//------------------------------// // Chapter 32 The ursa’s cave // Story: Spike the Knight // by vadram //------------------------------// The ursa’s cave The trio, or quintet if you count Zecora and the voice inside Spikes head, stood inside a giant cave, in front of them a ursa slept. Thanks to Apple Blooms aid, or not having anything else to throw up, Spike managed to calm down. He looked around at his surroundings before finally focusing on the star beast. It looked just like the one Snips and Snails brought to Ponyville in order for the ‘Great and Powerful Trixie’ to show her powers. A large blue mass of stars shaped as a bear, the brightest of which were located in its tail and behind. A white eight pointed star stood on its forehead, beneath it two closed eyes stood, despite all the noise it was still asleep. Huge just seemed not to do it justice. If they, a pony filly, a baby dragon and... whatever Kirabo was, were to stand one on top of another they may have been able to boop it on its nose, it was that big. “Adanna, do you know what has to be done?” Kirabo asked looking at Apple Bloom, she nodded. “Very well.” Apple Bloom tighten her saddlebags and walked towards Kirabo. When she passed him he drew his sword and thrusted it towards the filly. Spike gasped. A quick poke and the sword was back in its scabbard. An unknown powder began dripping from the hole in the saddlebag where the sword struck. Apple Bloom started walking towards the ursa leaving a powdery trail behind her. “So how are we going to get the tears?” Spiked asked. “Well the plan is really simple actually, we are going to scare the ursa and make her cry, then get the tear and leave.” “That’s all?” “Aha,” he replied looking after Apple Bloom as she moving away. An uncomfortable silence fell between them. Kirabo was the first one to speak. “She reminds me so much of Adanna when she was little.” “Who, Apple Bloom?” Spike asked. “Yeah... Poor thing, such a cruel fate having ones memories erased,” Kirabo said actually saddened knowing what fate had in store for the filly. “She’s not gone yet!” Spike yelled at him, unwilling to accept that Apple Bloom was actually going to be gone. “There is still time!” Kirabo said nothing. He wanted to smile reassuring at Spike, but he couldn’t, so he just looked as Apple Bloom disappeared from sight walking behind the star beast. “So... Just scare it awake?” Spike asked Kirabo “How are WE going to scare an ursa?” “Well, there is nothing mortal that could scare an full grown ursa, but, as you can see this is still just a cub.” “An ursa... minor,” Spike said, trying to remember what Twilight called the beast that once entered Ponyville. “Ooo...” Karabo said surprised by the dragons knowledge. “Yes, it is indeed a ursa minor. If it would have been a ursa major nothing we could have done would have been more than a slight annoyance for the beast.” “But you said that there was something that could scared even an ursa major.” “Yes, three things could scare an ursa major, a Thema...” “Thema means Queen, like the princesses Luna and Celestia,” the voice had returned. “... a fully grown celestial dragon...” “But none of them remain.” “... or a Imamu.” “Imamu?” Spike asked, since the voice did not explain to him what that word meant. “Imamu means spiritual leader and father of us all, there is only one Imamu left, and he is by far the greatest that ever lived.” “Now he is just trying to make me blush.” “Wait, you are an Imamu?” Spike asked forgetting again to use his inner voice. “Uh...” the voice said disappointed by Spike. “Imamu Sagoma,” Kirabo said, suddenly kneeling in front of Spike. “Umm... what do I do?” Spike asked, not knowing how to react to that. “Repeat after me. Ayo to you Jelani Kirabo chipo Otieno,” the voice said, to fast for Spike to catch all the words. “A you to you Jelani Kirabo shipo oregano,” Spike tried to repeat Imamu’s words. He did not react to Spike butchery of the phrase. “Lets take this one word a time, Ayo.” “Ayo...” “To you.” “... to you...” “Jelani Kirabo” “... Jelani Kirabo...” “Chipo Otieno.” “... chipo Otieno.” Kirabo got up from his knees and looked Spike in the eyes. “I see, he is merely talking to you,” realising that he was just talking to Spike, and not to Imamu. “Aha, so how are we going to get the tears again?” Spike asked him. Kirabo looked at him in confusion. “I mean it can’t be that simple. We don’t just wake the ursa up, it cries, the tear just falls where we want it, we get the tear and it just lets us go home like nothing happened, or do we?” “Well...” he said rubbing the back of his head. “It is a bit more complicated than that.” “Imamu told me, to tell you, that you should explain it to me,” Spike tried to bluff, it worked. “Yes, right away,” Kirabo said, briefly standing in attention like one the royal guards from Canterlot. “The plan is as follows,” he continued. “First, Adanna forms a circle of Matariki powder around the ursa minor...” “You mean Apple Bloom?” “Yes, Apple Bloom. Then, after she is finished, I climb up to the beast’s cheek and stand near its eye using my cape to collect the tears, after I reach my position Adanna lights the Matariki powder so the beast can be awoken from its slumber, and you scare it...” “Me? I scare it?” Spike asked surprised. Kirabo ignored Spike’s question and continued explaining the rest of the plan. “As the beast is scared it will undoubtedly jump backwards and cry for its mother. At that point we, Adanna and myself, will get on your back and we will head straight for Imamu. Hopefully, we will reach him before the ursa major catches us and squashes me and Adanna and rips you to shreds.” “Wait, wait, wait,” Spike started panicking. “There is so much wrong with this plan. How do I scare it? How can the two of you fit on my back? Where is Imamu? Why would it rip me to shreds?” The prospect of him being ripped to shreds by the mother of that thing and the sheer volume of questions caused him to hyperventilate. Kirabo placed one hand on his shoulder. “Do not worry,” Kirabo said with a smile on his face. “Believe in Imamu.” While Kirabo was busy explaining their daring and somewhat suicidal plan Apple Bloom returned and was standing next to them amused by Spike’s reactions. “Adanna, is it done?” Kirabo asked the filly. She nodded. “You have been unusually quiet since we meet,” he started running towards the ursa. “It’s a nice change.” He spoke some more, but the distance and the cave’s echo made it that they could not understand them, most of them anyway. Two words were heard by them, “cute” and “filly.” Spike looked at Apple Bloom, her face was redder than he had ever saw it. It did not help by the fact that her coat was now white instead of its normal pale yellow. “So, you and him?” Spike asked with the subtlety of a brick to the face. His answer came as a stare from Apple Bloom. Her mismatched eyes seemed to pass right through him, he turned his head away. “That... That was terrifying.” In the distance, under the ursas left eye Kirabo waved his sword, signaling that he was in position. Apple Bloom walked towards her saddlebags and took out a small glass vial, a blue liquid was visible inside, she placed it on top of the trail of powder and smashed it open with her hoof. The powder was set ablaze and instantly spread forming a fiery circle around the ursa. The powder burned violently, it’s flames rose several feet in the air, it was beautiful. Normal flames burn in shades of reds, oranges, yellow and white, but these flames were a mix of blues and black. The smoke rose and headed towards the creatures nose. “Now what?” Spike asked. “Now. You sleep,” the voice in his head told him. “Whaaa...” Spike failed to finish the word before falling to the ground.