//------------------------------// // 19. Reliable association magic. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Equus, Changeling Hive, Twilight- As far as changelings go, Thorax was cute. At least he always has been ever since he became friends with Spike before his transformation into their king. Our current conversation on the other hoof wasn’t as cute. “You can get along with the dragons, despite their crude or sometimes aggressive behavior, but you’re having problems with wanting to get along with the lambkin.” At this point I really was exhausted at trying to discuss things with King Thorax. “Yes, even if we have truly changed, we still have issues with not wanting anything to do with them. My people agree that they are the biggest constant source of headaches in the world. The only changeling that would even go there would have to be training to be a psychologist.” Thorax rubbed his right leg while looking away to the left. “They are rather paranoid and their emotions are not something we want to deal with for extended periods of time. I feel kind of sorry for Ocellus being stuck with one, even if that particular lambkin is brave enough to be in Ember’s employ. We’d rather make deals with the alpaca and use them to bridge the gap between us in lieu of having to deal with the lambkin personally. At least alpaca are sane and if one of them falls in love with a changeling, well that changeling wouldn’t want for much of anything really. So very, very fluffy and soft… heh. I could hug one of them all day.” I started growling because Thorax spaced out on me again, I rubbed both my hooves around on my forehead. “Okay, using the alpaca to act as a liaison to the lambkin is logical.” I couldn’t wait to see how the lambkin side of things went. “Is it really necessary for you to avoid them all personally entirely?” “Yes, very much so Twilight.” Thorax stated coolly. “The alpacas don’t have anything against us and if there was one thing Chrysalis couldn’t do, it was steal love from an alpaca. Alpaca can always tell the difference between a disguised changeling and anything else at a single glance. It is sufficient to say that they can see absolutely straight through our magic, even then they have remained neutral to us for the most part and are now willing to become our allies provided that we don’t try any subterfuge. We’re completely onboard for an open alliance with them.” “Twilight, please, the world doesn’t have to be all perfect in friendship!” Rainbow begged, and quite loudly at that given how long we’ve been trying to get Thorax to relent on this. “Can we just drop this and get back to focusing on the people that got sucked into another dimension?” “I agree, that is far more important than us having to deal with a people who regularly set themselves on fire out of habit when frightened.” Thorax sighed and turned to his brother Pharynx. “While I find burning or brightly glowing things to be very pretty; it is very much dangerous to us, and them, to even try to be in the same area for any length of time. Pharynx here knows what I’m talking about.” “I agree with my brother completely and do know what he means, we will definitely liaison with them using alpacas as a go between.” From what was known of Pharynx, he always challenged his brother on things and gave him second opinions to think over. The two were working together very well. “We are definitely going to go entirely out of our way to avoid direct contact with them, given they don’t leave their lands very often that will be an easy accomplishment.” That he was agreeing with Thorax completely wasn’t apparently a shock to all the other changelings in the room. “Why don’t they seemed more shock at this, if you don’t mind me asking?” Rarity queried as she looked at all the other changelings. “From what I hear, Pharynx is always pressing you about the safety of your people.” “It’s a unanimous agreement by all changelings at this point to not have to deal with any lambkin directly for any length of time; as that is for the safety of our people.” Thorax said bluntly and I was a bit disheartened, this was going to take longer than I thought. “It’s not that much of a surprise we all agree on something that was never up for debate to begin with, not even in our feelings forum. Also lambkin paranoia tastes awful or just plain odd on a number of levels.” -Kung Fu Realm, Jade Palace, guest rooms, Smolder- “I still think that’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen!” Po stated as Shanty was curled up against a sleeping Pom’s side where he placed her, every once in a while the goat would kick her left leg lazily and nuzzle closer to Pom. “Yes, Po, that’s the sixth time you brought it up.” Viper stated in a slightly exasperated tone as she waved the ribbon around in intricate patterns with her tail, I think she was a very talented snake. Also yes, the battered Shanty snuggling up against Pom’s bruised and resting form was cute. “It’s been a while since I’ve practiced with a ribbon, this really takes me back. Now back to what we were talking about… so it was discovered that Tigress lost the scroll Shifu gave her and he still took us on after we ended up proving ourselves. That’s how we ended up as the kung fu masters we are today.” Which was an explanation of how the Furious Five, Mantis, Crane, Tigress, Viper and Monkey, all came together to fight Boar some years back. They did so near Ping’s restaurant no less and Po was likely nearby at the time. Mantis had accidentally made a food poisoned Shifu even worse by accident, his first patient in his studies to become a doctor as much as a good warrior. Crane was working on becoming something more than a janitor, Viper was still a ribbon dancer and Monkey was a stand-up comedian at the time. “Wait a minute. That scroll is starting to sound familiar, can I see it?” Po asked out of the blue. He was talking about the scroll that brought the Furious Five together. The one Tigress had used to seek the other four out after losing the actual scroll Shifu wanted her to use to locate actual kung fu masters. “Of course, I know where it is!” Monkey ran off. He eventually came back with the scroll that had their names on it and Po looked at it in shock and then started laughing. “What’s so funny?” Crane asked as Po looked over the scroll. “I’m the one that wrote this scroll and… I am the reason that the Furious Five even exist. I even witnessed the first time you came together!” Po kept laughing until tears were in his eyes, the four kung fu warriors just stared at him in disbelief and were a little bit disturbed. “Something I wrote down led to the greatest team I know about, oh my goodness! This is my handwriting and everything, this must have happened on the day that Boar was running around and I threw out my scroll earlier when I was trying to think of future jobs for myself aside from working at my dad’s noodle restaurant for the rest of my life. That’s the day I saw you guys take down Boar together and I remember that as the day that Oogway was making a soup order from our restaurant!” “Well that explains the toys of us you brought with you when you moved in.” Muttered Crane blandly. To prove that he wrote the scroll that Tigress used to bring the Furious Five together, Po wrote down everything perfectly. They were all looking at him with something beyond shock. “So we wouldn’t even be a team…” Mantis stated slowly while waving his pincers around as if trying to catch the air in the room. “If it hadn’t been for you.” Monkey said blankly while looking at Po with a giggle escaping his lips. “That’s… really quite amazing actually.” That is all Viper had to say about it, she was too mystified and was still dancing with that pretty ribbon of hers. I kind of wanted one now. “That you were even called to be the Dragon Warrior by Oogway… I hope you will do your best Po!” “I’ll try to at least.” He really wanted this more than anything. “You know, it’s kind of eerie…” I stated quietly after we just heard more about the stories of four of the Furious Five and how they came together. “What is?” Ocellus asked from next to me. “I’ll tell you in a second Ocellus, I just need to know something first to be sure.” I cleared my throat, with a blast of fire, mostly to gain some attention from everyone. You weren’t going to ignore a dragon when they start flaring up. “So we know a little about all of you. You know a little about all of us, but what about Tigress? What’s her story and why does she seem so stiff and formal?” “Ooh… touchy subject… well it starts out when Tigress was really young, she was supernaturally strong. She could barely control her immense strength before Shifu came along to adopt her and before that she had little in the way of prospects of being adopted. She could plow through walls as a child and now she can bring down and topple entire buildings if she felt like it. The other children at the orphanage and the caretakers… they were all clearly afraid of her and for her.” Viper was at least willing to tell us the story behind her… I want to say friend. It was more like they were comrades and friendship has yet to take hold, but it surely will if I’m right about things. Po would certainly help a lot. “You see thirty or so years ago Shifu adopted a young snow leopard by the name of Tai Lung, when it was found out that he was not to become the Dragon Warrior after Shifu built and trained him up for it… things… didn’t go well, like at all. Shifu was far stricter with Tigress and was trying to avoid the same thing that happened to his adopted son. So technically Tigress has an older brother who’s currently in a prison specifically built to hold kung fu warriors. Tigress wants Shifu’s love and affection, but that’s not going so well either… at least she has the orphanage she helps out with to keep her somewhat more grounded and balanced than Tai Lung. Tigress is really quite a generous person once you get to know her and she rarely has any money for her personal needs when she spends it entirely on making the lives of orphans constantly better.” “Well that just confirms it for me.” I stated clearly, this drew attention from everyone in the room. I leaned over to Ocellus and whispered. “The elements of harmony exist here and we’re looking at them, think about it Ocellus.” “Tigress is generosity, Monkey is laughter, Viper is kindness, Mantis is honesty and Crane is loyalty. The personalities don’t necessarily match entirely, but they do fit them all… then that would mean.” Ocellus turned to look at Po, she smiled brightly and I felt a warm gooey part of my insides melt at the sight. “Po is definitely the magic that brought them together. Sure it may have happened differently here, but this is amazing and Twilight’s theory on friendship circles can actually be validated by this. Now we just have to make it home to tell Twilight about this, oh she’ll be so happy and I can even write a book about it for her to read!” “If Oogway is the Celestia of this world, then would that mean Shifu is Luna?” I tapped a claw against my chin. “Who do you think their ‘Nightmare’ would be?” “Uh, how good is that prison holding Tai Lung?” Ocellus suddenly asked of our new friends with the same kind of trepidation that I was starting to feel. “It’s inescapable, nobody put in there has done it before.” Viper responded with concern as she noticed our looks to each other. “Tai lung has been there for almost exactly twenty years in a suppression device made specifically by Oogway, the prison was kind of designed around him even.” “Yeah, about that…” I took a deep breath and decided to throw it out there. “Chances are good that we’ll hear that he has escaped soon.” “Are you sure about that?” Asked Po, he looked a bit worried. “From what I heard, they have Tai Lung on lockdown pretty good. I mean he can’t possibly beat the entire rhino army they have guarding the place right?” “He is one of the best warriors of our era Po, the rhino guards of Chorh-gom aren’t kung fu warriors and I’m beginning to believe Tai Lung can actually manage it despite constantly having ballista aimed at him.” Mantis seemed fairly worried now too. “If we hear he escapes, just leave him to us Po! We can take him… probably.” “Well… let’s move on to better and less scary topics, how about I make my dad’s special noodle soup for all of you?” Po offered. Everyone agreed except for the unconscious Pom and the sleeping Shanty. “Great, I know all of you will like it. Oogway does, considering he orders from our restaurant from time to time.” Po ran out of the room to start preparing dinner for us and I turned to the kung fu warriors. “Oogway doesn’t have much longer, is anyone going to tell Po?” I asked, nobody would look me in the eyes. “Oh come on, the creator of kung fu and the greatest master in the world and you’re not going to say anything?” “It’s… kind of why we’re here.” It took Mantis a moment to say it, but I understood what he meant. The little green guy was cool to me. “Someone has to step in when he’s gone, Shifu will do his best until someone can pick up the slack and we’ll be here to help to the best of our abilities. We may eventually need to figure out how to teach too.” “Yeah, but like it was pointed out to us, we can’t forget our roots and what we like to do.” Viper said while waving her ribbon around in a flowing manner for emphasis. “It’s kind of like there’s a cosmic joke is surrounding us all and the punchline is Po. I think we’ll all be fine personally.” Monkey said with a smile and a chuckle. “Say, do you know where I can get a ribbon like that one?” I finally asked as I watched Viper play around with it. “I’m asking for a… never mind… it’s for me. I’m going to be honest, where I come from people tend to act tough more often than not and pick on those who like cute stuff like I do.” “Sure, let’s go get you one before Po finishes dinner, come on!” Viper waved her ribbon at me to follow her and I did. “I’ll even get you a combat ribbon, they are made to be a lot sturdier than regular ribbons and can be used for dancing too. You’re a dragon, so something that can handle a little wear and tear would work nicely for you I think. If you want it to look tough, then we can do that too and will use a fire proofing material, maybe I can even teach you how to use it!” Huh, combat ribbon twirling, now that would be kind of cool after learning gymnastics and cheerleading with Ocellus. -Ocellus- I watched as Viper left with Smolder and I didn’t follow them. “Has Tigress been upset about an inability to make money lately?” I asked because it sounded like Pom was doing all the jobs that Tigress usually did around the Jade District. “Yeah, but how do you know about that?” Crane as he looked down at me. “Our friend Pom has been doing odd jobs around here to make money so we can eventually make enough funds to start a journey back home. She actually pushes herself quite a lot for Smolder, Shanty and me, even says its good exercise for her to run around so much helping people like she does back in Huoshan apparently.” She wasn’t the worst type of lambkin to be stuck with, but I was still a bit iffy about it. “We’re not going to live here for the rest of our lives, we have families to work our way back to… except for Shanty. I’m quite sure Pom would take her in if she wanted it and she would actually be good at caring for her.” “Quite understandable, but uh… I have a question.” Sitting with us Monkey looked at the scroll that brought him and his friends together. “Have you ever actually seen Pom truly at work or helping people?” “At work at Mr. Ping’s restaurant, but otherwise no.” Was there something that I didn’t know? “Why do you ask?” “Well, we heard about your odd presence and well, I’ve been watching Pom interact with the people around here for the last few days before the tournament.” Rubbing the back of his, Monkey grinned at Crane and Mantis’s scrutinizing looks. “When you say she’s pushes herself, that’s an understatement. If she didn’t stop to talk to people to get to know them, then even Mantis would be hard pressed to keep up with her all day. She's really doing a lot for you.” “Speaking of me, there are a lot of rumors flying around about you Ocellus and I just wanted to clear a few things up.” Mantis was acting pretty awkward. “First of all, are you some kind of giant bug?” “Yes, my family lives in a hive. It’s somewhere different than where Smolder, Shanty and Pom are all from. My people haven’t always been the best of neighbors and as you can imagine our hive is pretty big.” I let out a sigh. “We’re much better about things these days though.” “Is it true you’re magic? Not judging you for it or anything, but magic usually has a few bad connotations and the mystical artifacts that are stashed around here do a lot of weird things.” Gesticulating with his pincers seems to be something Mantis does often, then again he needs the motion for being a mantis in a world full of people bigger than him. “Well if you’re asking if magic is related to the natural size of my people comparatively, then no I don’t think it does.” Why did I seem to awe Mantis with the fact that my size is natural? “I’m still fairly young and you’re question reminded me of my pupa days.” “So would you be some kind of beetle?” He gestured at my horn. “The horn lends some credence to that.” “Actually, yes, we do have some things in common with beetles I guess. I haven’t really given it that much thought.” To think some would just call my people bug ponies. While we changelings never took that as an insult, we really don’t think too hard about our natural attributes all too much. “Neat, so what do you do for fun?” He asked conversationally. “I like reading, do you know where I can find something that might be of interest?” Not that I could read the local language, but I would certainly like to learn. “Maybe something in the local written language that you’d teach to a kid or child on how to write?” -An hour or so late, dinner time, Pom- My nose twitched at something that smelled good and familiar, I blinked at the unfamiliar ceiling after my eyes slowly slid open. I let out a sorrowful groan while putting my right hoof to my temple and felt a weight against my painfully bruised body. I looked over to see Shanty curled up to me with her hair loose and her headband laying nearby, I carefully wrapped my left leg around her and started to gently stroke her head with my right. She smiled sweetly in her sleep. Not knowing where I was, I sat up cradling Shanty while trying not to wake her up. “Huh, your awake, its dinner time and well… how hard do you think it will be to wake her up?” Crane pointed his left wing at Shanty. “It’s easy enough to do.” I lifted one of Shanty’s ears and said only two words. “Free food.” Shanty was up and alert within seconds. -The next day- I yawned, it was difficult to sleep with my painful bruises. Shanty was also having issues given our messed up sleeping schedules. Dinner last night had been pretty good. Po was trying to be friendly, but I could tell Tigress and Shifu were still somewhat upset with him being the Dragon Warrior. Tigress was rather stiff to begin with, but around Po she was much stiffer. I know Tigress had a heart under her rough personality, but it was hard to see it if you weren’t informed about it. My friends had informed me about all of the Furious Five, that and Smolder apparently had ribbon training with Viper now. It didn’t take long to come upon Tigress looking fairly concerned about something. “Excuse me.” A powerful burst of air went over my head as I ducked and covered it. I shivered slightly and looked at the paw above where my head approximately was. I saw a wide eyed Tigress looking at my shivering form, she frowned and quickly backed away from me. “I am so glad that I’m a quadruped.” “Sorry, I just… sorry…” Bowing to me, Tigress started to walk off at a brisk pace. I heard mutter something concerning. “Tai Lung escaping Chorh-gom has made me too twitchy.” Tigress and Shifu were really going to let Po have it today according to what the other four of the Furious Five said and they themselves weren’t going to hold back as it might upset Shifu. So… wait… Tai Lung escaped prison?! That was absolutely something to seriously panic about! “Ay, what be wrong Pom?” Shanty asked as she showed up looking cheerful and bushy tailed as she usually did. “A very dangerous person escaped a prison and he’s coming this way.” How long would it take Tai Lung to get here and how far away was that prison exactly? Oogway has been planning things since he ordered the soup from Po’s restaurant years ago during Boar’s rampage. Hopefully I didn’t derail his plans too much just by us being here… “What has our guests so worried?” Oogway shuffled up to us and my right eye started twitching. “Tai Lung, the guy you mentioned, he escaped.” I was quite sure that he already knew that. “I have foreseen this happening.” Oogway nodded to me. “Zeng, our messenger, delivered the news this morning. Shifu does not have much time to prepare, only a few days at the most; Po will be ready for Tai Lung. If you fight Tai Lung, you will not win, but you will prove yourself quite the insurmountable challenge for him.” “Yeah, no, I don’t think that’s going to happen." My response only made Oogway smile and chuckle cheerfully. "I'm not exactly keen on being mauled by a snow leopard you know.” "Friendship and love makes us all do crazy things we would never think possible.” Stated Oogway in his sagely voice as he walked away. “The impossible is just something you have yet to see too personally.”