//------------------------------// // 21. Beleaguered and afraid. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Equus, Meadow Hills, Twilight Sparkle- Having a personal airship to travel around with helped us get from the changelings territory to the lambkin territory. If we can’t work at this from the changeling’s angle on things, then we’ll try from the lambkin side of things. They can’t be as bad as Thorax say they are… right? “Uh can I get directions to who the leader is here or at least a name?” I asked calmly. “Sorry, but I don’t think you understand us lambkin very well.” The lambkin ram I asked for directions from stated clearly and succinctly. “Asking for directions around here is plain nuts and I don’t mean unsalted cashew chunks.” “He just confirmed that the illuminutty is real with that statement, everybody panic!” The nearby ram lambkin promptly set himself on fire and then started running around bleating his head off. Several other lambkin both ewe and ram quickly caught fire and were running around in a panic setting nearby buildings on fire. That said buildings were made of brick and still caught fire was the most surprising thing about the quickly devolving situation that my friends and I now found ourselves in. “Oh my goodness this means our last mayor did freeze himself in peanut brittle, everything I know is a lie!” The lambkin ewe that shouted this leaping through a broken window and started to steal several jars of jelly. “We must secure all the loaves of bread and prevent anymore peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from being made or they’ll overrun us all!” Panic, hysteria and buildings partially collapsing, even a male Abyssinian marrying a female Diamond Dog in the middle of the street were just taking everything in stride. Chaos was Twilight’s world within a minute of simply asking for directions. “I just wanted to know where or who the current leader of the lambkin was…” Twilight said with her right eye twitching. “It’s worse than we feared, we must destroy all the marmalade!” A different lambkin ewe screamed while pointing at Twilight. “Awe and I really like marmalade… oh well!” A young lambkin ram said as they started smashing jars of marmalade against the street. “Just to be sure, we need to gather every cupcake within a mile of this spot and cover them in hot sauce!” The previous lambkin ewe screamed in complete terror as she pulled out a hot sauce bottle and splattered a cupcake in hot sauce at a nearby café. “Well at least that one isn’t too bad.” A wilting Pinkie Pie commented idly while watching as lambkin continued to set each other off like dominoes and thing were quickly getting worse. “Wasn’t too bad?! Then we have to eat all the cakes we can find immediately, we don’t want to attract Princess Celestia to us!” A lambkin ram screamed. “We heard all about the rumors about her habits from the Foal Free Press! We do not want any of the cake to be a lie if she shows up!” Okay, now that one just confused the hay out of my friends and me, because the Foal Free Press was a local only newspaper in Ponyville made entirely by fillies and colts. “I just had to go into therapy and psychology…” A nearby griffon muttered at a café table and bit into his hot sauce covered cupcake, then took a deep swig from a bottle next to said cupcake on the table that had looked like it had a Minotaur label on it. He turned to us. “Now I’m the one that needs a therapist. Next time, just imply you know the leader and where he is going to be. Hey Ms. Sweater, the leader says he was going to be in the shopping district later this evening!” “Oh, but I thought he was going to be at the Oat Garden this evening and I know he’s going to be at the Traders and Harvest Guild for most of the day otherwise Mr. Glen. Maybe you’re misinformed, it happens sometimes dear.” The lambkin that finally answered the question, thanks to the the griffons subterfuge, just sauntered on ducking and hopping over panicking lambkin. Her wool was either naturally dark pink or she dyed it. She sent a sultry look back to the griffon, he returned it with a grin. “He doesn’t really need to do any shopping today as far as I know.” “See you later Ms. Sweater!” The griffon called out. Some of lambkin were on fire and some were covered in marmalade, flour, sugar or far worse like raw sewage. There were lambkin scattering all about the place in a wild and completely frenzied disorganized mess. Was it odd that I think that the one calm lambkin in the middle of all this was the weird one out of everyone else overreacting to a simple question and the small various responses we just made? -Kung Fu Realm, the next morning, Pom- I sat down at the table with Smolder, Ocellus and Shanty to wait for breakfast. “Why are you so worried about this Tai Lung guy Pom?” Smolder was kicking back and relaxing while twirling her ribbon at the air, Ocellus had her nose buried in a scroll with a smile. “Is this one guy really that strong?” “His muscles haven’t atrophied in the last twenty years and he hasn’t moved from the spot that Oogway placed him after making sure he was immobilized with a device made to specifically keep him from moving. He escaped that device, defeated a majority of the rhino guards on his way out of the prison which numbered in the hundreds and all while he had ballista and archers firing at him the entire time. They used everything they had and explosives, that still was not enough.” It was nice to see Zeng again and that he was okay from his experience, apparently Tai Lung wanted him to deliver the message that he was coming. He had personally witnessed Tai Lung escaped Chorh-Gom and was a shivering bundle of feathers. “He may be one guy, but I really don’t want to be anywhere near him when he arrives. He’s terrifying on a number of levels that I don’t want to be near and he really wants to declare himself the Dragon Warrior above all else. He barely broke a sweat escaping the prison, does that not tell you how dangerous he is?! I was given a tour of the place after telling them to double security, Vachir the lead rhino apparently took offense to that and said it was impossible for Tai Lung to get out. The other traps are not worthy of mention, because they didn’t even slow him down.” “The impossible is just something that you haven’t seen yet…” I stated slowly with a chill down my spine. “Where be Oogway anyway?” Turning a sad look to Shanty, I hissed slightly. I had drawn attention to myself. Neither Shifu nor Po were present at the table, I didn’t even know where they currently were this morning. At least I knew where the Furious Five went at least. “He’s still among us… in a manner of speaking.” I rubbed at my head with my right hoof. “Just not physically. He passed on last night, mostly by turning into a cloud of blossom petals as they all fell off a tree and passed by him. He went peacefully at least, here I am just hoping to go in my sleep at an advanced age listening to the chirping of birds surrounded by children adopted or otherwise.” “You actually witnessed it?!” Messenger Zeng said with clear awe in his voice. “It was said that Oogway would not die a normal death and would instead ascend to a different plane of existence, that it can be confirmed is amazing.” “Yeah, it was certainly something amazing to witness. I can honestly say that I have never actually quite seen anything like that before.” The entire table was now in a somber mood as Shanty wilted, after a moment Shanty started looking about. “Oogway will at least be with us in spirit… I’m taking this quite literally knowing what I do of him.” Oogway set up the existence of the Furious Five, absolutely knew Po worked at the noodle restaurant to have ordered food from there several times and definitely had an idea as to what Po was going to do with those fireworks. The chances of Oogway declaring Po as the Dragon Warrior was a guaranteed certainty, I’m even beginning to understand why he chose Po. Po has a good heart, was loved throughout his childhood and most importantly was friendly and kind with innocent ambition of wanting to help people or protect the weak in a really cool way. That was basically the reason why Oogway created Kung Fu in this world. This gave me quite a few ideas about how great Oogway actually was after his thousand years of life, considering that he could engineer so much behind the scenes. I think I’m the only one that noticed him setting things up. If the rumors were true about how Celestia engineered things over her thousand years of being a mostly benevolent ruler, then Oogway would be her equivalent in this world. You know, aside from the fact that he wasn’t actually a physically present god and hadn’t become immortal. I wasn’t so sure that he wasn’t some sort of immortal spiritual presence now after what I saw. “Where be everyone else?” Finally asked Shanty looking a bit more upset now. “Well I know where the Furious Five are, they are heading to this place called The Thread of Hope to stall Tai Lung for Po’s sake.” I thought about what I said. “At least Mantis, Monkey, Viper and Crane are doing it for Po’s sake. Tigress just followed after them to help out, possibly while having some motives of her own to stall him from attacking The Valley of Peace.” “I bet when they all start working with Po, they’ll be amazing friends that will have a strong bond that will never ever break.” Ocellus commented idly with an impish smile before returning to her reading. She wasn’t as sad about Oogway, then again she never really got to know him or the crazy plot he had set into motion. Smolder was of a similar mood, but she still looked like she felt a little sad that Oogway was gone. “Yeah, about that, I don’t know where Po or Shifu currently are.” The answer to that was something that I was not expecting. “Shifu and the Dragon Warrior? Oh they went out to train together, Shifu saw the Dragon Warrior cooking a meal for himself in the kitchen and ordered a bunch of special dumplings to be made for the both of them. He even politely asked the Dragon Warrior to join him out on a training excursion.” A pig servant of the Jade Palace stated as he came and started placing food before us. “Shifu seemed fairly impressed about something and said he was going to do some special training the Dragon Warrior.” Shifu must have seen Po’s showing his balance and grace in the one place he was most comfortable in, a kitchen. It is how he was when he worked with us at Mr. Ping’s noodle soup restaurant, he grew up around food and cooking working alongside his father. “Do you be thinking he be okay with that mean deep-toot?” It was likely that Shanty was never going to like Shifu very much for how he picked on Po as a first impression. Not that Po made a good first impression either, but we got to know him after working with him over a period of time. “I’m sure he’ll be fine Shanty, I don’t exactly think that Shifu is pure evil.” I pointed to our food. “Let’s eat, while we’re guests here we shouldn’t let any of it go to waste. Also since no one is using the courtyard arena, we can do some practicing there Shanty.” “Yeah…” Shanty didn’t seem as excited to spar with me as I thought she would be. She started eating and not with the same enthusiasm that she usually consumed any food with. “Practice be sounding good about now.” -A day or so later, evening, Pom- While I wasn’t going to press Shanty on it and was giving her space, she was beginning to worry me greatly with how she was acting. She was also worrying Smolder and Ocellus. With no news of the Furious Five or Po’s training, I was beginning to fear what was going on. They were good people so I knew they wouldn’t abandon The Valley of Peace, the very place that Oogway built up over the course of his life. Smolder was having fun with her ribbon, well as much fun as she could have with this sense of dread hanging over everyone. At least she was openly very cute when she danced with it. Ocellus kept busy by reading scrolls about history, local and not so local. Over the last thousand years Oogway had written and gathered a lot of knowledge that was apparently an enjoyable read. Shanty was still going through the motions of training, learning and trying to have fun, but it was all quite muted. I spent my time trying to cheer up and console Shanty between training sessions, Oogway’s death obviously brought back some traumatic memories of being all alone throughout her early childhood. We all feared Tai Lung’s approach and for the safety of the Furious Five. I was curious as to whether or not they managed to actually successfully stall him at the apparent entrance to The Valley of Peace. Said location was apparently this world’s longest rope and wooden plank bridge, a world wonder that I kind of wanted to see at least once. So it was this day after days of mostly quiet nothing, which was when things picked up again on this evening. We all heard a thud and something slamming down through the gateway into the courtyard, Shanty and I looked over to the door and my eyes widened as Crane heaved himself and the other four members of the Furious Five through the gate. “Huh? Oh my goodness, go get help Smolder!” The Furious Five just came back, but I could see that they were in no condition to fight or talk except for maybe Crane. Smolder immediately set off to go find someone in the Jade Palace to assist with this situation, there had to be a doctor other than the practicing Mantis on staff. “What happened?!” Viper was a mangled pile of kinks, bruises and scabs from bleeding wounds. Tigress looked to have been heavily bruised and battered and, aside from breathing, looked unable to move any part of her body. Mantis looked almost dead with the cracks in his exoskeleton, if not for his faint breathing saying otherwise. Monkey wasn’t smiling any longer and looked as bad as Tigress and Viper did, with various injuries throughout his body. Crane was at mostly lightly bruise, he had some minor cuts and was utterly exhausted by the way he was breathing. He carried them all back here by himself and almost looked like he broke his back and wings just bringing them in. “We met Tai Lung and we learned that he was as good as we heard he is, but we actually did it…” Crane was the only one standing and able to move, he was barely capable of movement as he looked exhausted. “We managed to stall him, we got a day or two before Tai Lung shows up. He is going to be angry, especially after all of what we put him through. Where are Po and Shifu?” “I think Shifu actually found a viable method for training Po.” Ocellus answered as she poked at Viper and winced at the gasp of pain she made. “Sorry…” “No… problem…” Viper whispered through her barely moving mouth and wide vacant looking eyes that blinked every once in a while. “Nerve… strikes…” “Don’t try to talk Viper, you’re going to be okay, we’ll get you the help you need.” I didn’t try to move her and Crane grunted trying to stay standing on his legs. “Save your strength and wait for help to arrive.” “We may be beaten, but at least we’re not dead.” Crane sat on the ground and I noted that his hat was missing, he just kept breathing heavily. “We’re thankful that Tai Lung has never killed anyone, well I don’t know about indirectly or for the lack of trying though. I will say that he came quite close a few times though.” “What Viper be trying to say?” Shanty asked as she parked herself next to me and press herself against my legs, I put a comforting hoof around her. “Tai Lung used the ‘nerve attack’ technique on them, it can either leave you paralyzed, knock you out or in some rare cases stop your heart completely. That he has never killed anyone doing it says a lot about his skill.” Crane answered slowly, still roughly breathing and was slowly recovering his strength. “Healing from such an attack requires a lot of time we don’t have. At best we can get them all mobile again, but they aren’t going to be in any sort of fighting condition anytime soon. Not before Tai Lung arrives.” “Those cracks in Mantis’s carapace look nasty.” Ocellus stated as she looked at the smallest warrior. “Em…ogay…” Mantis seemed alright enough to force the words out in an understandable manner. “Cn… fix… dis…” “After what I just put myself through getting them back here, I’m not going to be in any condition to fight either.” Crane seemed to fold in on himself. “I just hope that what we did was enough and worth the suffering we just put ourselves through.” I was rather terrified for all of them. Smolder soon showed up with the various palace keepers and they started loading the Furious Five up on stretchers to carry them inside. Crane went with them without a word and quickly fell asleep on the stretcher. “Do you see why I’m so worried now Smolder? Tai Lung apparently has the skill to paralyze just about anyone and wipe out an army by himself.” That I didn’t receive a response told me a lot about how seriously Smolder was now taking this situation. “It’s terrifying is what it is!” “Will they be being alright?” Shanty asked as I started to cuddle and nuzzle her. “Are we going to be alright?” “Everything will be fine Shanty, you’ll see.” My paranoid mind was calling me a liar and to run for the hills with my three friends and find a nice quiet place to hide that was out of the way. “It’s still kind of hard to believe that one person could do all this.” “Not necessarily, you lambkin live in a relatively peaceful region. So it’s not exactly new to us that one being can do that much damage. You’ve obviously never encountered someone like Tirek then, I’m only using him as an example because he sounds similar to Tai Lung.” Ocellus shuddered and hugged herself while shivering. “Tirek was basically unstoppable and kept draining the magic from the ponies, my people are almost entirely useless against someone with that kind of ability. The sad thing is that the changelings actually wanted to help, mostly because he was attacking what we thought was a completely necessary source of food at the time. If the ponies hadn’t managed to beat him, my people might have starved by now.” “Yeah and that would have been completely terrible, because then I never would have met a great friend like you Ocellus.” Smolder moved over to hug Ocellus, those two were just so sweet together. “This Tai Lung guy actually scares me. I know he is just one guy, but after hearing everything and actually seeing it in person. At this rate I’m ready to start running if that’s okay with you Pom.” “It certainly is, so which directions should we run in and how fast?” Let the speed of my own cowardice compel me to stay out of danger this time. “I be wanting to stay, we can be taking him!” Yeah, no, that’s is not happening Shanty. “He has to be tiring out by now.” “I really don’t want any of us to end up like the Furious Five Shanty.” Despite the hurt look I received from Shanty, she didn’t move away from me, she instead pressed her head against my chest and started to sniffle. “It’ll be worse for us since we’re not exactly masters at fighting.” “No, but you know how to fight…” Shanty mumbled before looking up at me with a quivering lip. “You be telling me even someone like you can be taking on kung fu masters, what be making this time any different?” “Well I’m terrified and Tai Lung will likely take me seriously even if I don’t measure up to being a threat initially. At most I’d get in a few good hits, before he proceeds to shred me apart.” I was trying to put on a brave face, but I was the only capable combatant left. We’re not going to be able to call for help before Tai Lung arrives. “I’d rather be a distraction for the people if he goes after them.” “So you will be fighting?” Shanty perked her ears up slightly. “Only if I really have to.” Goddess Jiutian help me if I actually have to! “So if we evacuate, I’m… I’m going to be the rearguard to keep his attention off of the people.” Smolder and Ocellus shot each other uneasy looks, but Shanty was now giving me a hopeful one. She still believes in me even knowing that I’m a timid coward. While it’s nice to have someone believe in me, I’m well aware of the fact that warm feelings doesn’t give me invulnerability. -Approximately ten hours later- “Well that went better than I thought.” Shifu stated as he came in through the gateway with a smiling Po the next morning. I immediately halted my exercise session with Shanty and ran up to them to inform them of the bad news. “Oh thank goodness you’re here, the Furious Five came back yesterday and they’ve successfully stalled Tai Lung. He’ll be here in at least twenty four hours according to Crane an the others were all paralyzed by... nerve strikes, I think he called them.” My words had Shifu immediately running to help the infirmed Furious Five. “Mantis managed to recover on his own, but otherwise they aren’t in any condition to fight.” “We need to evacuate The Valley of Peace.” Shifu said after helping the three mauled members of the Furious Five. “I’ll be staying behind.” “How are you feeling Po?” I asked as I looked up to him. He was still heavyset, but he has definitely put on some muscle in these last few days. “I’m feeling great Pom, me and Shifu kind of came to an understanding after he saw me cooking in the kitchen. I can actually do some pretty cool stuff!” Po stated as he looked off to the side at Shifu. “Now I need to go have a talk with my dad, I haven’t seen him in a few days and I want to tell him something before Tai Lung arrives.” “Please do, I'm sure he’ll understand and support you in whatever it is you want to do Po.” I think I've been kind of like a mother figure to Po. Felt kind of awkward, but I would continue to help Po out. “Po, I think it’s time that you see the Dragon Warrior scroll.” Shifu stated with a serious tone.