//------------------------------// // 413 - Paper Thin // Story: Lateral Movement // by Alzrius //------------------------------// “Lex, are you okay?” Unable to put any weight on his foreleg, Lex didn’t bother answering Sonata’s question, knowing that he’d be hard-pressed to keep the pain out of his voice if he did. As much as he’d been able to make himself ignore how the barbed wire around his foreleg had been shrinking, slicing through his flesh in a slow laceration of agony, it had grown far worse once it had reached the bone. Now it was beginning to tighten enough that the barbs were digging into the osseous matter, and Lex knew that it wouldn’t be very long before the bone splintered altogether. Once that happened, it wouldn’t take the wire much time to finish contracting and sever his leg completely. And that, Lex knew, would be the end of him. He’d known ever since the Night Mare had placed the coil of jagged metal around his leg that it was the symbol of his pact with her. Once it cut off his leg it would no longer be a part of him, signifying that their bargain was null and void. When that happened, he had no doubt that the vengeful goddess would immediately make good on her threats to not only end his life, but whisk his soul off to an eternity of torment. But that won’t happen, Lex swore silently. He wouldn’t allow it. Not when he’d finally figured out a way to still be with the mares he loved. Not when he still had to secure the futures of everypony in the camp. Not when Equestria still needed his leadership. This was simply another hardship that needed to be overcome in order to make all of that happen. “It’s time,” he rasped, doing the best he could to keep his voice steady. “The two of you go call everypony in the camp to attention. I’ll address them once you’ve finished.” “I’ll do it!” offered Sonata helpfully, before looking at Aria. “You find something to wrap his leg up with.” Aria’s lip curled. “How about you stay here and do the dirty work and I’ll go out and make everyone look at me?” The pain made it more difficult than normal for Lex to keep his irritation in check. “Both of you go!” he hissed. “My leg doesn’t need tending to. I’ll simply change back to shadow-form before I-” “You can’t!” “That’s a really dumb idea.” The united protests were enough to make Lex bite back his urge to rebuke them. He knew he didn’t have time for their recalcitrance, but he was equally aware that his life was on the line with this ceremony. Performing it to the Night Mare’s satisfaction meant making a good showing of her religion. That meant that he needed to listen to Sonata and Aria’s opinions; despite the former’s ignorance and the latter’s pettiness, the two of them were sociable creatures with a great deal of insight into the intricacies of communication, unlike himself. “Explain.” Sonata gave him an incredulous look. “Um, news flash! Turning into a big swirly black cloud with the glowing eyes and all is just a little bit scary-looking! And by ‘just a little bit’ I mean ‘a lot!’ You can’t expect anyone to listen to you if they’re shaking in their horseshoes!” “And your leg being all covered with blood isn’t much better,” added Aria dryly. “Even if it doesn’t look like it’s bothering you – and just so you know, it looks like it’s bothering you a lot right now – it’ll make everyone else uneasy. You want them paying attention to what you’re saying and not how you look.” She paused then, giving Lex a suspicious glance. “I’m guessing there’s a reason why you haven’t asked for that filly with the healing magic already?” Sonata’s eyes widened. “Ooh, that’s a good idea!” But Lex knew otherwise. “Healing magic won’t help with this.” He’d proven that beyond all doubt when the weak healing spell he’d used during his fight with the girls had done nothing about the wire’s constriction. But there was no time to explain that to them now. “One of you go out there and get everypony’s attention. The other can find something to wrap my leg with if you think it’s so important.” “As spokespony, I call dibs on that first one!” Sonata didn’t wait for Aria to object, pausing just long enough to give Lex a quick kiss on the cheek before trotting around the ruined remains of the train station, her voice already raised as she called out to everypony. That just left Aria there with him, the purple-and-aquamarine-maned mare scowling. “Fine,” she muttered, going over and poking at the wreckage of the building for a moment before looking at Lex. “I don’t suppose you have something in your bag that you can use for this?” He wasn’t sure if she meant something to wrap his leg or to help her dig through the wreckage – she’d doubtlessly realized that crossing the camp to ask the doctors for bandages would take too long – but the answer was the same either way, and he shook his head. “Wonderful,” she snorted, kicking at some of ruins idly. “Maybe if I dig around in here enough we’ll get lucky and find some sort of portable hospital or something that we never noticed before.” Lex doubted that, but he had other things on his mind at the moment. While he knew he should have been thinking about what he was going to say to everypony once he went out there – Sonata wouldn’t be able to help him with this, since the Night Mare had made it clear that he needed to do this personally – there was another question that had been weighing on his mind for a little while now. “Aria.” “Hm?” “Where’s Nosey in all of this?” For a split-second Aria froze, then went back to kicking over bits of wood and plaster. “What do you mean?” Lex frowned, not understanding why she was suddenly being evasive. “I mean, what was her role in that ridiculous scheme of yours to pretend to try and overthrow me?” There was no way she’d been unaware of what Sonata and Aria had been planning, of that much Lex felt certain. While it wasn’t conclusive, he couldn’t imagine what else they could have been discussing when he’d caught them all talking outside the station after he’d woken up. But whereas Sonata and Aria had stayed there to lie in wait for him, Nosey had followed him across the camp to talk to River, and as far as Lex knew she was still there. So what had her part in their plan been? “Is she going to make some half-hearted attack on me while I’m distracted? Or is she performing some other action that she thinks could be considered treasonous? Either way, while I’m dealing with everypony, I want you to talk to her and let her know that your idea failed miserably, and she-” “Blondie’s doing her own thing,” cut in Aria, not bothering to look at him as she said it. Lex’s frown deepened, not liking the sound of that. “In what regard?” Aria shot him an irritated look. “What am I, her babysitter? She wasn’t part of our idea to make you punish us. I mean, yeah, we talked with her about it, and she even said she thought it might work, but she didn’t want to join in. If you want to know what she is doing, you can ask her yourself.” Lex didn’t reply, silently digesting that. That Nosey had apparently elected not to be involved in Sonata and Aria’s ill-considered scheme was heartening, but only to a limited degree. After all, she was still the mare who had brazenly tried to interview him despite thinking that he was King Sombra reborn, convinced that her press pass would shield her from harm if that were true. To say nothing of what had happened because of her desire to interview Block Party. It was likely that she’d turned down participating in Sonata and Aria’s plan because she’d formulated her own. He could only hope that it was based around something more intelligent than trying to get herself sentenced to belong to him. But then, it didn’t really matter anyway. Although the basis for it was less certain than for the Sirens, Lex still felt reasonably certain that the torture Xiriel had subjected Nosey to gave him sufficient basis for declaring her to be mentally incompetent as well. Although she’d been making notable progress in her recovery already… “Here we go,” announced Aria, pulling Lex out of his thoughts. Glancing over at her, he saw her struggling to pull a battered metal container out of the wreckage. A thought was all it took for him to grab it in his telekinesis and help her yank it out. Once it was free, Lex turned it over in his aura, an eyebrow rising as he looked over at her. “A paper towel dispenser?” “They’re clean and you can wrap stuff in them,” shrugged Aria. “That’s pretty much the same as a bandage, right?” Rolling his eyes, Lex began to telekinetically tie the flimsy bits of paper together. Equating them to bandages was far too generous in his estimation, but if dressing his leg was so important than this was probably the best that they’d be able to do. Besides, this was a purely cosmetic exercise anyway. But apparently Aria didn’t think so, because she crept closer to him as he started to wrap the mass of paper towels around his leg. For some reason, she was having trouble meeting his eyes again, the same way she had when Sonata had been declaring why she loved him so much. “You’re doing it wrong,” she mumbled, grabbing them out of his aura. The indictment earned her a dirty look. “I am not doing it wrong.” “Yes you are!” Aria looked up at him then, meeting his eyes defiantly before dropping her gaze again a moment later. “You’re the one who said that we’re playing doctor from now on, so just shut up and let me do this for you,” she muttered, wrapping the bundles of paper around his leg with surprising gentleness. Resisting the urge to point out how her description of their new relationship was not only overly reductive but had also reversed exactly which of them was the “doctor,” Lex let her bandage him, instead trying to figure out what had prompted the abrupt change in her attitude. But if there were any clues to be found as to why she was suddenly acting so demure, they were beyond his ability to discern, and Aria briskly finished wrapping his leg. “It’s not pretty,” she announced after she’d tied the last of the paper towels together around his mangled limb. “But it’s better than it was.” “I suppose,” concurred Lex. At least he wasn’t going to be leaving bloody hoofprints everywhere now. But Aria didn’t seem to be finished. “Listen…” It was another oddly reserved action on her part, since she was usually more demanding of his attention. Even stranger was how she bit her lip when he looked at her, looking down again so she didn’t meet his eyes. “If you screw this up, then that’s it for you, right?” she asked at last. “The Night Mare will…I dunno what, just reach down and destroy you?” The question made him tilt his head. Why was she asking him this? She’d been there when Harrowing Ordeal had let that particular bit of knowledge slip. “Essentially, yes.” Aria looked up at him then, opening her mouth…only to close it a second later, lowering her eyes again. But she’d barely finished the motion when she squeezed them shut, letting out a slow breath, and then gave him a determined look, trotting toward him. Lex was about to ask what she was doing when she leaned in and planted a soft kiss on his cheek, the same way Sonata had a minute prior. “Then don’t screw it up,” she whispered, her face reddening for some reason. But Lex didn’t have a chance to try and figure out what was going on with Aria, as Sonata chose that moment to trot back around the demolished building. “Okay, everypony’s ready and waiting!” she announced, before giving an excited grin. “But before you go out there, you’re not gonna believe the totes brilliant idea I just had!”