//------------------------------// // 26. Ocellus’s observations. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Walu’s Dim Sum, Ocellus- I really don’t like fighting, but in some cases I have to make an exception. I’m not good at physical combat, but then again what changeling was. Even Fluttershy can take down a changeling physically and she would have to put at least some effort into it. Swarming tactics were the best changelings had in an open physical confrontation where numbers were to our advantage, stealth was more of an advantage when no one saw it coming. I felt bad enough for clubbing a wolf in the back of the head, but it was necessary at the time. So far Gongmen had been good, aside from Shen and his army of mercenaries. Finding the ‘Yen of Yunshu’ was a bit of a problem with so many wolves around, it didn’t help that the coin had very few identifying marks that you needed to see up close to even identify it from all the other coins. “So that’s what’s it’s like around here.” I stated calmly trying not to think about the problems Shanty ran into, luckily Smolder and I were already in position to drop her pursuers without problem. “The people of Gongmen are getting pushed around by the mercenaries, but Shen and the Wolf Boss won’t actually do anything to them because they need food for their army provided by the merchants.” “Anything else?” Crane asked as he watched Shanty gobble down some dumplings noisily. “Yeah, don’t go near the ‘Tower of the Sacred Flame’ or the fireworks factory. Both are heavily guarded and they have their weapons covering both locations.” Taking a dumpling into her mouth before Shanty could get to it, Smolder chewed it over while looking a bit down. She swallowed and grinned at Crane. “Go to the tower to get at Shen and you’ll be shot at by large metal spheres moving at speeds to rip apart just about anyone. Same for the fireworks factory that’s been converted from pumping out fireworks to creating weapons of war. Can you bring Po and the rest of the Furious Five here?” “I can, they should be docking in the city right now.” Crane was a rather quiet guy and always seemed to be in his own head. “Good because we need to make a plan, because while I believe you guys can take on an army, I really doubt you can take those cannons head on.” I know the warriors of this world were either on par or a level above the ones from The Valley with Skunk and the dwellers. “Your tough and could literally turn me, Smolder and Shanty into living pretzels, but you guys are not ‘that’ tough when it comes to their weapons.” They were not beyond being severely injured by cannonballs. If anything, Mantis would have the advantage in being a target too small to hit directly. Po on the other hoof, he was a fairly easy target to aim at because of his size working against him. “Right, I’ll head on out… er… what’s a pretzel?” Some really good comfort food Crane, unfortunately I’ve been subsisting on Smolder, water and what seems to be a near constant Chi-neigh diet for the last few weeks. “It’s a really twisty food item that looks like a tangled rope, but it is basically roasted glazed bread with salt sprinkled on it.” Never thought I would have to describe a pretzel before. “Huh… sounds simple. Be back with Po and the others soon.” There was no need to tell Crane to be careful as he set out and to avoid being spotted by the patrols, he peaked out into the alleyway and then quickly left the establishment. “So how do you be thinking Po is going to defeat Shen?” Good question Shanty, none of us knew what Po could or would do to stop the murderous menace that was Shen. The citizens knew not to get in his way and told us as such. We, Pom, Shanty, Smolder and I, all agreed to start sabotaging Shen’s operations when we found out what the occupation was doing to the people who lived here in fear. Not only that, but his ambitions with the cannons he figured out how to build. This world wasn’t big on high end technology, but cannons were a dangerous new technology for this world that was in the wings of a monster. That we’ve been successful so far was just up to luck given we’ve almost been caught fifteen times. “Why are you being quiet?” Shanty looked a bit upset when Smolder nor I had an answer for her. “Shanty you want to be a pirate right, do you realize how dangerous cannons are?” Smolder asked and Shanty nodded timidly, far from her rambunctious optimism at the moment. “The Furious Five and Po are going to be more willing to help everyone than the local kung fu masters at the very least. They have a bond of friendship that’ll drive them to being great heroes.” “I not be thinking Storming Ox or Croc are bad people, they just be losing their spirit to fight.” Quite a few people around the room agreed with Shanty through their muttering, I could feel the warm feelings in the room at the sentiment that those two particular warriors weren’t bad people overall. Also the people of this city were nice enough to help pay for Shanty’s eating habits, our favorite goat had a monstrous stomach and the dumplings she was eating were relatively cheap if everyone chipped in. Nothing made the people around here happier than putting a smile on a hungry Shanty’s face. “Yeah, but they aren’t exactly protecting the people of the city right now and Shen is terrorizing the population." I’d rather be dealing with Chrysalis at the moment and that was saying something about Shen’s ability to instill terror in people. Chrysalis wasn’t about killing everyone, just acquiring power. “I really don’t like the state of things, especially our part in it since we decided to get involved.” Don’t know what happened to the pandas I heard about, but Shen tried to commit to genocide against them once he heard the prophecy about losing to a black and white warrior. It was little wonder that Shen’s parents disowned him immediately after making the best farmers around here flee in terror. I wonder if Po was related to any of those pandas. “Hey, we got involved the second Pom decided to help even in her current state.” Feeling Smolder out, she wasn’t actually upset at Pom getting involved, she was actually proud of her. I was still rather upset that we now had to run from the patrols if they spotted us and be constantly on our guard with very few places in the city being safe. “We still need to find the Yen of Yunshu, but Shen is a more immediate problem for everyone and we wouldn’t be able to find a needle in a haystack while an earthquake is going on anyway. Don’t honestly know how we’re going to take Shen down when he has cannons all over the place and enough mercenaries to cover both his bases, there’s also having numerous patrols in the streets sniffing around for trouble and itching for a fight.” “I don’t condone all the violence going on in this world Smolder, but in this case it seems necessary and I really don’t want us to be the ones to do the fighting.” Which is why I was making this suggestion. “Do you think Po and the Furious Five can do it?” “I think they be capable enough.” Shanty answered once she stopped eating the sweet bean dumplings. “Yeah, but are they willing?” I really don’t like the idea of anyone dying, but the mercenaries were equipped with clubs, blades and other various deadly implements. They were well organized even if they weren’t high end kung fu warriors that could do amazing things. “I just want to go back to Equestria.” “You and me both Ozzy.” Smolder hugged me and I felt the warmth of her freely given love flow over into me in a comforting mass that felt like an ocean. “I do not be having much to be going back to…” Shanty said after a moment before picking up another dumpling and biting into it in a much slower manner. “Pom would take you in, she definitely cares about you.” Enough so that I know she’s completely willing to give her life to protect you and us. “Do you have any idea what her emotions are like?! I know because I can feel her paranoia, fear and her caring about us beyond all reason. No changeling would want to suffer being this close to a lambkin for as long as I have and I know she wouldn’t turn you away if you asked if you could live with her.” “Yeah, listen to Ocellus on this one, she knows what she’s talking about and is aiming to be a psychologist or at least a therapist for the School of Friendship.” Smolder was feeling nostalgic and homesick, I was feeling that too. “Goodness knows friendship drives us all a little crazy at times.” “They’re this way.” Hearing Crane say this I turned my attention to the Furious Five arriving and moving towards our booth. “Hey guys, heard you know what’s going on around here, we could use a little of that information.” Po seemed as cheerful as usual. “Also… where’s Pom?” “I would like to know that as well.” Tigress muttered while eyeing us, her feelings towards us were relatively fond and a bit more intense when she looked towards Shanty. She was quite fond of the Furious Five as well, her stoic demeanor couldn’t hide anything from me. “We can’t tell you.” Smolder said immediately and for good reason, because we really couldn’t tell anyone. We can’t even drop a hint or things would go horribly wrong. “Why not?” Mantis hopped up onto the table as he and Viper said this at the same time. “Well, if anyone was to hear a hint as to what Pom is currently doing and it gets out, then the wolves will eventually be ordered to hunt her down and kill her by Shen. Pom is still quite physically weak and being as helpless as she is, it wouldn’t take much for the wolves to actually kill her.” My answer didn’t seem good enough for them as they gazed at us with unrestrained curiosity. “I’m the only one that can actually get near where Pom is without raising suspicion, the wolves already are on the lookout for all of us and she’s going to need supplies soon to continue doing her part. We’re not going to risk Pom’s life and it’s quite vital to the city as a whole that she stays exactly where she is, it’s going to be quite important if you can ultimately deal with Shen.” “I not be liking it, but Pom can’t be fighting as she is and she not be needing any attention on her right now.” Shanty motioned to Smolder, who looked her way. “Smolder is being bright orange and I be actively fighting small groups of wolves in the streets, so they all be knowing us on sight. Ocellus is the only one who can deliver supplies to Pom or move around without attracting suspicion or attention. I’m the loud distracting one, Ocellus is the one gathering information on the wolves’ movements throughout the city and Smolder is our backup plan.” “Yeah, I set fire to things. Big distraction that.” Smolder said coolly while flicking her ribbon about playfully. “Thanks for teaching me how to use this thing Viper, it came in handy earlier today.” “No problem Smolder, so Pom is in a dangerous position and you can’t tell us anything about it?” We all nodded when Viper asked that. “So what do you know about what’s going on here?” We dumped ‘practically’ all the information we had onto the kung fu masters to see what they could make of the situation. “Killing off the pandas…” Tigress muttered while glancing at Po with a sense of sadness. “Shen needs to be taken down and hard.” “We wouldn’t recommend attacking him at the ‘Tower of the Sacred Flame’ and it’ll be even worse if you try to invade the fireworks factory. Both places are heavily guarded and their cannons are placed in various locations to fire on any intruders, you won’t be able to take them all out at once before they can fire them. The streets in general are mostly safe if you avoid earning the ire of the wolf pack.” My explanation of cannons was simple, imagine a weaponized firework that fired metal spheres of death. Po thought it was kind of cool, given this is cutting edge technology for this world. “Shen even said that this will be the end of kung fu as he took down Thundering Rhino with one shot, most of you are not nearly as large or tough as he… was.” “Wait, you mentioned that you knew where Storming Ox and Croc were?” It was Monkey that brought it up. “Yes, they are currently in the Gongmen City’s prison.” Smolder said flatly and grumpily, she crossed her arms and looked quite adorable as she flicked her ribbon off to the side. “For all the good knowing that will do for you.” “Smolder is upset because they aren’t being guarded and they put themselves in there in the first place.” That made the six warriors stare at us wide eyed. “They lost their fighting spirits entirely when Thundering Rhino went down. If you could talk them into helping out, then we could probably come up some better options than what we’ve been doing.” “Which is not being much or even enough, even if we be sabotaging Shen’s supplies right and left.” Mostly to keep those cannons from having a stockpile of ammunition Shanty, we were successful in that endeavor at the very least when we hit their storage two days ago. Wet powder doesn’t work very well and we were quite knowledgeable about how cannons thanks to Pinkie Pie, never thought those lessons would be used to disable a tyrants efforts in hurting people. “We just sunk some of Shen’s boats at least, he be needing time and resources to get those weapons out of the water and working again. That be the best we did so far with how many wolves he be having on them.” “Sounds like you’re having a rough time here.” Mumbled a saddened Viper, I could see a bit of Fluttershy in her in this moment. “Yeah, but we can do something about it, right guys?” Po’s optimism was nice because it was contagious, even to me. “Provided you can keep yourself focused Po, we’ll head to the prison and will be talking to Storming Ox and Croc.” Tigress obviously wanted to give them a piece of her mind, she considered me for a moment while looking to be thinking about something. “Do you have any plans for what to do next?” “That depends on you guys, if you can’t get Ox or Croc to help then we’ll have some idea as to what we can do to stop Shen’s plans of trying to conquer the surrounding regions with what we have to work with.” I rubbed the back of my head, I felt the scratches on my hoof from when a cannonball landed near me. “We might want to get Pom’s advice on our plans of what to do as well, because she’s been given us plenty of helpful tips for how to get around the wolf pack safely. Not that I ever needed tips on how to infiltrate a place safely… we will have to wait until tomorrow before I can get back to you about what she has to say about all of this.” “Okay, once we are done with trying to convince the other kung fu warriors to help, how can we find you?” Monkey asked as he looked about the place while popping a dumpling in his mouth. “Oh that’s easy, we work here. Mr. Walu Nigi is a very nice person, like many people in this city really, he doesn’t like the exiled and disowned heir of the peacocks making his return in such a volatile manner.” Speaking of working here in the Dim Sum restaurant, I leaned out of the booth and waved to Walu. He made a shooing motion while nodding in understanding. “We were about to go to work anyway.” “They’ll have a job so long as none of the wolf mercenaries come sniffing around, if that happens they will have to hide.” Walu stated as he came walking back to our personal booth, the pika bowed to the warriors and served some tea. “Welcome to Gongmen City. I am sorry that we, the people, can’t welcome you more openly in these dire times. We have heard many a great tale about the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five, we should not be relying on children to solve our problems.” As hurtful as that sounded, Smolder, Shanty and I were still teenagers and Walu had a fair point that we were too young to be running a rebellion, no matter how successful it currently was in getting the people of the city organized to help out where they could. He was correct to think that this was well above what we should be doing. Still… I wanted to be a good person. So I wasn’t going to sit idle and watch while Shanty and Smolder do all the work when I could help by infiltrating the wolves while looking like one of their own. Stealing their clothing for a disguise wasn’t too hard to do and it wasn’t like I needed to do much fighting. “Don’t worry about, we’re going to try to do our best to help everyone, right guys?” Po was still enthusiastic, but there was an underlying tension and sadness. He turned and headed towards the entrance. “Come on, let’s go!” Po probably lost some family when Shen tried to purge the pandas, goodness knows why Shen didn’t go after skunks or any other animals that are black and white too like tapirs and badgers. He just went after specifically pandas over some prophecy, mind you the pandas in question were all mostly just farmers and relatively harmless to everyone in every way except their general large sizes. I mean Shen seriously acted on a prophecy and made it absolutely self-fulfilling by acting on it. At least a good number of pandas managed to escape, but we have no real idea as to where they went. Shen at least thought he wouldn’t have any problems from them, only now Po was in the city and he was really gifted at kung fu. “If you girls want to sit today out, I’m okay with that.” Walu stated in a soft manner. “No, we’ll work. We need something to get our minds off of what we’ve been doing.” Dim Sum houses like this were a dime a dozen, it’s really easy to ceremonial produce tea and snacks for our guests dining experiences while they talked business. “Yeah, we not be lazy.” To think it was Shanty who got us these jobs, she learned a lot about how to find and get jobs from Pom. Shanty also learned a few interesting things from doing said jobs in trying to discern fighting moves from even the simplest of actions such as pouring tea, we didn’t think Shanty was serious about that. Only we later found out she was and the technique she created from that was ridiculous if awe inspiring in how effectively weird it was. So compared to Smolder and I, Shanty was a genius savant when it came to fighting, which includes creating and improving on her own ‘Cut-lash’ style. Those mostly random street fights with the wolves were mostly her testing her new moves out, other times it was to help people who were being oppressed by the wolves. Even with as good at fighting as she was getting, Shanty still had stamina problems when it came to her unique ability to climb any surface like a spider. She was getting better about pacing herself, but it still sapped energy immensely to keep it up for too long. As I picked up a tray and started to serve tables their snacks and tea, I tried to think of several plans we could use to take down Shen. We needed options, Pom obviously wasn’t going to be a part of them. I didn’t want to attack the ‘Tower of the Sacred Flame’, mostly because Shen would destroy it without a second thought with all the kung fu warriors inside. The fireworks factory was also a no go, because Shen was keeping both places under heavy guard. If we could lure out Shen, then maybe that would help. So far he’s been keen on getting his fleet together so he can go off on a conquering spree and hurt lots of people. We put a kibosh on that really quick, but even if we continue hitting his ships and supplies he’ll still dig in and it would be hard to bring to justice when he has so many mercenaries backing him. A distraction attack on the supplies and ships, invade the fireworks factory and disable Shen’s ability to create any more cannons. Shen would show up or be at the factory if it’s in danger of being wrecked. I wouldn’t put it past him to try and turn on the citizens of the city if Shen can’t get his way, but he thankfully hasn’t done much so far aside from instill fear in them and let his men perform a few beatings to prove a point. “Do you suppose Shen is the black and white warrior the prophecy was talking about?” Blinking at Smolder speaking up, I sent a curious gaze. “I mean aside from the red spots, he could be consider close to fitting the description so he’d eventually end up defeating himself. Prophecies sometimes do that, I mean Nightmare Moon escaping was prophesized and it happened in the way the book said it would.” “Shen has too much red in his appearance, but it’s not like it’s a bad idea that he’ll end up defeating himself.” I could only hope that Shen would, he had all the card to play and he was a brilliant person for someone who I would term as more evil than Chrysalis. “I think the only reason Shen went after the pandas was because they are large and he equated size to danger. The pandas were just peaceful farmers, if anything Shen should have gone after badgers, skunks or various other aggressive beings that might be just as dangerous if they were to become warriors. Even Cranes could come in black and white, yet he targets the closest largest thing based on proximity? It’s little wonder that I believe the prophecy with some many possibilities for warriors that can absolutely fit the description.” “Can we not talk be talking about skunks?” Shanty really liked Skunk from the previous world, he helped her learn a lot in a short amount of time. She still wasn’t over her crush yet and they had really clicked as friends. We had options, but could we really do anything without someone being hurt or dying? Twilight made all this friendship stuff seem so easy, it’s really quite a lot of work and effort to build bonds as strong as ours. I'll even admit that Pom is my friend to her face... eventually. I'm the one making the plans and am under a lot of pressure... is this what Pom feels like all the time?