• 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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9 - Fight in the Forest

Squinting into the sunset, Lex tried to make out the features of the pony silhouette that was looking at them. He considered calling on Sombra’s magic, the mutable nature of which allowed him to sharpen his physical senses in myriad ways. But doing that would result in his eyes giving their tell-tale glow, and the last thing he wanted to do was alert the unknown pony that they had spotted-

“Hi!” yelled Sonata, waving a hoof jovially.

The pony instantly disappeared into the woods, and Lex paused just long enough to glare at Sonata before he cast a spell and vanished, a momentary portal swallowing him up even as another one instantaneously deposited him close to where the unknown pony had been. Lex shook his head, trying to clear it after the dizzying sensation of magical travel, before he plunged into the forest in pursuit, ignoring Sonata’s cry for him to wait for her.

Casting that spell was a calculated risk. It was powerful enough that, had he tried to retain it via channeling the energy through his body rather than expending the spell’s thought-form, he likely would have suffered severe muscular weakness, and he didn’t dare incapacitate himself like that when they still didn’t know what they were up against. That meant that his magical travel spell was – barring some extremely unusual circumstances – gone, at least until the equinox arrived and he was able to gather enough power to prepare it again.

But it was worth it. Although the mysterious pony had a good lead on him, Lex was – by using Sombra’s power to enhance his vision as the forest’s canopy blocked out what little sunlight was left – able to keep them in his sight. They had a yellow coat and a cream-white mane and tail, though further details were lost amidst the trees.

Cursing as he almost tripped over a root, Lex drew upon more of his horn’s dark magic, and let his body dissolve into shadows. Unencumbered by having to worry about the terrain any longer, he flew forward, passing harmlessly through branches and rocks. The other pony, though still moving with more surety than they should have from running in what was now near-total darkness, still had to contend with the terrain, and it wasn’t long before Lex was able to work his way around in front of them.

Restoring himself to corporeality several dozen feet in front of his quarry, Lex held up a hoof. “Stop!”

The other pony, an earth pony stallion about Lex’s age, let out a cry of surprise and turned abruptly, trying to run in a different direction. It got almost ten feet before Lex completed another spell – one minor enough to channel its energy through his circlet, preserving its thought-form in his mind – and suddenly the ground beneath the pony’s feet turned into a puddle of slippery grease, causing him to slip and fall with a yelp.

Walking up to him calmly, Lex tried his best to soothe the yellow stallion’s fear. “Calm down, you idiot! You’re not in any danger, I just want to talk to you.”

“G-get away! I’m warning you!” The other stallion, obviously terrified, yelled as he got to his hooves, controlling his balance remarkably well.

Lex stopped roughly ten feet from him. He was about to reiterate that he didn’t mean the other pony any harm, when suddenly the other pony’s form blurred, and in its place was a monster.

It had the torso of a pony, but it had eight spindly legs. Its tail was replaced with a spinneret. Worst of all was its face, which was still recognizably pony-like, but now had compound eyes and large pincers, dripping with ichor, sprouting from its mouth.

Lex gaped, momentarily stunned by the horrific transformation, and the creature used that to its advantage as it leapt at him, clearly having abandoned flight in favor of fight. Closing the distance between them in an instant, its jaws tried to close around his neck, only for them to come to an abrupt halt less than an inch from his skin, stopped by an unseen force. It had no way of knowing that the pony it was attacking had long ago woven layers of force armor over his body.

Lex threw himself backwards while intoning a spell, one of the very first that he’d learned after inventing his own style of magic. A scintillating cone of colors shot out, momentarily brightening the forest in a rainbow splash of light. The thing threw a leg over its eyes protectively, and for a moment Lex hoped that he had bought himself some breathing room.

That hope was dashed almost immediately as the monster recovered virtually instantly. But rather than rushing at Lex again, it began to chant and gesture with one of its legs. Lex’s eyes widened, caught by surprise for the second time in less than a minute, as the creature cast a spell. Instantly, a dark red beam shot out from its outstretched leg, and before Lex could dodge it struck his side, causing him to cry out as it felt like someone had just set him on fire.

Faced with an unknown monster that could also cast spells, Lex abandoned all thought of restraint. While he still hadn’t figured out how to use the normal levels of ambient magical energy to replenish his spells – for that he needed a major magical resource, such as a powerful artifact or certain seasonal conjunctions – he had learned how to draw upon those ambient energies to enhance the spells he did cast, though only a few times per day.

He did that now as he hissed the words to the deadliest spell he knew, pushing it to maximize its destructive potential. This disintegration spell was his “last resort” attack spell, the one he fell back on only in dire emergencies, which this was definitely looking like. Pointing a hoof at the thing, he let a green beam of light spring forth at it.

It tried to leap out of the way, but wasn’t fast enough to avoid having its spinneret struck, which immediately turned to dust under the onslaught. But as the creature screamed in agony, the green glow failed to spread over its body, and Lex realized that it had managed to resist the full force of the spell.

Not that it had done much good. With a major part of its body gone, the spider-pony fell back, weakly dragging itself against a fallen log, apparently having lost its will to continue the battle as it made a wailing noise that Lex belatedly realized were agonized sobs.

Breathing heavily from the unexpected fight, Lex drew a wand from his haversack. Pointing it at the creature, he prepared to unleash the lightning contained within, and put this horror out of its misery.

The thing’s form blurred again, and suddenly it was a buttery-colored pony again, albeit one that no longer had a tail. It’s, or rather, his face was screwed up in pain and fear, and tears were running down it. “P-please…please don’t…” he held up a shaking hoof in Lex’s direction weakly. “Don’t kill me…”

The plea stopped Lex cold. Although it hadn’t actually used the word, its pleading still constituted asking for mercy, and in Lex’s rigorously-defined set of morals mercy had to be shown whenever it was asked for, regardless of the circumstances or the nature of whoever, or whatever, asked for it. The only exception was if the asker was clearly and unambiguously insincere, and that was a high bar that the current situation didn’t meet. Still holding his wand at ready, Lex tried to figure out what to do.

Suddenly light poured over the area, and a soft, feminine voice sang an enchantment. Recognizing the words as a powerful spell to induce slumber, Lex turned just in time to see Sonata – carrying another rock that she’d enchanted to glow – round a nearby bend. Completing her spell, the spider-thing-turned-pony immediately slumped over, unconscious, causing Sonata to let out a whoop.

“Didja see that? I got him!”


Twenty minutes later, Lex had cast his rope trick spell and, after casting an alarm spell to alert him if anything came within twenty feet of the hanging rope, levitated the unconscious creature – he refused to think of it as a pony – inside it. He’d gone up next, followed by Sonata.

Once they were all inside, Lex had used Sombra’s magic to wind black crystal chains around the creature, making sure its limbs were secured. The material, he knew, was strong enough that even if it transformed again it wouldn’t be able to dislodge them, and with its legs unable to move freely it shouldn’t be able to cast anymore spells, or so he hoped.

Nodding to Sonata, he sat back as she slowly walked over to their captive and shook him. “Hey there. Wakey wakey.” Groaning softly, his eyes fluttered open before they settled on Sonata’s face, and he sat up with a start. Or at least, he tried to, his bonds keeping him from righting himself, causing him to wriggle for a panicked moment before he gave up, lying back.

“All done?” asked Sonata. Her tone was light, but neutral, lacking either warmth or cruelty. The pony looked up at her before shifting his eyes to Lex, who was sitting back with his wand held in his telekinetic grip, pointing at the ground.

“What’s going to happen to me?” he asked in a quavering voice.

“Uh-uh.” Sonata shook her head. “We’re the ones asking the questions here. Your job is to answer them, and if we like what we hear,” she put a hoof underneath the stallion’s chin, lifting it up to make him look at her, “you just might get out of here alive.”

“Sonata!” barked Lex.

“Aw c’mon!” she whined in reply to his chastisement. “That’s what they say on TV!”

“I don’t know what ‘TV’ is, but you can’t make death threats,” shot back Lex. “We have to maintain moral superiority.”

Sonata gave an exasperated groan, rolling her eyes before replying. “Fine!” Turning back to the chained stallion, she started over. “Okay, look. We’re, like, totally not going to hurt you or kill you or anything. We just want to ask you some questions. First…is it true that you’re a were-spider?”

Now it was Lex’s turn to roll his eyes, as the yellow pony looked confused. “What?”

“You know. Like, you’re a normal pony by day, but under the light of the full moon you transform into a giant bug and eat flies and stuff. Like that?” she asked. Behind her, Lex was biting his lip.

The yellow pony’s face showed confusion. “No…I’m an aranea.” Sonata made a prompting gesture, and he slowly continued. “We’re born with the ability to change between our arachnid form and our, er, pony form.” He glanced at himself as he finished speaking.

“I’ve never heard of any such creature,” interjected Lex. “What’s your place of origin?” He had a good idea of what the answer was, based on the fact that the creature’s spellcasting had utilized gesturing and chanting, but he was hoping against hope that he was wrong, that there was some other explanation.

They yellow pony looked confused by the question. “You mean where I live?”

“No. I mean where you lived before you came here.”

The stallion’s eyes flickered from Lex to Sonata and back again before he spoke. “I’m from Everglow.”

Author's Note:

Lex and Sonata manage to catch the pony - or rather, aranea - that was watching them. But what is a native of that other world doing on Equestria?

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