• 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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90 - The Others

Lex was silent as he walked back into the shelter, Severance floating behind him leisurely.

Although he was aware of everypony looking at him as he rejoined them, he ignored their looks and whispers as best he could. Even Sonata warranted only a brief glance in her direction, which resulted in his making eye contact with her for just a second before she sharply looked away, making it clear that she was still upset about their fight. But even that did little more than cause Lex’s perpetual frown to deepen. After what Aria had told him, he couldn’t get worked up about such minor details.

Making his way back to the makeshift medical area that the doctors had set up, Lex glanced at the nearest one of them even as he telekinetically pushed Severance off into a corner. “Finish your treatment,” he ordered the other ponies curtly, moving back to lie down on the hastily-made examination area. He barely noticed as the doctors and nurses moved to obey, starting to wrap bandages around him and apply various topical disinfectants. Even the painful sensations of the shards of glass in his lower body being dug out were distant concerns.

According to what Aria had told him, they were up against a force of significant size and strength. While she didn’t know the total number of sahuagin, her estimate was that their community numbered over two hundred altogether. While Lex didn’t think that individual sahuagin were anything to be overly concerned about – a least so long as they weren’t exceptional specimens the way Lirtkra had been – Aria had indicated roughly a tenth of the population were divine spellcasters, with the strongest four being the so-called “Mighty Ones” who led the community.

That was bad enough, but they apparently had an auxiliary force of other undersea monsters, of which Monitor and Aria herself had been a part, and according to her each member of that retinue was a force to be reckoned with. Certainly, her descriptions of those creatures had been horrifying enough. Intelligent manta rays that were not only spellcasters, but vampires. Gigantic three-eyed tentacle-fish with psychic powers. Some sort of creature whose main feature was a single large eyeball, along with having crab-like pincers, a serrated maw, and two smaller eyestalks sprouting from the top of its body. And those were only a few of them.

But the worst had been the one that led them all, the so-called “Great Lord of the Deep.” Just the thought of that thing…

Resisting the urge to bite his lip at the enormity of the forces arrayed against them, no, against him, Lex’s train of thought was interrupted as one of the doctors, a light blue unicorn stallion in a lab coat, approached him. “Sir? My name is House Call. I need to ask you some questions before we go any further.” He flipped a page on his clipboard before he continued. “First, do you have any allergies or adverse drug reactions that we should be aware of?”

“No,” replied Lex curtly, barely giving the doctor a glance as he tried to resume thinking about what to do about the veritable army of monsters arrayed against him. But a moment later the implications of the doctor’s question occurred to him, and he looked at him directly. “You’re not to give me anything that has debilitating side effects.”

House Call’s brow furrowed as he processed that. “Sir…”

“Nothing that could inhibit cognitive function, impair reaction time, or cause drowsiness.”

“Wh-, that…” House Call struggled for a moment to process the outrageous instructions. “That would limit us to just basic painkillers and…a general antibiotic-”

“That will be sufficient.”

“Sir, please, be reasonable.” House Call frowned, exasperated with how his patient was acting. “This isn’t a ‘take two and call me in the morning’ situation. You’re severely injured and we’re working with minimal equipment already. If you won’t let us give you proper medical care, this won’t just be an issue of pain control. We need to give you stronger antimicrobial drugs to stop any possible infections, to say nothing of possible internal bleeding!”

This was House Call’s preferred way of dealing with difficult patients; outline the worst-case scenario, and let that impress upon them how serious things could be if they didn’t listen to their doctor’s advice. But in this case, his patient just shot him a glare, clearly unimpressed. “I’ve already used one of the Night Mare’s healing spells on myself, so I’m not worried about possible complications,” replied Lex flatly. House Call opened his mouth, but closed it a moment later. What could he say to that?

Lex continued. “Nor does ‘pain control’ concern me. What does concern me is if we’re attacked again and I’m unable to respond to the threat because I’m incapacitated due to your treatment.” Not that there was much that he could do at the moment if that happened. He was completely out of divine magic, was running low on dark magic, and what remained of his prepared spells weren’t suitable for combat.

“Then you should just use that floating scythe of yours.”

Lex glanced up as Nosey approached, frowning at her suggestion. Making use of Severance wasn’t a bad idea at all, but it was one he was wary of utilizing. That was because of what had happened barely fifteen minutes ago, when he had suggested exactly that when speaking to Aria. The words had barely left his mouth when Severance had informed him that, should he come to be dependent on it, it would abandon him. Lex had tried to press the living weapon for clarification – what exactly constituted “dependent” was hideously imprecise – but it had refused to issue any.

It had been a sobering reminder that while Severance might currently be serving him, he was not the weapon’s master. Rather, it was more like the weapon was an attaché or a liaison rather than a servitor, which meant that there was little Lex could do but grit his teeth at the vague warning and try to plan around it as best he could, because the alternative was completely unacceptable. Not only was Severance an extremely powerful weapon, but it was currently the only method he had of reliably replenishing his strongest magic. If it left now, Vanhoover’s future prospects would go from being grim to completely hopeless.

Ignorant of that, Nosey spoke up again as she saw the sour look on Lex’s face. “It can watch this place, just like you told it to before. And we can help. When those things attacked the ship last night, the ponies on board did a great job holding them off. Plus Sonata has really strong magic too. You don’t have to be the one to do everything.”

Lex opened his mouth, ready to tell Nosey in great detail exactly how she was wrong, but before he could another voice cut in. “She’s right. We can do more than sit in here all day and be protected, isn’t that right guys?” C. Shells looked around as she said that, and in response the members of her crew gave a cheer. Smiling, she looked back at Lex. “We might not be dragonslayers or wizards or whatever, but we knew this wasn’t going to be an easy assignment when we took it. If there’s anything we can do to help, then you should tell us.”

“In that case, we need to fix that door,” spoke up Aisle. Seeing several ponies look at him, he licked his lips before glancing at Lex. “You said you put wards on this place, and some of them were on the doors, right? Keeping them closed and covered with an illusion?” He didn’t wait for an answer before turning to face C. Shells. “If we repair the door, I’m guessing those wards would kick back in, and we’ll be a lot safer once they are.”

“Two doors,” added Sonata, heaving a sigh as she stood up. Giving Lex the briefest of looks, she turned to face the rest of the crowd. “I kinda had to blow a hole in the outer door to finish getting outside so I could go help this big jerk,” she waved a hoof in Lex’s direction. “So we’re totes gonna have to fix that one too.”

“Hold on,” Lex tried to interject, but that was as much as he could get out before Cloudbank piped up.

“I’ll help with that. I’ve been through that confusing fog that’s filling the place up, so I’m pretty sure I can help get everypony through it and back again without too much trouble.”

“I’ll go with you,” volunteered Cozy. “I still have some of Lashtada’s blessing left, just in case any of those things have gotten inside.”

“Don’t forget to set some traps after you’re done,” added Drafty. “Even if they just slow them down, they can still make a difference if worse comes to worst.”

“Alright everypony,” said C. Shells, projecting her voice as she looked around. “Let’s get to work! First, I want you to make two teams, one for the inner door and one for the outer door. We’ll start divvying up tools and repair materials so that the outer door group has to make as few trips as possible. We’ll also need some suggestions on traps,” she nodded towards Drafty, “just to be safe. Now hop to it!”

“Ooh!” yelled Sonata, smiling for the first time in a little while. “We can totes make a song out of this!” She trotted forward happily, starting to hum a tune that was quickly picked up by everypony else.

Almost everypony. For his part, Lex was frowning severely as the singing ponies started to get to work, and began to get up. But before he could, Nosey gently pushed him back down, giving him a warm look as she did so. “Don’t. Let them do this.”

“If any of the monsters from outside have gotten into the warehouse…” started Lex warningly.

“Like I said before, have your floating scythe do it,” she responded lightly.

He glowered at her, but knew that his reproach was verging on petulant, and instead glanced at where Severance was floating. As loathe as he was to admit it, Nosey was right; guarding the ponies in his care was something that Severance had done before, without any warnings about overreliance. In theory this should be no different, but Lex couldn’t help but hesitate for a moment, knowing what he stood to lose if he was wrong.

Nosey cocked her head, curious at his hesitation, and that was enough to galvanize him. He would NOT have a moment of weakness, especially in front of Nosey of all ponies! “Severance,” he called out sternly. “Go with the ponies heading for the outer door. Do not let anything harm them!” It immediately moved to obey, and Lex let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

Nosey, for her part, grinned. “You see? Everything’s going to be okay, so you don’t need to worry so much. Now will you let the doctors treat you the way they want?”

Lex didn’t answer her question, instead frowning at her for a long moment. It was enough to make her slightly self-conscious, and when he kept it up she eventually couldn’t help but ask. “…what?”

“You’re acting different,” said Lex plainly.

The statement was incongruous enough to make Nosey blink. “Huh?”

“You’re usually more annoying than this,” he elaborated. “Pestering ponies for interviews or demanding access to information. Not…this,” he waved a hoof at where the repairs were already getting underway.

Ignoring the comparative insult, Nosey looked down, slightly embarrassed at being called out. “Yeah, well…” She paused for a long moment, then admitted in a soft voice. “I had fun, before.”

“Hm?”

“Yesterday, when we were all cleaning out this warehouse. I had fun.”

Lex couldn’t keep the confusion off of his face. What did that have to do with anything?

Sensing that he didn’t understand, Nosey lifted her eyes as she explained. “I hadn’t done anything as part of a group in a while. I missed the last two Winter Wrap-Ups while I was out chasing stories, I didn’t go to my parent’s house for Hearth’s Warming Eve last year because I caught a cold, and I usually work on my birthday. That and, well…” She paused to adjust her glasses, fidgeting slightly before continuing. “A lot of ponies don’t want to hang out with a mare whose special talent is ferreting out their secrets and publishing them,” she admitted.

Lex was silent, trying to figure out what she was leading up to. For her part, Nosey looked away before continuing. “Cleaning this place out was really hard work. It was smelly and gross and awful, not to mention boring and strenuous. But even so…it was fun. I got to work with everypony, and even though it was difficult, we all helped each other out, and by the time it was finished, I really felt like we’d become a group, instead of just a bunch of ponies who happened to be traveling together. And that was because of you, since you made me participate.” She looked back at him then, that same warm smile back on her face.

“It feels nice, working with everypony else to be a part of something,” she continued. “That’s what everypony else is trying to do right now. They know that you’re trying your hardest for them, and they want to do the same for you.” She smiled wider as she came to the point. “That’s what being friends means. You get it now?”

For a long moment, Lex didn’t reply, his eyes shifting back and forth between Nosey’s earnest smile and everypony singing as they worked to repair the doors. Eventually, he licked his lips, and answered her honestly.

“No.”

Author's Note:

Lex contemplates the myriad monsters waiting beneath the waves, trying to figure out how he can stand against them.

But Nosey and the others remind him that, no matter what he might think - or want - he doesn't have to do it alone.

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