//------------------------------// // You Ponies Belong to us Now! // Story: Muck and the Mare // by AleximusPrime //------------------------------// CHAPTER 2 - You Ponies Belong to us Now! Rarity continued through the forest on the path to the Mud Fortress to rescue her friends. With each step, she became even more afraid though. The thought of what could be in that fortress made her almost want to turn around, but the thought of what could be happening to her friends was what kept her going. “Oh dear Rarity, what have you gotten yourself into?!” she said to herself out loud. “If you go on there you’ll only come out looking like an absolute mess! Well, at least I may be able to save my friends, but how I do worry of what might happen to my beautiful coat…oh and my mane, I just had it styled!” she paused for a second standing still with a horrified face, but then finally remembered why she was doing this. “No Rarity, keep it together darling, you’re doing this for friends, right? Nothing to worry about, they’ll be safe, and all you have to do is steer clear of the mud and just watch where you’re go-AAAGGGHHH!!!” She yelped at the site of a little river of thick muddy water before her. And the only way to the fortress was to cross it. It didn’t appear to be that deep, but Rarity was terrified to even get her hooves dirty. “OH MY, HOW AWFUL!!! And right when I was actually getting somewhere! How will I ever cross this without getting my hooves tarnished?! There must be some way across…” Rarity thought and thought and then walked off to see if she could find anything to help her cross the mud safely. Meanwhile inside the Mud Fortress, Spike and the ponies had been taken to a dungeon and put inside a large cell for them to share. There were a few torches, but barely any light and no food to eat. “Well, Ah sure as hay am lovin the accommodations in here!” complained Applejack. She wasn’t wearing her hat for she had lost it on the way in while being carried in the net and she was not happy about this at all. “Yeah, me too!” said Spike kicking a little rock around. “Me three!” Rainbow Dash said while sitting up against a wall grumpily. “Twilight, I’m scared, what will these dogs do to us?!” Fluttershy winced. “We’re going to find a way out of here, girls, these dogs aren’t very bright, so we can outsmart them, I know we can!” “Hey, how did Rarity get the dogs to let her go last time?” asked Pinkie. “She whined to them!” said Rainbow Dash getting up from her spot. “That’s what we need to do, just whine like little fillies and get them so annoyed they’ll just let us go!” “Good thinking, Rainbow Dash! We’ll be out of here in no time!” said Spike. “Oh pffffft! Seriously guys? Whinin? That ain’t gonna get us nowhere, not when we got the mighty Twilight Sparkle here to use her super powerful magic abilities to ward em all off!” said Applejack pointing to Twilight as everyone cheered for her. Oooooh no, Applejack, there’s no way I’m gonna use my magic to perform violent actions!” said Twilight sternly. “But Twilight, we’re in a really huge pickle here, you gotta do something to get us out!” said Spike begging on his knees. “No Spike, magic shouldn’t be used as a weapon. Even if you’re in a very diabolical situation, persuasion is much better than force, and that is what I plan to use on these dogs to get them to let us go!” “Oh come on, Twilight!” said Rainbow Dash. “You’ve seen how forceful their guards were when they took us off to this fortress, isn’t it time you repaid them by kicking their butts into tomorrow?!” “I’m not going to resort to violence, guys!” “Um, Twilight…” said Fluttershy calmly. “I know I’m usually rather pacifistic and all, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to agree with the others here. The dogs were very rude to us, so using your magic to…you know, be just a bit forceful, might be the best way to go. You don’t have to be too forceful after all, just enough to get us out of here. You’re doing it to help us so there’s no harm really…” “See that?!? Even Fluttershy of all ponies thinks you should do it!” said Rainbow Dash. “Please Twilight, pleeeeeeease?!?” Spike said while grabbing onto Twilight’s leg tightly. “Look, you guys can argue with me all you want, but I am not, I repeat, NOT, going to fight back using my magic! UNDERSTOOD?!?” “OOOOH, I KNOW WHAT!” chirped Pinkie, “When the Diamond Dogs get in here, we can just be friendly and offer to throw a party and we’ll all be happy!!” Everyone glared at Pinkie awkwardly as she jumped up and down until she saw them and stopped. “Oooooookay, maybe the whole forceful magic stuff is a better idea after all…” “Well ya know what, Twi, if yer not gonna use magic, we might as well go back to doin the whinin, it might be our only hope!” Applejack said angrily. “Oh I don’t think so…” said a voice outside the cell. It was the voice of the Diamond Dog leader along with the other two. “You ponies may try to whine and get your way as Miss Rarity did last time, but we have earplugs now! We stole them from the convenience store one night in your village! But don’t’ worry, if that doesn’t work, we can always give you the muzzles too.” “You stupid mutts!” yelled Rainbow Dash flying forward to the cell bars. “Let us go right now!!” “We will do no such thing little pony. You all belong to us now! Since that wimpy Rarity failed to be a good slave for us, you all must be our slaves!” “But you do realize Rarity is the only pony who knows how to find gems, right?” Twilight said trying to play around with the dogs’ minds. “Hehehe, nice try, Miss Twilight, we already know you can use that same spell to find the gems!” “Wait…how did you know my name?” “Yeah, and how did you know Twilight was able to copy Rarity’s gem finding spe-“ “PINKIE!!!!” screamed Twilight trying to get Pinkie to not give away the secret, but it was already too late. “Oopsie daisy…” “Hehe, you ponies aren’t very good at fooling us!” said the little dog. “To answer your question, we were spying over by Rarity’s place the other day and heard everything!” “So that’s how you found out!” Spike said angrily. “How dare you dogs spy on me and Rarity in there!!” “We had this all planned out!” said the large dog. “We’re smarter than you ponies think!” “Oh yeah, well what’s two plus two equal?” teased Rainbow Dash. “Uh……um……one?” “ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, THAT’S ENOUGH!” shouted the leader. “We’re getting off topic! The point is, you, Miss Twilight Sparkle, will be our gem finder, the dragon will dig, and the others will help haul the gems into the carts, and we shall have all the gems to ourselves!” “Please, Mr. Dog, let’s be reasonable now…” said Twilight trying at persuasion, “…I know you dogs like your gems, and I know you would like help finding them, but you could have asked nicely though. And besides, why do you need help? You are dogs you know, you’re great at digging, and you can just look for the gems yourselves, it’s not that hard! You know what they say: hard work pays off good in the end!” “Nice try once again, pony, but we’ve already heard that speech before and it’s never worked!” Twilight had a somewhat angry and determined look on her face as if she was getting very impatient with the dogs already. “Twilight…” whispered Rainbow Dash. “Can we get to the part where you show em who’s boss now?” “No Rainbow Dash, I’m not doing that.” “Aw man!” Twilight turned back to the dogs and cleared her voice. “Listen, I’ll have you know, that I just so happen to be the most trusted student of Princess Celestia: supreme matriarch of the land of Equestria which we are still standing on, ruling on high for several millennia, and THEE most powerful magic-wielding pony. She will discover our whereabouts because Rarity, whom you foolishly decided to not capture along with us, will go back and warn her, and she will be here, and she will not be happy with what you dogs have done! Now I suggest you let all of us go before she arrives promptly to rescue us and throws you all into prison! And believe me, the prison of Canterlot is not a nice place to be!” The others all cheered loudly for Twilight and her speech. “Alright Twilight!” shouted Spike. “Yeah! If we can’t get ourselves out of here on our own, the Princess sure can!” Rainbow Dash joined in. “Yeah, you dumb mutts are ‘bout to experience the wrath of the Princess, and you ain’t gonna be lovin it!” said Applejack. “AHAHAHA!” laughed the leader dog wildly. “You ponies are so amusing! I would be afraid of this……Princess Celestial if-“ “Celestia!” Twilight corrected. “Celestia, whatever! I would be afraid of her if she could even find out where we are first!” “Huh? But Rarity will tell her, so she WILL find out where we are!” said Spike confused. “Oh no, little scaly one, no one will ever find out where you ponies are, because Miss Rarity is trapped just as well! We’ve set traps all over the forest so she can’t get to the fortress or even try to go back to your village! We would let her in to be a slave along with you, but we don’t like her, so we figured she just deserved to suffer out in that muddy old forest for the rest of her miserable life or until she forgets about you all and we just let her go. And besides, this fortress is very strong and only has one exit, and if anyone were coming, we could just collapse the entrance with rocks!” Everyone just stood with their mouths hanging open and eyes wide. “You…you can’t be serious…” said Applejack stiffly. “Alright, Twilight, use your powers right now!” Rainbow Dash said while nudging Twilight. “Rainbow Dash, I told you, I’m not going that route, now stop bugging me about it!” “WELL WHAT ELSE DO YOU THINK WILL WORK?!?” “A PARTY!!!!!” screamed Pinkie Pie as she was dancing in the background throwing dust and stones in the air treating it as confetti. “WE’LL PARTY ALL NIGHT LONG AND EVERYONE WILL BE HAPPY AND JOYFUL AND WE WON’T EVER FIGHT OR ARGUE AGAIN OR BE GREEDY AND WANT GEMS OR SLAVES OR ANYTHING, WE’LL ALL JUST BE HAPPY!!!!!” The Diamond Dogs all laughed hysterically and started rolling on the ground. “AHAHAHA!!! YOU FOOLISH LITTLE PONIES THINK THAT WE ARE REALLY THAT STUPID?!?” “Uh……ok, that didn’t work out so well…” said Pinkie while everyone else gave her the glare. “We are so doomed…” said Applejack hanging her head. “Not all hope is lost you guys!” said Spike bravely climbing on top of a little rock. “We do still have Rarity you know! She may be afraid of the mud and dirt, but she’ll come for us! She’ll overcome her fears and make it through the forest and come in this fortress and rescue us all and fight her way through if she has to! RARITY WILL SAVE US ALL!!!” “Spike…” said Twilight looking rather unconvinced with everyone else. “………okay, you guys are right, we’re doomed.” Back in the forest, it was nearly sundown and Rarity had finally found a way to get across the mud river. She found several large flat rocks to use as stepping stones. She placed them down one by one, despite their rather large size and weight, and finally made it across the river. “AHA! I knew I could do it! That didn’t take……too long?” she just realized that she had taken several hours to find a way across and she had only moved ahead several yards. “Oh who am I kidding, I’m not getting anywhere at all!!!” she nearly started crying but then remembered to keep her cool and kept on walking. “Okay, relax, Rarity, you’re completely fine, you’re getting closer you know, and it was just one little river of mud, it’s not like there are a dozen more ahead. And besides, night is coming and that means you’ll hopefully be able to sneak in the fortress easier! Oh but every time I think of that awful place my skin just cringes! It’s going to be filthy in there no doubt! Oh listen to yourself, Rarity, you sound like such a whiney little filly! Applejack was right, I am going to have to get used to this sort of thing. And she said someday something important would come up and I might have to get dirty in order to accomplish a goal, well now I AM in that situation! My friends are captured and I’ll have to put up with all this mud and dirt getting on my beautiful self and then……oh, I do say, it is getting rather dark rather fast here. I know it’s night, but the sun doesn’t set behind the mountains quite that fast! I wonder if perhaps there is a…” Rarity looked right behind herself to see that the reason it was getting dark was not because the sun was setting too fast, but because several rather large hulking figures had risen up behind her. At first it was difficult to make out what they were, but she then saw them clearly. They were large monsters, monsters made of MUD!! The one thing she couldn’t stand and now it had taken on the shape of several frightening beasts creeping up on her! Rarity couldn’t take it any longer. She had had enough of the muck and the mire for one day, and now this was ten times worse. Her pupils shrunk into her eyes and she could do nothing but let out a loud scream of terror. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!” TO BE CONTINUED...