Warriors: The Next Three: Book 1 - Different Perspective

by Kyle_67

Chapter 9

Moonlight danced on the rim of the pool, giving it a warm glow that illuminated the cave. The cave, one symmetrical in fashion, was the meeting place. The place where they met to negotiate; to decide, for they protected the four clans. The cave remained empty, stunning in its silence and beauty, until a corridor lit with a faint, dim glow. Brightening, it lit up the figure of a cat--just one of the many chosen to meet that night. The glow emitted by the cat faded as he was instead met with the moonlight--the same light that guided the other seven members.

The cat looked behind him, irritated as his partner's absence. This was not a meeting that could be missed, nor could it be glossed over. This was the meeting that the cat hoped would bring the four clans to agreement, the one that would unite them against a common enemy.

A long time they had warred--the clans would never stop feeling unjustified resentment towards others not of their kind--but it was time that there be a change, or rather a solution. The cat pricked his ears, picking up a faint set of paws padding for him. A moment passed and another set approached from behind him. He watched as two representatives from each clan came to the center room, save for the two from RiverClan.

"I see you're already here," his partner observed. "One would think that the almighty Sproutstar would be the last to make his belated entrance."

"One would, yes," Sproutstar meowed, "but tonight is too important to miss. With time, I'm learning that spending my nights in StarClan sleeping is not helpful to my clan. You've figured that out too, right Goldmist?"

She purred. "I should've by now, yes." Goldmist stretched and looked around the room. "Where are Hazestar and Stoneflow?" She searched for the two former RiverClan cats to no avail. "Why aren't they here yet?"

"Be careful what you say," Sproutstar warned, "RiverClan has been through a lot recently. They've had to give up almost half of their territory to WindClan."

"Is it really half by now?"

"I'm afraid so," Sproutstar mewed. "Let's wait patiently--they can't be far." He leaned forward and touched noses with her.

At last, a blue glow lit the walls of the fourth tunnel and the two RiverClan cats emerged from the light. Sproutstar gestured Goldmist forward. The eight cats stepped forward and greeted each other warmly. Giving the cats enough time to give greetings unto one another, he stood atop a stone and called to the group.

"Cats of StarClan, there is no question why we are here," he meowed, feeling the lost power of addressing cats return to him. "The tension between the Clans is not getting better. WindClan is forcing RiverClan out of their own territory, leaving RiverClan on the verge of collapse. On the other side of the territories, ShadowClan and ThunderClan are becoming dangerously close, leaving WindClan to further dominate RiverClan with no support."

"That is not my fault," Rosestar put in, nervously avoiding blame. "ThunderClan makes its own choices now."

"While we thought that the new friendship between ThunderClan and ShadowClan was a good thing," Sproutstar continued to report, "the archetype of having four clans is weakening, as the two new allied Clans will no doubt further close themselves off from interaction outside of their own clan."

"If I may ask," Rosestar mewed, "has the situation of communication gotten any better?"

Goldmist shook her head. "To our knowledge it has not."

Stoneflow blinked. "Communication?" He echoed. "This is the first I'm hearing of this."

"Really?" Rosestar inquired. "I would have thought everyone knew."

A gray tom stepped forward. "It only arose very recently, Rosestar."

"Stormeye is right," Sproutstar agreed. "Cats from StarClan are now unable to communicate with alive cats. We're blocked off from those we have to protect," he growled, heavily annoyed.

"The last known meeting between a Clan cat and a StarClan member was between Sproutstar and Petalpaw a few nights ago," Stormeye explained.

"Ah, thats the other thing," Sproutstar meowed. "The three we wanted for support are now here."

Murmurs of shock and confusion engulfed the group. "How did they come so quick?" A voice spoke up.

"I am unsure, Redbelly," Sproutstar said. "The messages we sent for help must have reached them quicker than I anticipated."

"What messages?" Hazestar growled. "We agreed to a spoken word with the other cats!"

Yowls of agreement arose from the other cats. Sproutstar waited for silence before speaking again. "We did, but many complications made themselves known. Firstly, the help we wanted is in those of another world. Spoken word would not reach."

"Then how did the messages you sent reach?" Goldmist asked.

"I walked in the dreams of one of them and altered their perception of reality," he explained. "What they saw was up to them to interpret but ultimately led them to realize that they needed to come here."

"Looks like Sproutstar is using his powers again," a cat muttered.

"Gorsestar, it's for a good cause," a she-cat reminded her clanmate. Sproutstar had been granted powers by StarClan upon entering the postmortem realm, but found little use for being able to manipulate cats' way of seeing things, for the power of making objects appear to exist and then seem to fade away was not apt in everyday activities and the skill became further recluse from usefulness as he slept most of the days away.

"It was in their dreams I learned the second issue," Sproutstar went on. "The appropriate support I found is not going to be given by cats."

Silence lasted in the room. "I'm sorry?" Stoneflow asked.

"The help I found is what we need--they are strong, willful, smart, and experienced--but come from a different world. One where the inhabitants are ponies."

"Ponies," Goldmist repeated. Sproutstar nodded. "But you said they were cats!"

"They are now, yes."

"That isn't possible," Gorsestar argued. "My WindClan cats see horses everyday on the fields, and they are far larger than us cats! How did ponies turn into another animal?"

"I'm not sure," he said simply.

"Was it your doing?" Stormeye queried.

Sproutstar felt a prick of annoyance. "Of course not, or else I would turn the badgers into mice!"

"Are we sure we even want this help?" He muttered in response. "The Clans can manage fine on their own."

Sproutstar hissed. "We unanimously agreed upon help! While I thought it would be as simple as walking the skies of cats far away, it is more complex than that."

"So what do we do next?" Hazestar asked. "Do we let them join StarClan?"

"That wouldn't do anything," Goldmist retorted. "It is obvious that they have to join ShadowClan and convince the clans to not form allies nor attack others."

"What's obvious is that that plan is insane," Gorsestar rebutted. "The clans wouldn't let outsiders join the clans. If the three cats say that they're loners, then they'll be persuaded to remain as such. If they say they're rogues, they'll be seen as a threat and chased from the territory. If they say they're kittypets, then no clan would let them join out of principle!"

"Have them join ThunderClan," Stormeye growled. "Then the plan is secure if they say they're kittypets."

Rosestar's throat rumbled. "Do you want to say that to my face, dirt-eater?"

"Why?" he said. "It seems you heard me well enough, fox-heart."

She lunged at Stormeye, taking him by surprise. Sproutstar's heart thumped as he saw the gleam of Rosestar's claws. Stormeye twisted on the ground and squirmed free, leaping onto her back and raking his claws across it as soon as he had free range. Rosestar howled in pain, unsure of what to do. She at last summoned her strength and ran at the stone wall, crunching Stormeye's leg between her side and the cave wall. Stormeye slipped off and ran at her again. Sproutstar crouched, preparing to leap in the middle of them to break up the fight.

"Stop!"

The two cats stopped feuding and looked at Goldmist whom had given the call. She was staring in the puddle in the center of the room. Curious, the other cats padded over and stared into the puddle too, as they saw the living world.

"What are we looking at?" Sproutstar asked, leaping down from his stone perch.

"The sky."

Stoneflow scoffed, walking to the center of the cave. "Do you see a cloud you like? What shape is it; do tell!"

"Just look."

Sproutstar watched intently. A few seconds passed with no movement, until his eye caught a flash of light. It made itself present again as he could see it as a bolt of lightning. Sproutstar waited in silence, fully aware that this shouldn't have been happening. Finally, another bolt tore through the sky, followed by another and yet another, all touching the ground but to no sound or destruction. They became more frequent until a giant flash of light blinded Sproutstar. When he could see clearly again, he was confused by what he saw and was convinced he was seeing things. A ball of light descended from the sky, slowly lowering to the ground. At last, it reached the ground and exploded outward, inducing a second blinding flash.

Focusing in on what the ball had left, Sproutstar's eyes continued to defy his reasoning as there, laying on the ground, was a cat.

A pink cat.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Twilight leaped over a log and felt the enjoyment of having wind in her fur. Pausing to catch her breath, she reflected on how big an idiot she was.

Why did I have to say I was knowledgeable about herbs? She mentally kicked herself for just saying something to pretend to know everything. I don't know everything, and that's what kills me! Twilight's mind raced to think of the way back to the clearing.

It was over the stream and through the log to get to here, she thought as she walked through her path so far. So now it's over past this rock, right?

Twilight's memory paid off as she not only found the clearing, but managed to find the cobweb-holding stump in question. She instinctively readied her horn for levitation, but stopped upon realization that she had no horn. Ashamedly walking to the stump, she paused as she heard a hum. She stopped walking to hear it better, but she heard it no longer. She waited until she was confident she imagined it, and then peered into the hollow stump. Seeing the cobwebs, she dabbed her paw into the tree but realized it wouldn't go deep enough.

She whipped her head around upon the sound of the hum again. It was faint, but she noticed it was getting louder. She narrowed her eyes when she saw a flash of light, as she knew that it shouldn't have appeared. Is it a lightning bolt? Well, it's not raining...

She jumped back when a large lightning bolt split the sky. It made no noise, but a second one followed soon enough after to make Twilight realize that this was an effect of a spell.

How is this possible? Another bolt flashed soon after. We arrived in this world an hour ago! Two lightning bolts lit up the sky.

Finally, a giant flash blinded Twilight. She stumbled around until her vision returned, at which point a gasp escaped her. A yellow ball of light fell from the sky at a slow pace. She froze, unsure of the next course of action. She decided upon hiding in the stump in time to act upon it, at which point a deafening crack pierced the forest.

Twilight waited for her ears to stop ringing to emerge from the stump. Upon seeing what was in front of her, her knees felt weak. There was a pink she-cat with a yellow belly and yellow ears. She had an excess of neck scruff, of which was yellow as well. The shade of yellow confused Twilight, as it looked so familiar. Too familiar. Twilight realized she was staring at the color that one of her best friends possesed.

The cat groggily rose and stared at her. "Twilight?" The cat breathed.

Twilight was sure of it.

She was staring at Fluttershy.

Author's Note:

Hey, It's done!

The choice to include the meeting of StarClan seems odd, but I did it to explain the issue to the readers while giving an explanation for the strange hats that the Mane 3 saw. It would be stupid to have cats from StarClan send over plush hats of their own kind, I realized. It'd be like America requiring help from an alien planet to fend of a North Korean invasion, so we send G.I. Joes to them in order to convey a message.

Didn't mean for that much snark or scorn in StarClan, either. I may have took some liberties on that one.

Just a clarification: if you send me an OC (check the Allegiances chapter for info), please keep it to one OC. While I fully expect to get less than five over the course of the story, a fact I am both amused at and indifferent to, I don't want this to turn into the Five Score Divided by Four catastrophe where tie-in stories had to be banned from the large number. Better be safe than sorry.

Comments

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Dang, things are getting interesting!

[Twilight Shine]

Woohoo! FlutterShy joined the adventure.

[Snowkitsune]

flutterkitty yay

[Twilight Shine]

I re read all your chapters for some reason . i have no idea why though!

[Twilight Shine]

I'm guessing your not updating this anymore huh? Oh well, I read your other story anyways.