad things seemed you were never afraid, and seeing you like that gave me strength. I want to spend the rest of my life doing the same for you, and I swear that I’ll spend every moment of every day trying to make you happy, so please…” he trailed off, realizing that he was rambling.

Her expression hadn’t changed, if anything she looked even more stunned, and Fireflower could feel himself starting to become worried. He had to know her answer! He took a half-step closer to her, leaning in to bridge the distance between them. If she couldn’t say how she felt, then this would let him know if she’d accept him or not. Slowly, he brought his face closer to hers…

…at the last moment, she turned her head to the side, moving her lips away from his.

The look on his face as she did so pierced her to the core, but it didn’t change her mind. Biting her lip, she couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eye as she spoke. “I’m sorry,” her voice was barely more than a whisper. “I just…I don’t…”

He let out a shaky breath, and could feel his eyes growing moist, but fought that urge down with a sudden fierceness. He was not going to cry in front of her again! “Is…is it because of Lex?”

She nodded wordlessly, and Fireflower felt something inside him clench. “Why?”

Sonata heard the anger and the sadness and the pleading in his voice, begging her to make him understand why she’d just broken his heart. Why she didn’t love him back. Why she loved someone else instead of him. She’d never answered his original question, she realized abruptly: why did she love Lex so much?

But as awful as it was to be asked that by someone she’d just rejected, what was far worse was that she didn’t know how to answer. She was sure that she loved Lex, that what she felt for him was as powerful as it was wonderful. But what it was that made her feel that way…

She didn’t know.

There was an answer. There had to be. But she didn’t know what it was, and realizing that was enough to shake Sonata to her core. If she didn’t know why she loved the stallion that she’d given her heart to, then was that even really love at all?

Fighting down a sense of distress, Sonata looked back up, knowing that she had to tell Fireflower something. But as she raised her gaze, she glanced behind him, and her eyes widened in alarm.

Lex was standing in the doorway.

Author's Note:

Fireflower puts his heart on the line, even though it goes how he feared it would.

But have his feelings been overheard by the one pony he didn't want to find out?

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Lex is struck by indesicion?

Theres going to be a lot of anger very quickly thats its a wonder Sonata wont get a power up even without her pendant. Or would that be Lex.

[No one is home]

If Lex can keep his temper in check, he comes out of this in a really good spot. If he blows his top... might not be Fire Flower who walks away heartbroken. Actually, Lex has nothing to be angry about, really. Sonota has remained loyal. He was never buddies with Fire Flower, so it's not like there was ever any expectation of loyalty. It is a totes legitimate social challenge.

[Not so New Brony]

Well, Lex has gone out of his way to resurrect their sister and here he finds Fireflower confessing his own love to Sonata who doesn't understand why she loves Lex in the first place and he heard everything, including her silence.

Awkward...

Even if he is a rational pony, Lex's heart must, which is still on the mend from their first breakup, must have taken quite the blow. Either things will break down into an argument(where Severance might make itself known) or Lex will walk away to sort out his thoughts with Sonata unsure whether she should follow a stallion that she wasn't sure if she loves or not.

Whatever happens, things are going to be quite emotional.

[James Fire]

Typos avoid my x-Ray vision again... you might be getting better.

Lex heard... shit.