//------------------------------// // Chapter Five: Battle of the Constellations // Story: The Big and Cuddly Ursa Minor Returns! // by Foal Star //------------------------------// The three trekked through the strange land for some time, trying to find the lake Luna talked about, and spent a few hours continuing on their way through the strange plain. This strange world just looked like an endless field of grass meeting a night sky, with the scenery rarely changing as they continued their walk. Trixie herself was looking around the place with her hair on the back of her neck raised up. Luna was at the head of the group and seemed to be rather confident which may be a good thing since she would be lost without leading them. The Ursa Minors finally saw something that wasn’t just the night sky or grass; they saw a winding river heading into the depths of what was another valley. Luna seemed to be rather pleased as she raised her head proudly seeing that they were on the right path with a smile and replied, “yes, this is it; we need to head upstream to the lake; it's not far.” They then saw something rather beautiful jump out of the water and they all gasped to see two giant night blue fish with sparkling stars plastered all over their scales. The fish started jumping and splashing through the river in front of them. The stars above reflected off their scales and shimmered the light. The Ursa Minors were rather surprised seeing the beautiful fish treading through the river as graceful as dolphins heading upstream. Trixie looked somewhat confused, wondering what the creatures were, and asked out loud, “what are those?” Twilight rubbed a hoof across her chin and whispered, “those are Pisces the mythical fish of the stars! I thought they were just a legend!?” Celestia looked somewhat amazed as she whispered, “I can’t believe that constellations are actually living beings? They're also rather breathtaking.” “Well, I can’t say for sure but I've met them before when they migrated through Equestria a thousand years ago and it seems the stars are an imprint of them. How they came to be is unknown.” Luna explained. The four Ursa Minors continued to watch the fish swim, and that was when some kind of feral instincts kicked in as they all started chasing after the fish. The giant bears splashed, growled, and gruffed happily as they continued to pursue the Pisces down into the valley. The Ursa Minors didn’t notice as they were chasing the giant fish; they didn’t realize they were coming upon what had to be a big nightblue lion with sparkling stars printed on its coat. “Leo!” Luna exclaimed, being somewhat surprised. The lion growled, and as it lowered itself being ready to pounce and grumbled, “what are you Ursa Minors doing on my territory!?” The nightblue princess seemed to be a bit confused as she replied, “wait, hold on, we're not Ursa Minors; it’s me, I’m Luna.” “You take me for a fool! Luna is an alicorn princess! You hooligans just want to take my territory!” Leo roared. The princess of the night saw that the lion was going to attack. The dark blue bear rose up on her back paws and braced herself as the lion charged her. She braced herself as the lion hit her at full force; she had to dig her paws into the dirt as the lion was biting and roaring as Luna was doing all she could to hold him back and grunted, “stop seriously! Why are you lions so darn territorial!?” Twilight was grumbling to herself, wishing she brought Fluttershy while Celestia was looking back and pointed a paw. “Trixie, look!” She turned to see that a giant night blue scorpion appeared, as Twilight squeaked out in surprise, “Scorpio!” “Oh no! We’re trapped!” Trixie cried out; she started to panic with her heart thumping in her chest, unsure of what to do. The violet bear looked over at Trixie, “you need to take them back!” “Right!” Trixie shouted; she rose up and then came forward and braced herself. The giant blue scorpion was less talkative, and then the creature tried to stab the bear. Trixie had to maneuver herself, but the beast attempted to go for another attack. Still, she was able to grab the tail, and then she swung the giant scorpion and using all her strength, she swung the creature as far as she could. Trixie turned to see Luna had Leo pinned on the ground and shouting, “seriously! We’re just here to turn back to normal!” The lion kicked and snarled but seemed unable to get out of her grasp, then grumbled, “alright? If you really are Luna, then what's her favorite constellation creature?” “Easy, that’s you, Leo.” Luna snickered. The big blue lion looked over at the mare, and then a smile started to appear on his face. He got up and replied, “it really was hard to believe you're an Ursa minor? Luna scratched the back of her head with a big paw as she replied, “yeah, I'm confused as to how I was transformed myself? We’re heading to the lake in the middle of this world.” Leo turned to face the rest of the Ursa Minors and asked out loud, “So I'm assuming you're all Luna’s friends?” Celestia rolled her eyes as she held out a paw, “I’m her big sister,” The two shook paws then turned to face Twilight and Trixie, who both introduced themselves as well. Trixie trusted Luna, but she wanted to be sure they were heading the right way and asked, “Trixie doesn’t mean to be rude but is there a lake down there?” “Yeah, you're almost there, it’s not that far, just keep following the river...also be careful Scorpio is well you know Scorpio he’s always looking for a fight, and I heard Capicronious is on a rampage.” “Oh great, more crazy constellations,” Luna grumbled. Trixie turned to the princess and replied, “oh, we can handle them; Trixie thinks we’re doing pretty well.” “Yes, I agree, but we should be more cautious,” Celestia commented as she came over to her sister, making sure she was ok. Leo waved a paw, “I got to keep my territory safe, but if you need help, just let me know, alright? They continued down the road as they eventually came upon what had to be an angry-looking dark blue goat with silver stars printed all over. The goat brayed as it ran at them at full speed with his preparation to ram Luna down. The big nightblue bear took the creature’s horns and started to wrestle the creature down. But the giant goat rose upward and bucked the bear making her fall over. She must’ve been still exhausted from her fight with Leo. Trixie roared as she charged forward and took hold of Capricorn's horns, keeping him at bay and gritting her teeth. They then heard clicking, and they saw another threat coming their way, a giant dark blue crab clicking its claws and shouting curses at them... Twilight took a step back and gasped, “oh no, that’s Cancer!” “Cancer!?is it contagious!?" Celestia cried out, Twilight rolled her eyes, “not that cancer, the constellation Cancer.” Trixie and Luna snickered as Celestia’s cheeks flushed pink as she whispered.” I...I knew that….” Twilight, however, had to get ready for the next attack; as she got ready for the giant’s crabs pincers, she was able to take ahold of them. Still, it then tried to scuttled over her Celestia roared, “you stay away from my student!” She then charged at the giant crab knocking on its back, and slammed the crab down with her paws slammed down over the crab’s belly. She struggled to keep the wriggling creature from moving and roared, “Ugh! Why are these constellations going crazy and attacking us!" Twilight stood back, not knowing what she should do, seeing that Trixie was still wrestling the Capricorn and Luna recovering from being headbutted looking around and seeming to be getting her bearings. They needed backup; she turned to Celestia and shouted, “you keep Cancer pinned! I’m going to go get help!” Celestia was still holding the giant crab down and roared, “go! I got this!” She then charged uphill and followed the stream, hoping she could find Leo and hopefully get him to help them. As Twilight continued to run, she started to get tired; her body was beginning to ache, her forehead sweating and heart pounding. She was not used to all this extra body weight while already walking. Celestia knows how many miles; this extra run was already starting to wear her down. Ran off back up the hill following the river, she had to find Leo! She ran as fast as she could and saw the giant blue lion. After catching her breath, she wheezed, “L...Luna and us, we need help! C...Capricorn and Cancer are attacking us.” “Are they ok?” Leo asked, looking somewhat concerned. “They were when I left, but I don’t know how long we can hold them off.” Twilight explained. Leo didn’t hesitate as he rose up and roared, “Alright! Let’s go! We have no time to lose!” He then ran off back down the hill as Twilight grumbled under her breath as she ran behind him. They eventually came upon the battle with Luna and Celestia, both holding down the giant crab. Leo became rather angry as he gave a loud roar, “enough!” Cancer and Capricorn are both looked over as the giant lion slammed a paw down. “These aren’t Ursa Minors! Some are mortal ponies transformed into Ursa Minors, and two of them are alicorn princesses.” “I don’t caaaare! They came on my turf!” Capricorn shouted, stomping a hoof and braying once more. Cancer just snapped its claws in anger, seeming to be angry for no good reason. Leo lowered his head, getting ready to battle, and shouted, “That's enough! These Ursa Minors are under my protection; now go!” The two angry constellations only paused for a second as they continued their attack. Leo then charged, attacking Capricon, first grabbing the giant crab in its jaws and throwing it aside and watching it scuttle off; he then pounced on Capricorn and roared in its face. “If I ever see you hurt these Ursa Minors again, you're going to answer to me!” The goat bayed once more before fleeing as well. He then turned to face the four Ursa Minors, all lying about heaving and wheezing. “Wow, seems like you all could use a breather.” “Yeah...ya think!” Trixie snapped back, being rather angrily but she was too exhausted to say much else. Leo then helped pull the four Ursa Minors on their paws. Trixie saw how tired and beaten up they all were; they won’t continue the trip to the lake not in this state. She decided to pull out the three bottles and made formula with the river water. She came back, plopping the bottles down, and explained, “We all should drink up and take a nap then continue on. If we get into another fight like that, we would be in huge trouble.” The Ursa Minors all nodded with no one putting up a fuss; they all took their bottles and suckled down the contents. It was rather cute, with all four bears laying down nursing the formula making adorable suckling noises. Leo smiled as he replied, “you four all nap here; I’ll keep an eye out on you while you rest.” They all nuzzled together underneath the stars. Trixie looked upward with a dreamy smile on her face looking up in the endless void. It didn’t take long for sleep to slowly take over the group. Trixie was the last to close her eyes and fell into what was dreamless sleep.