Chapter 37
Chapter 37
Fluttershy
Darkness.
Silence.
Trapped.
Screaming. Was it me?
Light. Get to the light.
A weight lifted off my back. My wings snapped open and I bit down on the jolt of pain this caused as I leapt into the air. Or, I thought it was the air. All around me there was still darkness. Were my eyes closed? I opened them and the darkness lifted, replaced by destruction. I nearly shut my eyes again at the sight, but somehow managed to keep them open and look around. Splinters of wood littered the ground, and around me like the bones of some great beast was the shattered hull of our ship. Heat rushed up behind me, and when I turned to look I was greeted with the remnants of the balloon, now a torn, decimated rag covered in fire. Below the flames I spotted the ships wheel, now shattered into five pieces and burned black, flames still licking at it. Did this mean that the others...
I squeezed my eyes shut, welcoming back the darkness. For a long while I just hovered there, unable to move. Around me I could hear the ship groan and creak as the flames consumed it, crackling in the way that fire does. I smiled involuntarily as the scent of pine washed over me. With a squeak I forced my eyes open and my smile faded. The entire ship was aflame and I belatedly realized that I couldn’t hear any other voices.
“Rainbow Dash! Rarity!” I cried as loud as I could. When nopony replied I hurriedly flew around, taking care to avoid the flames. “Pinkie! Tobias! Please...”
I blinked away a few tears before they could hamper my vision and opened my mouth to yell again when a flash of movement caught my eye. I turned to get a better look and gasped as I saw Tobias laying amidst the flames, a plank of wood pinning his wing down. The smoke stung at my eye, so I was forced to fly around the fire. Luckily I discovered a small gap in the flames just big enough for me to fly through safely. The fire came within inches of my fur, but I managed to fly down to where Tobias was laying. Again the smoke blinded my eyes, and I felt my throat begin to burn. I felt like collapsing with my hooves over my head then and there, and probably would have if Tobias hadn’t chosen that moment to try to speak.
<Ow.>
I snapped partially out of my panicked state. Fighting back the stinging pain in my eyes I spotted Tobias again and quickly rushed over to him. I felt the air turn to fire as I inhaled, and I let out a flurry of painful coughs.
“Tobias! It’s ok, I got you!” I said soothingly and tried to lift the plank holding him down, but it was too heavy, and I couldn’t get my hooves underneath it in the first place.
<Fluttershy?> Tobias said. I thought he sounded disoriented, too. <What happened? Why does my wing hurt?>
“Don’t,” I paused and let out another round of coughs. “Don’t move.” I blinked away tears and scanned the surrounding area for something, anything that could help me move this plank. Through the veil of smoke I was able to see a nearby shape of promising size. Flying over, I saw that it was a broken piece of wood. The fire was just beginning to lick at it, so I pulled it away before they could take hold —although the wood was slightly burned from the close call. Quickly I inspected it over; the length was just enough that I could wedge it between Tobias and the wood and lift the plank off. I used this thought to will myself back towards him with the piece, coughing the entire way. It was getting harder to breath by the minute, and my throat felt like it was being raked by flaming claws every time I swallowed a breath.
“This, um, may hurt a little...” I said nervously as I jammed my makeshift lever under the plank and leapt on it with all my weight. Of course, I didn’t realize just how much of a stupid idea this was until Tobias shrieked in pain and I realized that I wasn’t lifting the plank so much as I was pushing it, and dragging his wing along with it.
A loud CRACK split the air, followed by Tobias screaming — only not with his thought-speech, but with his actual voice, crying out like a bird. I cringed at the horrible sound and dropped the lever.
“Tobias, are you alright?”
<Well... I’m not trapped... and I’m still alive right now, so yes.> There was a brief pause during which the stump of his wing twitched. <Though I think I’m landlocked at the moment.>
“C-can you still morph?” I said between coughs. He gave a small nod and already I could see his eyes swelling and shifting towards the sides of his head. Soon he began to grow larger, and I saw a new wing grow from where I had... torn off the previous. Although, this one was coloured yellow, which was when I realized he was changing into me.
It didn’t take too long for him to finish, and he quickly rose to my, er, his hooves. He flapped both wings, almost as if testing them, and then jumped into the air with a self-satisfied smirk. I smiled at him before flapping my own wings and escaped the smoking ruin.
I can’t remember the last time I had been so happy to see the bright blue sky, even with a great plume of smoke blotting out a part of it. Large sections of the mountainside were burned black, with smaller trees and bushes smoldering slightly. All around lay scattered pieces of the ship still on fire, likely thrown clear during our abrupt stop. Once I was in the sky I greedily sucked in all the air I could, coughing out the last remnants of smoke.
“Fluttershy! Over here!”
I swung my head around and finally spotted Twilight and Rarity some distance away, standing at the edge of the crash zone. I also spotted Pinkie and Applejack standing over Rainbow Dash, who wasn’t moving. I flew over as fast as I could and landed next to her. Rainbow’s fur was singed in multiple places and she was covered in cuts and blood, but she was breathing. Somepony had fashioned a bandage and wrapped it around her head, covering her left eye.
“This isn’t fun anymore...” Pinkie said softly. Her mane was drooping around her head and her tail had gone limp. Dimly I noticed that she was having slight troubles breathing and her sides were heavily bandaged.
Rarity trotted over to us, somehow devoid of injury, although her mane was covered in soot. “Fluttershy, dear, are you alright?”
“I, um, don’t know. Am I?” I glanced down over my body; besides a few burned patches of fur and minor scrapes I didn’t seem to be in bad shape. “I’m fine...” I said softly.
“What happened anyway?” Cassie interrupted me. “Twilight, did the engines explode or something?”
“No, I mean, they shouldn’t have,” she replied. “Even if they did die, they wouldn’t have exploded. And certainly not in that manner. And even without the engines we should have been able to make a more controlled landing.”
Rarity continued, “I’m fairly certain that the balloon caught fire from the explosion. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the engines nowhere near the balloon?”
“We were shot,” Twilight said matter-of-factly. “I think it’s safe to assume that we were hit multiple times. One took out the balloon, the second blew up the engine.” There was something odd about what she was saying, but I couldn’t quite place it.
“Well, at least everyone seems to be ok,” Tobias spoke up. “How is Rainbow?”
“Well, she’s suffering from some blunt force trauma, but she’ll survive,” Cassie said. “She’ll have to wear this cast for a day at least.”
“Oh dear, I hope she won’t be too mad...” I said softly while looking at Rainbow. After a moment I turned and glanced at the burning remains. “Um, how are we gonna get to Canterlot now?”
“Twilight, dear, do you think you could teleport us a short distance?” Rarity asked sweetly, batting her eyes.
Twilight shook her head sadly. “No, sorry. I’m pretty drained from overcharging the engines. I might be able to do one or two of us, but there’s a chance we may end up embedded in a tree or something.”
“What about if we got closer?” Rarity asked.
Twilight put a hoof on her chin. “Yes, that would reduce the risk of undesired interpenetration.”
“One problem,” Tobias began. “Our ship crashed along the quickest path through the mountains.”
“Not to mention the fact that Rainbow is out cold,” Cassie added. “Having to carry her will slow us down.” No sooner had she spoken did Twilight levitate Rainbow in the air, keeping her very steady. Cassie gave a timid laugh. “Or, uh, we could do that.”
“Ok, now what path should we take?” Rarity asked, exasperated.
“I spotted a small goat path left of the crash,” Tobias said. “It’ll be a tricky climb, but there’s no fire.”
“I have an idea,” Pinkie added, pointing a hoof to the sky. “We could ask them for help.”
I followed her hoof and spotted a regiment of royal guards circling the crash site. Mixed among them were grey coloured guards in violet armour and leathery wings replacing their normal ones. They seemed to be scanning the area slowly, until one of them spotted us and signaled those closest to him. Within moments two royal guards and two night guards landed on either side of us. One of the royal guards stepped forward and spoke.
“Is this everypony on board? Are there injured still within?”
“No, sir, everypony’s fine,” Twilight said. “Rainbow Dash here is the only one in any serious condition.”
The royal guard nodded and motioned to his partner, who flew off back the way they came. We waited for a few moments, standing around in awkward silence, before a booming voice sounded.
“Twilight Sparkle! We had despaired of ever seeing you again.” All of us, save the guards, swung towards the voice in time to see Princess Luna fly in and land just outside of our circle, scrutinizing each of us. I quickly bowed low and remained like that until she said, “Fluttershy, thou may rise.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I rose quickly, my face being slightly hidden behind my mane.
“We are most unhappy that you missed our scheduled appointment,” Princess Luna began. Her tone was harsh, though she did have a smile on her face. Something about it seemed forced to me. “But we are pleased to see you well. Some of you. Where are the others?”
“There was an incident at the Changeling Hive,” Twilight said. “They were trapped inside when the main tunnel collapsed, and we couldn’t go in after them. That’s why we came, we need you and Princess Celestia to help.”
“Celestia is...” Princess Luna’s voice faltered for a moment. It was so bizarre to hear her powerful voice sound so meek and helpless. The moment passed as quickly as it came and Luna resumed talking, none of her earlier weakness present. “Celestia is busy elsewhere at the moment.”
“She is?” Twilight asked. She looked lost in thought for a few moments.
“Let us return to Canterlot and thou may inform us of thy plight.” With that, Luna briskly turned around and said something to her guards, whom motioned for us to follow. I glanced at the others; Rarity and Pinkie were each helping carry Rainbow, which I noted as odd since Twilight was levitating her not too long ago. Cassie and Tobias were both speaking to each other, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. From their expressions I guessed that Cassie was relieved, but Tobias was nervous about something. I couldn’t see Twilight and thought for a moment that she was up ahead talking to Princess Luna, but I instead found her looking at the ruins of our ship.
“Um, Twilight? Are you alright?” I asked gently. Twilight seemed startled by me, and I gave a slight shake of my head, letting my mane cover more of my face. “Oh, um, did I scare you? Sorry...”
“It’s alright, Fluttershy,” she reassured me. “I’m just... worried.”
I smiled as best as I could. “It’s ok. Princess Luna will help. And maybe Celestia will, too.”
She smiled back to me, and I heard the sound of wings flapping on the wind. Turning to the source, I was met with two guards pulling a large gold chariot through the sky before landing in front of us. We were quickly ushered on and were soon flying through the air, headed for Canterlot.
“I sure hope this was the right thing to do,” Tobias muttered. Oddly enough, I was thinking the same thing. I couldn’t say exactly why, but something was nagging at my mind. I shook my head slightly and turned to look at Canterlot in the distance. Surely, whatever problems we had would be over soon. The Princesses would make sure of that.
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Holy shit! I remember reading these books when I was younger! I'm definitely adding this to my "read later" list! You get a favorite just because it's Animorphs and MLP! Together!
Yup. Definitely a controller.
KILL IT WITH FIRE!
OH MY GOD! NO WAY! Someone has seriously done this with my favorite book series of grade school?! Thumbed up for the premise, and will definitely add to my read later. I'll give a fav after I get around to reading it!
Yep she's totally one of them.
Someone should tell Luna she can bring her sister back after 4 days or so. Then hopefully that controller who had control of her sister should be dead and gone.
BEST. CROSSOVER. EVER.
UPDATE!
for a moment.
also, for some reason I confused this with another story I've been reading in which Fluttershy is in grave danger as of the end of the latest chapter, so I was like
Have a
.
The TWILIGHT SPARKLE is a SPY!!!!
2287405 Alright, Good to know.
Protip. Bring Ablative Statue Armor, to deflect killing curses. Watch out for Shrapnel.
check for yeerks, check EVERYPONY for yeerks.
2286399
Unless their sun also produces Kandrona rays, in which case her Yerk will won't die.
2285769 its well worth it got all of the gangs personalitys just right so far...makes me want to find all of the books and rad them all again
2291083
I used to read the books religiously when I was younger.
That is NOT Twilight speaking there.
2274681 Ah, but wheres the fun in that?
...
...
...
...
DON'T TAKE THAT TWILIGHT INTO CANTERLOT! IT'S A TRAP!
Alrighty, this story is amazing and very well written. However, the only problem I have with it so far is that you seem to lose track of some of your characters in certain chapters. Like the last chapter when Jake and his group were running around in the Changeling hive you failed to mention at the beginning of the chapter what happened to the rest of the group. Namely Tobias, Rainbowdash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. I understand that it was a bit of an intense scene, and that Jake and the others were trying to avoid being captured by changelings, but it sort of seems like you just forget about certain characters completely. I've also noticed that you have a tendency to leave Tobias out of the action scenes. For example the scene in the train where they are first attacked by the Changelings you don't mention Tobias at all until maybe afterwards. The only reason this really bothers me is that because this story is so text heavy it can be hard to follow at times. Especially when all of a sudden the group has split up, and there's no reason given for it. It takes something away from the story, and makes it that much harder to follow.
Other than that this story is lovely, and you've gotten the writing style down pat. I also love the way you contrast the Animorphs' ruthlessness with the Mane Six's pacifism.
2302274
Chapter 33. Illusion narrating. Chapter 34 was Twilight and Chapter 35 was Jake, and each took place immediately after the other. Jake gave the order for Rainbow and the others to keep the airborne Changelings distracted and headed off with his team into the Changeling Hive. Simply put, there was no time for Jake to concern himself with the others, and Illusion just doesn't care. Admittedly, you're right; Twilight should have given it some thought. Ah, well. Hindsight is always 20/20.
As for leaving Tobias out: dude, we've got fifteen characters to keep track of. And as we near the climax this number's sure to go up. And honestly, I never felt like we were leaving Tobias out. We try to give each character as much 'screen-time' as possible.
-Tricondon
2302440 I understand that you have fifteen characters to keep track of, but you had to realize when you started this story that you were going to have that many characters to keep track of. I was just trying to give you some constructive criticism to help give your story a bit more of a realistic, well-rounded feel.
As far as Tobias goes, you have 37 chapters in this story and he's only narrated one............I'm not exactly sure how much 'screen time' that is exactly....
Also, I'm a girl...So please refrain from calling me 'dude'...
What a thrill.
Actually I don't know what i'm reading anymore. Whether that be because i've lost the drive to read this with the anticipation I used to have for it or a decline in how good it is (which I am trying to doubt) is beyond me. I do have to wonder though why they haven't been periodically checking for yeerk infestation. I mean depending on how this next part goes it might be explained but still... I wouldn't have just expected them to forget something like that. Also if the yeerks are so certain that this is the original "andalite bandits" then why are they still using the pony forms. I thought those were for when they had to disguise? Anyway I will cut the rambling short here. refute me on all this if you so desire.
2349470 to check for spies. Count the ponies nearby. Then have her use the spell.
Maybe?
2350272 my train of thought would have been "do I have my limbs? Do my friends have all their limbs? That was fun lets never do it again. Who's gone rogue now?"
2302440 The challenge of a Megamorphs type book? Trying to give everybody screen time? Now we know how the X-men writers for the toons and legends game feel.
2299475 Admiral Ackbar! He made an appearance! I can't wait for him to write a chapter from his teen angst fish man point of view!
"Concentrate all fire on the Yeerk Blade ship! Now concentrate all fire on Celestia's flank! Don't go in Fluttershy's shed IT'S A TRAP! May the Horse-uh, Force be with us. Horses, too."
If they made an animorphs (or MLP) game, this would be a hilarious DLC. No, I mean the idea would be hilarious, even though the execution would be serious. Think about it: The animorphs game would be made, then they would keep hush hush about its development. Then BAM, right when it came out, make a point that it's out, and everybody would be "WTF?!"....and then their curiosity would slowly get the best of them....Granted of course, the game was actually any good and enough people decided to give it a chance.
Hey, if anybody has an opinion on the matter, I would love to hear it:
I've been thinking for the longest time, if an animorphs game was made, how should it be made? What should it be modeled after? What games would give you the visceral and in depth feel of fast paced "hand" to hand.....throat combat, the adrenaline rush, speed, agility and heightened senses. Being the animal....in depth.
I'm sure they've gotten combat veterans and military buffs when making the recent slew of military shooters. I know they did it for Star Wars: Republic Commando. It'd be nice an animal expert (not just Cassie's parents) that would forgo any leveling system and even combat (for a short while) to get the details down pat for the unique experience of being in the skin of each individual animal. Birds see more colors, a lot of predatory animals have enhanced smell, some animals are color blind, the physics for walking and stalking on all fours...basically what the books touched on. Then, when that's down pat, fitting the appropriate combat style for each shouldn't be too hard.
Since I started reading the books in the ps2/gamecube/xbox era, I tried analyzing this with games of that time. Originally I thought it would be like Splinter Cell, and when you got caught the fighting would be like bloody roar. If it was a 1st person experience, then it would probably be like Chronicles of Riddick-a very stealth and combat detailed first person shooter, plus a different game that a lot of people didn't hear of but got the idea down pat IMHO, even if it was an average game-and this is a big one for ideas to get for an animorphs game; A dog's life. It's an animal sim that get's turned into a game, where it's an open world experience, and you can go 1st person to use doggy senses for tracking. Not a compelling game, but it was interesting enough. I know animorphs ain't a shooter, or a swords and sorcery experience like the elder scrolls games, but it might make you feel more up close and personal like the books.
I guess the first person experience would mostly be like the two earlier games, Chronicles of Riddick for the stealth and combat, A Dog's life for the animal sim part, and Mirror's Edge for the parkour experience of being an animal getting around (flying as a hawk, jumping buildings as a cat, running as a dog). I guess a few things could be borrowed from Farcry 3 as a guerrilla and survival aspect and plenty of animals to find for morphs, as well as Dishonored. Almost a Pokemon element, there. Almost.
For a third person experience, I would assess the combat would be something akin to that found in Peter Jackson's King Kong, and playing as the Dog from Dragon Age, with some traits taken from Okami, Kameo; Elements of Power, Arkham City, and Dragon's Dogma..in loosely that order.
The morphing aspect would be somewhere between Kameo and WOW (maybe Dragon Age, also), as the control and finding them would be like the hunter class finding a pet as the stalking part like FarCry 3. It wouldn't be as instant as Kameo, but you don't have to cast a spell to morph like the druids, and you have more than 8 select morphs. Also, it would heal that specific morph.
As far as the strategy goes, the ability to give thought speak command to your fellow guerrillas would be like Brute Force, Freedom Fighters, and Dragon's Dogma in that order. The advantage that you have is that you could pause the game in order to issue orders, and enemies can't hear it. But that points out a problem, the two very different games that need to be brought together; Squad based gameplay elements usually saved for shooters, placed in a game that pretty much juggling stealth, melee combat, and interaction. That's why I chose to throw in Dragon's Dogma instead of Shadow of Colossus, because it has (mostly) melee oriented gameplay, in a group of 4 that you can "direct" and the melee gets intimate and personal (much akin to Colossus) when scaling a large enemy to find that sweet spot (which would be a majority of the Visser 3 boss fights).
The Reason why Arkham got thrown in there is because, well it actually has the most well rounded starting point. It melds stealth, combat, and gadgets/detective work seamlessly like it's a mixed drink. And to a lesser extent, the Animorphs soul and story has that. Also, using Batman's "detective" vision seamlessly off and on is more akin to what I think the senses should be like...not cast like a "detect life" spell.Getting around said open box city in animal form, however, would be just as akin to Spyro, Assassin's creed and the tony hawk games: using all 4s for parkour in a suburban or rural environment. Not as fast as a car but faster than walking. For the more linear missions, like fighting through the tunnels of a yeerk pool or ship, it might start to feel like the X-men legend games.
I personally think something is there to be used, even if it's not enough to stand on it's own. For me, I thought Animorph's potential in the right person's hands would go unappreciated, and it could hold well in an anime if nothing else. Think about it: it has a lot of things that COULD fit very well in anime, if they got the soul, faithfulness, and intense action down. Middle to Highschoolers (having the heroes pretend to have slice of life to fit in that ironically wouldn't feel as forced or fake as the slice of life that's mean't to be "real") in some kind of conflict with otherworldly forces that tries to balance being righteous with being dark. However, the beautiful thing is that it would stop some of the cliche anime stuff with it's westernized aspects that couldn't be easternized or cliched, meaning it has the potential to be an anime that is recognisable, something that may not take too much creativity to start but some originality to finish. It might be adult swim material, partly to over compensate for how it's been presented as something for little kids...which it can be but it's not. They think it's goosebumps and power rangers....yeah, without a happy ending. It's more like Red Dawn, Homeward Bound and V: The miniseries (both old and new).
The reason why I wrote this long looooooong letter is because 1) I have the day off and 2) for my own sake, I want to take a consensus on this subject, but it's very rare that I find a group of people who may like what I specifically like. Therefore I wrote this because I would greatly value an intelligent and even critical (hopefully constructive and respectful) response to this idea. I wanna hear other ideas on this. I value that creativity. I value ideas, and somebody may have thought of a good idea I didn't. Have a good one.
2424118 Good idea.
2424118 i do believe they have, or had an animorphs game at one point.
Twilight is most likely a Controller!
3681044 She is indeed.
3681044
3978822
It seems that way. And you two got needlessly down voted for your predictions.
ship's