//------------------------------// // Chapter 1-2: Castle Crashers // Story: My Paper Pony // by Garfield //------------------------------// A few changelings rose into the sky, having seen some fresh prey. They gave out a terrifying shriek, and retreated towards their comrades. "Not wanting to alarm you, but I think we might have company in a minute," Mario called out to his companions. "We should consider doing something so we don’t get our blood sucked or something!" "They suck love, not blood you doofus" replied Applebloom. "Scootaloo, what should we do? Fight them?" Looking around, with an expression that screamed 'what the hay do you think?', she replied "Run. Definitely run!" She began to flutter her wings faster to propel her scooter, and began to leave Mario behind. "Wait up for me!" he called, trying his best to keep up. He turned his head to the sky and saw that the majority of it was blotted out by the sea of black insects. With even more reason to run now, he followed the two fillies through the deserted town. Soon after, the swarm had arrived at the town. Accompanying them was a dreadful drone of wings fluttering as they swooped down into the town. The trio were almost out of the town when another three changelings hit the ground before them. Scootaloo and Applebloom jumped over the snarling beasts, and Mario kicked one in the face as he jumped over. He did feel a little happiness in kicking that bugs nose, or where one should be on its face. "Where are we gonna go?" Scootaloo asked the now caught up Mario. It would seem that the majority of the swarm was hovering around the town, looking to try and find their hiding place. After all, no-one would be stupid enough to try and escape, they controlled the whole area. At least, that’s what their leaders thought. "We've got to lose our heat" Mario said, looking for a hiding spot. "There" he said, indicating a piece of shrubbery at the side of the road, "Hide in here for a while." The two fillies leapt in the bush, along with their scooter, and were soon followed by the stallion. Hours passed as the trio stayed silent in their makeshift hiding place. They had seen many changelings pass the area, some with victims they had found. But none had passed in the last quarter of an hour. "Do you think it's safe to come out yet?" asked the yellow filly. "Not yet. I think I hear someone coming" replied Mario. He slowly opened up part of the bush, just enough so he could see. There were two ponies approaching, both female unicorns. One had a grey mane and white body, and the other had a red mane and orange body. "We should warn them about this area" said Scootaloo, about to climb out of the bush. The red stallion grabbed her tail and pulled her back. "They could be working for the bad guys. Let's watch them for a bit." Unfortunately for them, the two unicorns heard some movement in the bushes. They began to walk over towards the spot where the two were hiding. Inside, Mario was holding his breath and sweating buckets. He turned and saw that his companions were in a similar situation. "Musta been some rabbits" said one of the voices. "Come on, let's go, there isn't gonna be no ponies around here now." He could hear a whooshing noise accompanied by a bright green light. The buzzing began again as the deceivers took off. "Should we follow them?" asked Applebloom, who was catching her breath after holding it for so long. "Let's go" replied Mario. Never again did he want to be caught in a situation like that. Once this fiasco was over, he hoped to never see a changeling again. "Horrible, disgusting creatures" he thought. Once they were out of the bush, they could see in the distance some remnants of the mob returning to the tower. There was a fork in the road ahead of them, with a familiar signpost on it. "We turned right for Trottingham, so let's go left" said Applebloom, pointing down a path towards the tower. It was in much worse condition than the other path, with an uneven surface and dead trees lying across the path. "It's like the road's saying stay away" commented Scootaloo. Nevertheless, they began their journey towards the tower. Every now and then, something would fly overhead, causing the ponies to dive to the edges of the road. Luckily, it was always a bird flying overhead, but it never failed to scare Mario out of his skin. Soon after starting, they found a gorge at the end of the path. There was a bridge, but it was one of the new drawbridges, and it had been pulled up. "Probably to keep unwanted visitors out" thought Mario. On the other side was a lever, seemingly joined to the bridge. Through simple logic, it could be concluded that it controlled the bridge. "It's a shame we can't cross this here, we're gonna have to find a way around" said the red stallion, disappointed by the news. "Hold on guys, I have a plan" said the orange filly. She was making a very rickety ramp from the wood at the sides of the path. "Applebloom, fix this up for me please". "OK!" said the other filly, rushing to her friends side. Together, the duo managed to make a ramp that was actually quite impressive. Mario could only look on at the sidelines, feeling rather useless as the little girls managed to create it all themselves. Soon after, all three of them were on top of the ramp. Scootaloo was standing on her scooter, with the other two behind her. "On the count of three, push me down the slope" she said. "One". Mario and Applebloom gripped onto the back of the scooter rider. "Two". She clenched her teeth and lowered her head. "Three!" she shouted. On the utterance of the word, the other two ponies began to push her down the slope, following her down the hill. She quickly built up speed, and left her companions on the slope. As she went above the crevice, she looked down. Below her, there was a thirty foot drop onto some jagged rocks. With a gulp, she began to flutter her wings desperately in order to gain just enough height to clear the cliff. A few seconds after, she managed to land on the grass on the other side. The landing was less than smooth though, and Scootaloo face planted on the ground, skidding to a stop. Wincing, Mario called out "You OK over there?" "Yeah, just a scratch" came the reply. She pulled herself up and walked over to the lever, giving it a good pull. Loudly, the gears groaned and the chain creaked as the bridge slowly dropped to allow passage. Luckily, none of the inhabitants of the tower heard the bridge lowering, so the trio remained under the radar. Further down the path, Scootaloo had arrived at the tower. She had run ahead, eager to get inside the tower to rescue her relatives. Shortly afterwards, Mario and Applebloom caught up with her, and together they stood in front of the imposing tower. "It's a lot bigger than it looks from back there. Do you think we could just walk through the door" said the yellow filly, indicating to the giant pair of iron doors sitting just over a small bridge. "Something tells me they would notice us just wandering in" replied her friend. "Maybe there is a secret entrance around here." Despite searching around, the fort was impregnable. There was an open window, but it was a good ten meter vertical climb. "Looks like we'll have to try the door. Try to be sneaky guys, and keep to the shadows" said Mario. He slowly creeped up to the doors, and opened up the door. "Come on, keep close" he whispered to the two fillies. Silently the door opened and the trio crept in. "See, nothing to worry ab-". He had bumped into something cold and hard. With a look of horror on his face, the stallion looked up and saw the worst possible thing ever: A giant changeling with a huge grin on his face. The scuffle was short lived, and ended with three ponies chained up and being dragged by some goons. The two girls looked at the stallion between them and shot him looks saying "You dumbass" and "Told you the front door was a stupid idea". Mario didn't care, thinking of a plan to try and escape. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't think of anything, so he just sighed, resigned to his fate. On a stone bridge above a pit, the prisoners stopped their journey. The changelings hissed something at each other, until one kicked the bundle off the edge. The screaming trio fell through the air, as they fell towards their possible demise. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ On the floor, Mario woke up covered in a blanket. Sitting next to him were Scootaloo and Applebloom, seemingly waiting for him to wake up. Scootaloo had a bandage on her head fashioned from some old rag, and Applebloom was talking to a large red stallion. "Hey, Mario's awake!" called out the orange filly. Looking around, he could see many ponies sitting around on other ragged blankets. His two companions were sitting next to him, as was the large red stallion. "Who's your friend, AB?" the groggy pony asked, head ringing from the fall. "He's my big brother. Meet Big Macintosh!" she said. "He wants to help us!" Her voice was really cheerful, which was understandable given her completion of half of her quest. "Mah lil' sis was taken by these blighters as well. I reckon' she could be in this big tower too" he said, with a slow and low voice. His voice was similar to that of his sisters, but was much more manly. He also stood taller than Mario, and his legs were about as thick as the moustachioed stallions neck. "We can't do much stuck in here though, can we?" he replied. So much for saving Equestria and stopping Discord. Maybe he could make a little home in the hole, put up some curtains on the wall. It would be a good life. Other than the whole imprisonment thing, which put a bit of a damper on it. "Don't worry, we have a little escape planned." He indicated over to a wall, where multiple ponies were kicking at a wall. "Few more hours, and we'll be outta here". He helped Mario to his hooves, leading him to the excavation site. A few hours later, all but one pony had retired for the night. Still furiously kicking, Big Mac saw a few bricks become loose. He walked over to the sleeping Mario, and woke him up. "Tomorrow mornin', we bust outta here." "Great, now go to sleep. It's like midnight" replied the grumpy stallion. He hated it when people interrupted his sleep. "Eeyup". The larger stallion retired to the blanket near the one which his little sister was wrapped up in. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ The next morning, the ponies had all gathered at their escape tunnel. With a huge buck, Big Mac forced the wall down in a hole. "Run, now!" he yelled, indicating for everyone to flee. Him, Mario, Scootaloo and Applebloom all waited until the last pony had fled. "What's the plan?" asked the orange filly. "We make our way to the top, beating the snot out of anyone we see. Hopefully, they'll all be preoccupied with our little jailbreak to be able to fight back properly" replied the smaller stallion. Even in the chambers above, he could hear fights breaking out. "Let's go!" Together, they ran up several spiral staircases leading around the tower. Every now and then, they saw a pile of unconscious changelings, who had foolishly got in the way of the angry ponies. Many more were fleeing from mobs chasing them down. As a result, there was a lot less hostile forces around to intercept them than previously anticipated. As they progressed higher, they noticed how the fort was in increasingly worse condition. The ground was uneven, causing them to stumble often and sometimes trip and fall over. Soon enough, they managed to reach the roof of the castle. Across a small stone bridge laid another tower, which had a small building on it, looking as dull as the rest of the area. "Do ya think that's where they would be hiding her?" asked Applebloom. Her and Scootaloo were both shivering from the cold wind that was biting them down to the bone. "Only one way to find out" replied Mario, who had a bit of a shudder in his voice. He was cold as well, which forced his jaw to begin shaking. As they walked towards the building, the large wooden doors opened wide. From inside, four cannons poked out from the darkness, aimed right at the quartet. "DUCK!" yelled Big Macintosh, throwing everyone down. Miniseconds later, the cannons roared and fired large steel balls towards them. Narrowly missing the ponies, they flew off into the horizon. "Rush them!" called out Mario, thinking on his feet. They all ran at once towards the reloading beasts, approaching ever closer. Knowing that if they stayed they would be attacked, the beasts pushed the cannons towards the ponies and retreated back into the room. The colourful equines easily dodged the artillery that was thrown at them, and reached the door. "Open up you cowards!" shouted Applebloom, hammering on the door with her hooves. "Stand back everypony" said the massive stallion. He reared up next to the door, and unleashed his massive weight onto the door, forcing it open. "Thanks, Big Mac" said Scootaloo, as they ran into the building. Inside was a room that looked like a base of commands. There were maps on tables and walls around the room, and little figurines looking like the changelings dotted around on them. A lot were clustered on the cloud city of Cloudsdale, and many elsewhere in the realm. Standing in the middle of the room were four massive female changelings. They were twice the size of a normal goon, and they had long, dirty turquoise green hair flowing down their sides, and long horns with chunks missing extended from their heads. Speaking in unison, they said "You've made a terrible mistake, haven't you?"