//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 - Underestimated Abilities // Story: The Lost Mercenary - A TES/FiM Story // by DemonRykuKyuubi //------------------------------// Kynan was... bewildered. The predicament he found himself in was not how he'd imagined the fight would end at all... He thought back to what had happened... "I ran at the ponies as fast as I could with a bound sword in each hand... I kicked the bubbly pink pony out of my way and continued my charge..." Kynan thought back, picturing it all in his head. "The blue pony rammed me in my stomach, but I brushed it off and knocked her out with a blow from the hilt of one of my swords... Then the only male of the group leapt at me, slashing with a short steel sword... I caught him with a swift kick to his side - his flank, I suppose." Kynan tried his best to remember, but his ego made it hard for him to see the last bit where it all turned bad for him. He finally started picturing it. "The yellow pony was tending to the white pony, so the only two left were the orange and purple ones... I decided the purple one looked fairly frail, so I turned my attention to the orange one... I dispelled my bound swords and lit my hands with fire magic... She bucked me in my shin, causing me to attack without thinking through pain... I kicked her away and hit her with three fireballs... They knocked her down and scorched the orange pony pretty badly... Then the purple pony's eyes lit up..." This was the part the Breton didn't want to remember. The 'frail' pony he'd ignored completely caught him by surprise. " I looked over at the purple pony just before there was a bright flash of light, and then I was in this thing..." Kynan took a little time to look around his prison. He was trapped inside a purple-hued sphere of energy, barely floating above the ground. Twilight had no idea how she'd trapped the human in the sphere; all she knew is she had one friend that appeared hurt very badly, one that was knocked out cold, and two that were dazed. She ran to the smoldering orange pony's side. "Applejack! Come on, AJ, are you okay?!" Twilight asked, but she already knew the answer she'd get from the stubborn farm pony. "Ah'm fine, Twilight. Ouch! I little on the cooked side, but Ah reckon Ah'll be fine!" Applejack explained, more to convince herself than to convince any of her friends. Applejack sat up, her eyes tearing up, but she never actually cried. She was too strong for that, or at least that's what she liked to think. After a few more moments, she and all the other ponies except Rainbow went over to where Kynan was trapped. Rainbow was still out cold. The ponies looked at their prisoner with anger in their eyes, but curiosity got the best of them as one of the ponies voiced a question. "You're with Golam, right? What do you want with our town?" Twilight asked, looking into the Breton's dark green eyes. Kynan just scowled at the purple pony. He was humiliated, but he wasn't about to give his plan up to his enemy. "...Okay then... Ya could at least tell us yer name!" Applejack said, obviously annoyed by the human's silence. The Breton sat as still as a statue. He might be trapped, but he wasn't going to make this easy. "Let me give it a try." The captain said as he walked over to the sphere. "Who are you!? Why are you here!? Answer me when I'm speaking to you!" "Piss off." That was all that escaped the Breton's lips. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ra'zaan found himself in a sticky situation. On one hand, he wasn't about to let this big red stallion beat him to a bloody pulp. On the other, he didn't want to hurt Big Macintosh because he was Applejack's brother. The Khajiit settled for using his gauntlets instead of bare fists to avoid slicing the stallion with his claws, and kept his sword sheathed. It was as close to a fist fight as a stallion fighting a Khajiit could get. "Well, then. Let's make this as fair a fight as we can, Shall we?" Ra'zaan stated, taking an offensive stance. The only answer he got from Big Mac' was another "Eeeeyup." The stallion charged at Ra'zaan, his face and eyes void of emotion, and collided his hooves into Ra'zaan's hands. Caught, Big Mac' spun himself around and gave the Khajiit a strong buck to the center of his chest, knocking him backwards and forcing him to release Big mac's hooves. The stallion then charged again, but Ra'zaan landed a punch directly to the side of the farm pony's muzzle, knocking him to the side. "You have quite the kick, there, Macintosh. If I wasn't wearing my armor, that could have done some serious damage." Ra'zaan pointed at a large dent in his chest-plate. "I'll have to take a hammer to this to get it out now." He smiled, and Big Mac' grinned back, though the stallion's smile had no real emotion behind it. Big Mac' got up and charged yet again, and Ra'zaan caught both of the stallion's hooves, making sure to hold them tight so the farm pony couldn't buck him again. "Sorry to do this to you, Macintosh, but the only way to bring you back to your senses..." Ra'zaan slammed his head as hard as he could into the top of Big Mac's, knocking him out instantly. "...Is to literally knock you back to normal." Ra'zaan finished, his own head pounding a bit from the sudden impact. The red stallion lay limp on the ground, but he was fine. He'd wake up with a splitting migraine to be sure, but he wasn't in any danger. "I'd better get him out of here. I don't want those mages to get him again... Damn this guy sure is heavy..." Ra'zaan thought to himself as he heaved the bulky stallion up onto his shoulders and began walking in the direction the other ponies had gone. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The ponies' interrogations had been almost completely fruitless. The only things they did manage to get from Kynan were his name and a barrage of insults which were starting to really get on the nerves of a now-awake Rainbow Dash. "I'm not answering any of your questions you stupid little bi --- mfph!" Kynan blurted out before Twilight silenced him with a gag made of magic. "...Ugh... I think I preferred him when he was quiet..." Twilight said, and everyone giggled a little. The Captain spoke up after the laughing quieted, "Girls, I think we should head back to the Princess. She'll want to hear from us. Plus, I think we all could use some rest..." He pointed from his broken leg, to Rarity's head wound, to a very burnt-looking Applejack. They knew he was right. They were all exhausted. Before they headed out, however, Twilight needed to do something. "I need to head back to the library before I go. I have a feeling my assistant might be wondering where I am!" She smiled. "I don't really think that's a good idea, Miss Sparkle, but if you insist, please take Miss Pie and Miss Dash with you for safety, alright?" The Captain suggested. Twilight new this was more an order and less a request, but the stallion was trying his hardest to be nice to the mares. He knew all this violence must be pretty stressful. "Alright! Come on you two!" Twilight yelled as she started off in the direction of the library. Pinkie and Rainbow followed close behind. With three of them gone, the Captain looked at all the unconscious ponies they'd fought off. "They'll be fine; just a few headaches. The two I went a little overboard on should be fine too...I hope..." "Alright! Let's get this prisoner back to Canterlot, girls." The Captain yelled finally. They began walking back in the direction they'd left Ra'zaan, albeit a bit slower than last time because of the Captain's broken leg and Applejack's burns. They took this time to really look at the town as they walked. There was no pony anywhere. The town was deathly silent. They'd already been there a few hours and the sun was high in the sky. The Captain guessed it was about noon. The group of now four ponies continued down the long road silently until they saw something materialize up ahead of them. It was a large, lumbering figure with two legs and something that looked very heavy on it's shoulders. Three pony figures followed behind it. The four ponies, led by the Captain, got into defensive positions, fearing the worst. They relaxed, however, when they realized it was just Ra'zaan and the three guards, with Ra'zaan carrying... "Big Mac'! What 'appened to 'im Ra'zaan?!" Applejack asked, a very worried look crossing her face. "Now before you get all flustered, Applejack, you must know that I had no choice but to knock your brother out. He'll be fine, but I'm fairly sure he won't be waking up for some time... ouch... I'm surprised I didn't knock myself out with the way I hit him though..." Applejack relaxed a little. She looked Ra'zaan up and down, but he didn't appear to have very many wounds. There were two small holes in his chest, one in his leg and one in his arm, but nothing very damaging. "You don't look like you 'ad to much trouble with yer fight, back there. How'd it go?" Applejack asked. "It was worse than I'm looking right now. I drank a healing potion to seal up my serious wounds. Unfortunately, Another mage showed up and saved Halius before I could finish him... Her name was Nadene." Ra'zaan said, anger growing in his eyes as he remembered his battle. "At least it look's like we now know three of the mages' names..." "Make that four, darling..." Rarity smiled weakly, her head still throbbing from the blow she'd taken to it. She was pointing at Kynan, their prisoner. Ra'zaan seemed to only now notice the floating orb with the Breton inside. He gave Kynan a closer look. "Well, well, well! What have we here? Got one of you annoying bastards after all, eh? And what, pray-tell, is your name?" The Khajiit said half mockingly. Rarity removed the magic gag. Kynan looked at him with fear-stricken eyes. The Khajiit that had crushed the four apprentice's he'd helped train was standing right in front of him. "T-the n-name's K-Kynan... Y-your Ra'zaan, r-right?" In his head, Ra'zaan was amused by the fear he'd brought to this mage's heart, but he kept from making that fact known and instead held a stone-cold face. "Yes, I am. Well, Kynan. I hope you're willing to help us out. We might even let you go free later if you're cooperative!" He lied. Applejack went to protest this moronic idea of letting their prisoner go, but stopped when Ra'zaan looked at her and gave her a quick wink to tell her he wasn't actually serious. She sighed with relief. "Come on, ya'll. Let's get Kynan back to Canterlot." She said finally. Rarity replaced the magic gag and the group headed off towards the station. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie reached the library in almost no time at all. They ran in and locked the door behind them, startling the baby dragon that was busy snacking on a ruby. "Twilight?! Where've you been? The whole town's gone crazy over some weird new creatures..." Spike said quickly. "We'll explain later! Right now we have to get out of here. I'm not sure how long we have before we're attacked again!" Twilight looked out the window as she spoke. "Again? You were already attacked?! What's going on?!?!" "NOT NOW!" Twilight yelled, floating the dragon onto her back and bolting out the door with Rainbow and Pinkie following. ... ".....Oh buck us......RUN!!!!!" Rainbow screamed as they trotted outside, only to meet a huge mob of mind-washed mares and stallions. They galloped as fast as they could towards the train station, with literally over a hundred other ponies chasing after them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ra'zaan and friends sat at the train station, chatting about how the day had been. "...So he froze the ground under my feet and I slipped and hit the ground. Ouch! My back still hurts!" Ra'zaan laughed. He loved talking about his past fights, even if they were only a couple of hours previous. "Ya sure do like fightin', don't ya Ra'zaan? No pony 'round here seems to be as experienced as you are at it." Applejack said smiling. The Captain gave her a little glare. "It sure isn't my fault no real training has been needed for all these years! The Princess should have known something like this would happen." The Captain said. He was now being as casual as a normal pony. "Ah know, Ah know. But if'in ya guards did have the trainin' for this, we might be a whole lot better off." Applejack retorted. "Alright, you two. Please stop fighting. I've already got an AGONIZING headache." Rarity snapped. Fluttershy tried to get the groups attention. "Umm, excuse me, everypony..." "Well, anyway, what do you think we should do now while we wait for Twilight and the others?" Ra'zaan asked, staring off at the distant mountains. "I don't know... They shouldn't take too long now, though..." The Captain said with a sigh. "This is serious everypony...Twilight and her group are..." Fluttershy tried again. Applejack started up again. "Well, Ah don't see why we don't just go looking for 'em... Twilight and the rest I mean..." "LISTEN TO ME!" Everyone, pony and humanoid alike, quieted and turned to stare at the flustered Fluttershy. "Um, well, you see... Twilight and a lot of ponies are headed this way... over there..." Fluttershy pointed towards the center of town, where Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Spike were all being chased by a huge mob of ponies... and they were headed this way. Ra'zaan looked at the crowd, then back to the train. "Everyone... I mean, everypony, get on the train. NOW." He commanded. As they jumped on, towing their prisoner with them, The Khajiit turned to the stallions at the front of the train. "Get going, the only ones allowed on train out of all those back there are the front four. Get the train moving, they'll be able to get on while it's in motion." Ra'zaan said as he, too, jumped onto the train carrying Big Mac' and set him in one of the train's seats. The train began moving, and Twilight could be heard yelling. "Wait! We're not on yet!" Ra'zaan ran to the back ledge on the train and called to the ever-nearing ponies and baby dragon. "Twilight! Run and jump up here! Hurry!" Twilight heard him, but he didn't know what she was capable of. She vanished along with her three friends and they all appeared directly behind Ra'zaan on the train. "What the?! Damn, next time warn me when you're going to do something like that!" Ra'zaan smiled. He turned his attention to the stallions in front and yelled as loud as he could. "Go as fast as you can! We need to get out of here!" On cue, the train picked up speed and the crowd behind the train couldn't keep up. They made it. "Finally, some time to relax... At least we got something useful out of this painful adventure." He smiled, pointing at Kynan, who looked more worried than angry now. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ysura stood under a tree near the train tracks. She watched as the Khajiit she hated and his friends rode off with Kynan as their prisoner. She didn't really like the Breton, but he was one of her closest allies. "Heheh. Go. Run, Cat. Lead us right where we need to go. Don't worry, Kynan. We'll be coming for you..." Ysura thought to herself, a malicious grin spreading across her face. TO BE CONTINUED