//------------------------------// // 52 - Coming down and Getting Caught // Story: A Penny for your thought // by Damaged //------------------------------// "… I mean, it's not terrible." Dreams heaved a sigh. "Okay, we will release the ponies responsible for food." The umbrum mare did just that, nosing at Shadow until he complained. "Alright, alright…" Shadow Whisper got up and set off to start organizing. "Now, what would be next on the umbrum-take-over scenario?" Penny looked to Dreams for ideas but, just as she did there was a trembling and Luna was suddenly free and looking so very angry. It was like darkness flowed around her, swirling up and over her body. Penny could tell it was her magic but Stick moved first. "Don't hurt them." She was firm, stepping before Dreams. "Sombra went back into the castle, but remember, Princess Luna, he didn't use magic that would harm you." The princess' nostrils flared as she recognized the truth and with huge wings that seemed to blot out the light, she was winging her way up to the crystal castle. Dreams got up, her wings unfurling and lifting her to float around before Stick. Her hoof lifted. "Thank you… there is something to be said for a princess that can put fear into even us. Or the cute monster who could divert her." Stick met the hoof with a clop. "Things seem to be progressing at least." "Either he has agreed to terms and released her or… I don't want to think of the other reason for his magic failing." Dreams looked, even as a nightmare-inducing monster, like a scared pony. Penny got up and moved to the umbrum's side, Stick taking the other. "Calm down, I really doubt Cadance would do that, for a start she," Penny gestured at Stick, "is the same race as a creature that locked the princess away and seduced her husband. A monster in her eyes. She saw reason then, she is a nice princess." Dreams Caress closed her eyes and took a deep breath to center herself. "Okay, but I think your side has it, for better or worse." She turned to look at the ponies a short distance away in the cage. "Sorry, but I can't let you go until word trickles down. Are any of you hungry?" Pinkie Pie was seen slipping a cupcake to an umbrum she had been chatting with through the bars. "Oh, no, I have plenty mores for everypony." She did, of course, they were being hoofed out as quick as she produced them. "How does she-" Dreams looked baffled, her wings starting to lift her up. "I wouldn't think too hard, it is… how she works." Penny couldn't stop her grin at finding yet another pony trying to understand how Pinkie worked. She floated closer to the cage and got a cupcake from the pink mare. "You look awesome. We are so going to need to throw a welcome-free party for you." Shadow returned a few moments later, floating along on those amazing wings, to find his commander nibbling a cream-topped chocolate muffin. "What did I miss?" His wings flicked once as he lowered down among the three. "Luna got free, looked like the spell that changed her just failed." Penny surmised for him, nibbling on a muffin that had been offered to her. "Stick," Dreams gestured to Penny's partner, "diverted her from attacking me." Shadow looked surprised and floated over to Stick. It was like darkness itself flowed over the changeling's back and she was given a squeeze by the umbrum's magic. "Thank you… I can't believe how this has gone. We were meant to break free, to take over and rise up under King Sombra's rule. He was meant to immediately destroy that… heart." "Does it hurt?" Stick reached out with her own magic, Penny's eyes showing it up as green on the dark black umbrum magic. "The heart, I mean. I guess there isn't really anything like that that really hurts changelings. Although I did hear that Princess Cadance's love did a good number on most of our hive." "When it is active, it not only hurt, it shoved us into a prison." Shadow seemed to realize he was now cuddled with another mare and tried to draw back from Stick. Dreams and Penny both chuckled at the reaction, Stick looking a touch hurt as her returned hug was rebuffed but she quickly worked out what happened. "Oh no, one pony is enough for me. Come get your stallion, Dreams, before he snuggles too many mares." "We still waiting for them to come down?" Shadow worked quickly to try and change the direction of the conversation. "I mean, your princess might have broken loose on her own…" It was something to ponder, for the ponies. "Pretty sure I saw the spell actually ended, but shadow magic is new to me." Penny booped Stick on the nose as she came close and the two lay down again to wait. "Come on Sally, they pay you real good." The woman, barely recognizable as such thanks to the fatigues she was almost done putting on, was tightening straps around her left leg. Her knee had taken a bit of shrapnel a few years ago and now needed a little more support than a knee bandage would give. "Hey, merc, you ready to work for your pay?" Her sergeant poked his head in her tent. There was no privacy in this line of work. She was reaching for her gun when there was a bleep from the sat phone beside it. "Oh damn it, what now." Her hand reached for the comms device instead. "Who the hell sends a text to these things? Costs 'em a fortune, might as well just ring me." She turned it back off without even reading it. She picked up her gun and was reaching for a magazine for it when the thing bleeped again. "You might as well read it now." "Shut it Perkins." Sal was upset. Nothing worse than getting upset before a job. Picking the phone back up, she sat her gun down in it's place. "The hell…" She read the message. 'Where do you want to go?' It was an unknown number, but there was a number. On a lark she typed back. 'Anywhere but here.' She made to set the phone back down when it beeped again. 'Perfect, is there anything you want to bring with you? It must be something you own and I warn, the more useful the item the less desirable your destination.' "Like I would go anywhere without my gun-" Sally had been about to continue when she felt the presence of her gun, familiar and weighty. It was like night had fallen suddenly, there was darkness all around her. She reached for where she had set down the mag for her gun and couldn't feel the table. "Okay, very funny, what is going on here?" She fell forward, and with instinct born of training, she rolled and was on a knee, her gun raised. It felt light, though. "Damn damn damn." Sally reached for where her combat tack would normally have her spares but she remembered, she was about to go to their ammo dump to grab them. "What's this?" The voice she heard in that dark place had an odd sound to it, like an undertone of what a cricket sounds like. Slinging her gun around to her back, she reached for her blade instead, the old bayonet coming free into her hand. "Whoever you are, keep back." She wove the blade in front of her. "Silly pony." The voice chittered to her. "What makes you think I am not at your back, already?" The words floated and she turned to follow them until she was looking behind herself. "Damn it, you touch me and I am going to make your world hurt." A flash of green flame just out of reach highlighted the speaker. If only for a moment. Sally was off guard suddenly. "The hell, a pony?" There was a deeper green glow and the shape was outlined again. This time the glow came from the pony's horn, a curved and black thing. Sally started to feel light headed, her world seemed to spin and for a moment before she started to fold in on herself, she swore her vision started to turn green. Sally was dreaming, she had to be. Her family, she knew they were dead, but in this dream they weren't, they were all near her, they hugged her and told her everything would be alright. It was hard not to want it to be real and she let herself relax into the dream. It couldn't hurt after all. It seemed like days in her dream, just in a gloriously happy, relaxed state. But it wouldn't last, it never could. Nothing so nice could. Coughing and spluttering, Sally spat out the green goop that had filled her mouth. "Come on, out you get." More chittering words. Her vision slowly cleared, faster when she wiped the goop from her face. It was another of those dark black… ponies. They had blue bug-like, multifaceted eyes, green insectile wings and a horn. "New food are always the worst." Her hand was gripped in a green glow as the creature's horn had a glowing leash trailing to it. The leash jumped to secure at her neck. "You can't stay in the pod, it will hurt you, get out, food." She felt drained, her legs were weak and… naked. Thoughts, horrible thoughts, filled her head. But she steeled herself against them, if they intended that, they would do it regardless of if she tried to hide herself or not. A tug at that leash told her all she needed to know. She was a captive. "Food?" "Yes, you are." She crawled from the dark pod-like thing she had been in, the inside was full of green goop and she could see another pony, this one yellow with a green mane, being led toward the pod by another of the black-creatures. "No, I mean I am hungry." She lifted her head and sniffed. The green stuff smelled vaguely sweet, but she couldn't pick up much of anything from the insect-pony. "Yes, you get fed. You eat food, we eat you." Sally stiffened. "You… eat me?" The creature turned back and looked at her and the mercenary suddenly felt something inside her head, it was like there was teeth, sharp and long. They bit into a part of her, deep inside. "Ugh, no taste good. Better in your pod." The fangs left her awareness. "You don't mean to actually eat me, do you? What do you eat?" She trembled a little as she got up to follow the pony, her legs moving automatically. When it was inside her, doing whatever it tried, she could barely move. "Love, happiness." The insect-pony flashed it's fangs as it chittered to her. "You tasted really good in there. Queen herself sampled." Sally thought this over. She was weak but they seemed inclined to take care of their 'food'. "If I stay in too long, it hurts me?" The pony nodded. She looked back to see the new occupant being sealed in and many more of the insect-ponies coming out and standing around the pod, some licking their lips and fangs. "You treat your food well?" "Of course, if food dies, we have no food." "What's your name?" She tried to make a little more contact with the creature, walking faster so the leash shortened. "Food not need to know names. Food just be happy and think happy." She felt a petting on the top of her head. Indignity started to flare and, if she wasn't quite as naked as she was, she might have tried to fight. Struggling to calm her temper, she quickly decided to try and work on the facts. She was trapped here. They had some kind of… well, magic. There seemed to be a lot of them. They had a ruler. As she worked, she was led to a chamber in the caves they had been walking through, there was a fence at the entrance but it wasn't anything actually secure. "Stay here or be hunted, I take it?" The insect-pony nodded. "And no food for a day. Be good, we give extra food and let you relax in pod, rather than eat every time." Sally had to bide her time. She had nothing to even try and fight back with, except her mind. The contents of the cave was a mixed bag. She was the only human, it seemed, but there were more of those non-insect ponies, as well as what looked like a big dog made from sticks and a small swarm of bunnies. "Uh, hi?" One of the ponies lifted a head, tilting it to the side. "Hi." Their reply lacked any real conviction. Sally had to assume it just meant, to them, that someone else was trapped.