The Storm and the Scorpion

by BronyWriter

Klugetown

Thank goodness I was traveling with the god of chaos. As an alicorn I could survive far longer than normal, but with my injury I needed food and water just like anypony else, especially going through a desert. Good thing that Kristen had gotten a lot better at conjuring food and water, especially water. Hopefully now we'd actually make it to a place where I could get some proper medical attention and sleep.

We just had to cross through a gigantic desert to get to that point.

The two of us were fairly silent on our journey. It was hard to digest exactly what had just happened. One moment we're leading a celebration honoring ponies killed and injured in a brutal war, the next minute another war started, and my wife, sister-in-law, niece, and daughters were all captured by this Storm King person, not to mention the ponies who had died in a valiant but futile attempt to hold the city. The greatest loss, outside of my family and the city, was definitely Blaze. After Lieutenant Rapids was injured, he held the entire army together. Even without the war, he was my most trusted and valuable soldier. Now he was just... gone. Lying in a pool of blood in the castle kitchens. I didn't even want to think about what the enemy would do with his body. I doubt that he'd get the hero's burial he deserved.

That left Rapids in charge of my guard. She'd probably fall back to Baltimare, and with me gone she was in charge of coordinating the defenses of the city. I had the highest opinion of her, but that didn't change the fact that she wasn't ready to fight again. She had come a long way since the war, even being comfortable with having her mane shorter, but there was a big difference between coming to terms with a missing ear and some scars and fighting in another war, one where we were completely on the defensive and taken by surprise.

Would she overcome her demons and repel the invaders, or would she relapse back into her old wounds? I wished that I could be by her side. All I could do now was find this civilization beyond the badlands. If they could help us, we had a fighting chance, especially if we got the griffins, Saddle Arabians and maybe the minotaurs involved.

I grimaced at the thought. There were far too many "maybes" in that plan.

"How are you doing, TD?" Kristen asked me, taking me out of my thoughts. "How's your side?"

I grimaced and glanced down to the wound. It wasn't spewing blood, but it would definitely leave a nasty scar. As if I didn't have enough of those already.

"It's probably not going to kill me," I allowed. "I wish I could have a little more certainty about the healing magic. If I'm not careful it could open again, and then we'll really be in trouble. What we need is a place for me to rest and recover."

Kristen's ears flattened and she lowered her head. "Sorry I'm not better at healing. It's not something I really thought I'd need to practice a lot, you know? I'm better at making food right now."

"Which has been amazing for us," I pointed out. "When alicorns are injured we have to eat and rest the same as a normal pony." I shrugged, which was a bad idea because of the pain in my side. I grunted and stumbled for a few seconds, waving my hoof at Kristen when she rushed over to help me. "Anyway... we need to eat and sleep anyway, but when we're hurt we need it even more."

"Yeah, but you're still going to be okay, right? We'll find some place soon."

I really hoped so. I couldn't tell how long we'd actually been walking, but it seemed like an eternity. No matter what direction we looked, all we saw was endless desert. There wasn't even an oasis to rest at. The "badlands" name was not a misnomer.

"I think we will," I assured her. "The planet isn't nearly as big as Earth, so it's not like we're walking from the southern part of Africa to the north. We'll probably--"

My words were cut off when I felt something odd underneath my hooves. Something definitely not sand. I looked down and my eyes widened. I'd stepped on some stone. Not just any stone, but stone that had been put there deliberately to make a road.

"A road," Kristen said breathlessly. "A road means a town or something, right?"

"Yes, it does." For the first time in recent memory, I actually managed a smile. "I'm sure we can figure something out once we get there. I know we don't have any bits, but maybe you could make some?"

"I'm sure going to try."

The two of us rushed down the road as fast as we could with me limping along. Not for the first time I wished that I'd been hit in the leg or something instead of right underneath my wing. Flying would have made all of this so much easier. We'd already be where we needed to go.

The road led us to the top of the hill where we could see the city for the first time. It probably wouldn't be as great as Canterlot, but I'd take anything that wasn't endless desert. We reached the top and looked out to see the city.

Uh...

Hmm.

"Is... is that it?" Kristen said with a frown, stopping beside me. "I thought it would be a little more... Something. It's not the magical civilization that Celestia said it would be, right?"

"I really doubt it," I said. “It's probably farther south. Whatever the case is, it's a place to stop and rest for the night. If I can get some sleep we'll be a lot better off."

"You're probably right, but I'm still getting some major Mos Eisley vibes from it."

"So am I. We'll need to be a bit more discreet. I think I have enough in me to change our forms for a little while. A giant alicorn and a bright green pony are going to stick out alota lot in a place that seems like it's mostly grays and browns. The last thing we want is attention. I wouldn't be surprised if this Storm King or whoever has a bounty of some sort out on us."

"Neither would I," Kristen said. "So you'll just cast a spell and stuff?"

"I could, but why don't you try? If you can then I'll have backup energy in case we need it."

"I don't--"

"Kristen. Turn us into small brown ponies. You are literally the physical embodiment of chaos. You are a god. I am not. Just try."

Kristen actually snorted, and a small smile crossed her face. "Never thought you'd ever say that to me. I guess I can try, though."

"If we're going down the trail of Star Wars references..."

"Yeah, yeah." Kristen took a deep breath and stared at me with utter focus as though I'd turn into whatever she wanted if she just squinted hard enough. She took another deep breath and waved her hoof. Instantly I felt myself shrinking down to the size of a normal pony. I looked down at my body and brown fur started creeping over my normal peach color. My mane began receding and its ethereal effect shifted into normal brown hair.

"You did it," I said with a grin. "I think we might make a decent chaos god out of you yet."

Kristen giggled and waved her hoof. "Stop it, you. It's not going to be permanent, so we'll have to figure out how long it's going to last. It should hide us in the city for a bit, though."

"We'll stay out of sight, then. If we need to re-charge it, for lack of a better term, we'll hopefully be alone for that. Your turn, though."

Kristen nodded and cast her magic over herself. With in a minute she had the same brown coat and mane that I did. It would be fairly obvious to anybody that we were siblings, but at least we wouldn't stick out like we normally would.

"And now for the finishing touch..." With a quick spell, my horn faded away, leaving the impression that I wasn't anything more than just a common pegasus traveling through the area. "I think we're ready. We just need to stay close to each other and, judging from the way the town looks, not trust anybody and keep to ourselves."

"Well you never know," Kristen pointed out.

"True, but with everything that's happened lately, I'm not going to bet everything on this actually being a good place that just hit some hard times." I began walking down the path toward the town. "Just stay close. We'll figure it out."

We resumed our walk back toward the city. Thankfully it wasn't too far away, and we arrived within about twenty minutes. Unfortunately, the first thing that I noticed was that the Mos Eisley comparison was rather... apt. The dirty, decrepit streets were lined with stalls manned by beings I'd never even heard of before, all shouting about their wares. They all had the look of abandoned Disney characters. Each of them were various shades of the same pale green-grey color, and I doubted that any of them had so much as cracked a happy smile in eons. None of the stalls looked new or in good repair. All of them were made with splintered wood and covered in drab cloths that gave me the impression that they'd scavenged them from an insect feast.

All of them glared as we passed by, even as they shouted out the items they had for sale. Even if we did have money, I didn't really like the idea of buying dirty, chipped and cracked cooking pots from one of these guys.

As we went further into the city, we saw more of the locals crowding the streets, many of them standing in front of the various stalls. Seemed like we'd hit the main marketplace. I kept my eyes out for anything that looked remotely edible, but even as a carnivore by nature, I didn't see anything that I could keep down. Kristen's food was passable, but it wasn't overly... filling. Or nutritious. The average pony wouldn't be able to survive on it. Sure it looked and smelled and tasted like normal food, but since it was made out of thin air with chaos magic, it didn't have the same nutritional value as natural food. It was good to take the hunger pains away, but not much more than that. I'd need a hearty meal soon.

Interestingly enough, Kristen wouldn't. As the embodiment of chaos, she didn't need to eat, drink or sleep. Sometimes life isn't fair.

"TD, I'm not feeling very good about this place," Kristen said, moving closer to me so I could hear her whispers over the low din of the crowd. "It might be best to just push ahead to wherever the other kingdom is."

"I'd agree if I wasn't as weak as I am," I whispered back. "I need somewhere to get a meal and some rest and maybe somewhere to get my injury fully looked at." I looked down to my legs which were already shaking from weakness. "Soon. Plus I want to be at full strength in case something happens. After the desert, I'm not sure if I can just push through, especially since we don't know how far away this is. I can't even close my wing all of the way. We need help if we're going to make it through this."

Kristen opened her mouth to respond, but was cut short when one of the locals turned from a stall and ran right into her with enough force that she was knocked back into me. I cried in pain when she hit right where I'd been stabbed. Out of instinct I backed away right into another local, which knocked her over into the stall she'd been perusing.

"Watch it, pony!" the female roared, slipping a knife out of her belt and brandishing it at me. I backed away with my wing raised to head level in what is usually a conciliatory gesture.

"Sorry, just..." I grimaced when I felt something wet running down my side. The impact had reopened my injury. I gritted my teeth to try to push past the pain. "Just an accident."

"Bullshit!" the male who had run into Kristen snarled. "You ran right into me!" He grabbed his own knife and pointed it at Kristen. "Trying to steal my coin purse, ain't ya? Be just like you ponies!"

"No, I wasn't--"

"You assaulted me!" the female screeched. "I'd be well within my rights to gut you!"

"It was just an accident, I promise!" I insisted while trying to figure out a way past the growing crowd around us, none of whom looked very friendly. If it came to a fight, there was no way we could win, especially since the pain in my side had started flaring up again and I was losing more blood. Since we were at ground level, Kristen's trick to get us out of Canterlot wouldn't work here. I couldn't fly with my injury, and any spells wouldn't deal with them all and prevent what I could only hope wasn't a lynch mob.

Granted, if they tried that it wouldn't work in the slightest, but it still wouldn't help matters.

"Look, I'm sure we can figure this out like civilized beings," I said, looking back in the hope that we could just go the way we came and find somewhere else to go. No dice. The locals completely surrounded us. We'd have to talk our way out of this. The blood loss didn't help that as I'd started getting dizzy. "Just... we're sorry."

I looked to Kristen in the vain hope that she'd be able to do something that would get us out of here but not ignite the crowd. If only I could fly without losing even more blood!

"Sorry doesn't cut it in Klugetown," the male growled, advancing on us. "You were trying to steal from me!"

"It's true! I saw it!" one of the beings in the crowd shouted.

"They're ponies! What do you expect? They're all criminals and thieves!" yelled another.

The crowd's murmuring became angrier, and they advanced on us, more of them grabbing weapons. I continued staring at Kristen, who had begun shaking. Not in fear, though. I'd never seen that look on my sister's face. It was one of total calm, but with pure rage boiling underneath it. She'd hit her breaking point. This was going to get ugly. She ground her hooves into the dirt road beneath us, and I noticed one of the nearby stalls sinking into the ground like it rested on quicksand. Within moments more of them began sinking.

"If you don't all back away in ten seconds, you're going to see exactly what we can do," Kristen said, her voice as calm as her expression. The dirt beneath her hooves started to shift into glass which snaked out into the crowd. "We're weary travelers, that's all. The next being to call me a thief--"

"They're going to kill us all!" one of the locals wailed. "Somebody stop them!"

"Thieves and murderers! I shouldn't have expected anything less from ponies."

"Kill them before they kill us!"

The angry crowd noise was almost deafening as the locals began advancing on us. I flared my wings in a combat stance, but I wouldn't be much help losing blood like this. Kristen stood on her hind legs, using her wings for balance, and slapped her hooves together to create sparks between them. Her calm expression morphed into one of pure rage. Alicorns surging was bad enough, but if the god of chaos surged? I doubted there'd be a Klugetown left if that happened. She slapped her hooves together once more and sent out a shockwave of energy that pushed the locals back. They instantly quieted down in sheer surprise, but that only gave us a few seconds of quiet. Things were going to escalate into an all-out brawl, and I wasn't sure who'd actually win.

"Whoa, whoa, timeout everybody! How about we relax?"

Truer words were never spoken.

A cat-like being wearing a long, worn red jacket pushed his way through the crowd, his paws extended in a "calm down" gesture. "Let's not all do something we'll regret, yeah? In case you haven't noticed..." He pointed to one of the stalls sinking into the ground. "This is gonna get ugly if it keeps going. How about we all take a chill pill and let these ponies get on their way?"

"Stay out of this, Capper," the local who'd run into Kristen growled. "They're dangerous!"

"Couldn't agree more, my man, but not in the way you think." He slid up to me and motioned to my side. "Look at this guy? You think he looks healthy to you? I've spent a lot of time around ponies, you know? Enough to know the difference between a little scratch and something else!" He knelt down next to me and stared at my wound for a few seconds before tsking and shaking his head. "Yep. No doubt about it. This pony's got some kind of plague."

A few of the locals gasped, and the crowd began muttering among themselves. They still stared at us suspiciously, but now I could see a little fear in their eyes. Not the brightest bunch, were they?

"Y-you're lying," another one of the locals said. "It's some kind of wound from a weapon."

"You think this pony would still be alive if that was the case?" Capper said, straightening up and chuckling. "No way. I recognize this kind of plague, too. First you start bleeding real bad." He motioned to me. "Like so. Then it gets even worse. Your limbs start fallin' off one-by-one. First your hands, then your feet, then your arms, then legs, then.. heh..." He shook his head sadly. "Your eyes pop out. Pop out and roll away on the floor. Teeth aren't far behind. You're praying for death long before it actually happens. No, my friends, I'm afraid that this pony is going to live the rest of his life in pain like we can't even imagine. It's sad, really."

Well, if I'm left to bleed out on a dirty road in the middle of a run-down town he might be right about that. He'd calmed the crowd down, which was great, but step two was getting out of the city entirely, especially since it seemed all of the locals believed I was sick with some plague.

"Worst part is... it's really contagious. It's so bad..." He pointed to some random person in the crowd. "I'd be surprise if you didn't have it already! Or you! Maybe even you!" He dipped his tail into my blood and surreptitiously flicked it out toward the crowd, splashing one of the locals with a few drops. "I'll even bet that..." He turned to the local he'd splashed with my blood and let out a loud gasp. "Oh my word, madam!" He pointed at the flecks of blood on her arm. "I think you've already caught it!"

The local looked down at her arm and let out an ear-piercing shriek of terror. Everyone around her began running as fast as they could away from us, while she collapsed onto the street and wailed about how she was going to die. Given everything that had just happened, it'd be almost amusing if it wasn't so tragic. If nothing else, though, the crowd had run from us as if their lives genuinely depended on it. Within moments, one would never know that mere minutes before the street had been a crowded marketplace. I half expected a tumbleweed to go by.

"Well, that was something, wasn't it?" Capper said with a satisfied smile, dusting the sleeves of his jacket. "I don't think they're comin' back, do you?"

I gingerly sat down and lifted my wing to get a better look at my injury. It wasn't bleeding as bad as it had been, but it still hurt a ton, and I was losing more blood than I'd have liked.

"No, doesn't seem that way," I agreed.

"Hope you don't actually have some nasty plague or things are going to get even worse around here," Capper said.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed a nearby piece of cloth off of one of the stalls which I pressed onto the wound. It probably wasn't very sterile, but I needed to stop the bleeding. "Got in a nasty fight. You should see the other guy."

"Yeah, I'll bet. We need to get you to a doc, though. I don't think I've scared him off. That looks pretty bad. What happened?"

"Spear wound, actually." I hissed in pain as I put more pressure on it. "Like I said, though: you should see the other guy."

"Well, I can't very well just leave you to bleed out on the street, can I?" Capper pretended to take a hat off of his head and bowed deeply to the both of us. "Capper's the name. I've got a little place to rest not far from here. We can get you there and treat your injury."

Kristen's eyes narrowed and she stepped in front of me. "What's the catch?"

Capper straightened up with a laugh and patted Kristen on the head. "You might make it in Klugetown yet, my dear. The catch is that I'm mostly doin' it for me. If nobody comes back to this place then I don't have any customers. Besides, it'd break my heart if I left a good pony like you to just die, right? Nobody survives in Klugetown without friends, and right now you seem to need one."

I grimaced and exchanged a glance with Kristen. If this guy was some serial killer who was going to rob us of... nothing and dump our bodies in the nearest river then we could be in trouble. Bleeding out was the devil I knew, but that still left me very dead without rescuing my family. I still had enough energy to maybe help Kristen fight him off if it turned out he had ill intentions. That is, if we were just fighting him. Kristen put on a good show with making the stalls sink and all that, but we still wouldn't have won the fight if all of the locals had dog-piled us at once. They wouldn't have been able to kill or even injure Kristen, but in the state I was in... It's not like they could stab me in the neck and do any real damage, but they already had a nice wound to work with. Right now I had a glowing red weak spot, and I needed to solve that before I did anything else.

Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

"How far is it?" I asked, tying the cloth around my waist and slowly getting to my hooves.

"Oh, not far at all, my good sir." He pointed out deeper into the town. "You see that windmill there? That's where this cat rests his head for the night, you know what I'm sayin'? Not that far at all."

"Right. Let's get going, then."

Capper led the way and the two of us followed. I was weak enough from the blood loss that I had to lean against Kristen on the way over. I hated it. It all reminded me of the times I'd been hit with a Nightmare Weapon. Yeah, the spear I'd been hit with wasn't one. I'd be in much more pain and trouble if that was the case, but it still hurt.

"I don't like this, TD," Kristen whispered out of the corner of her mouth as we walked. "I don't trust him."

"Neither do I," I whispered back. "I'm not really sure of our other choices. He knows the town better than we do, so there's a chance this will all work out. If not..." I jerked my head back to the marketplace. "You seemed to handle yourself pretty well back there."

"Yeah, that felt weird." Kristen took a deep breath and shook her head. "I know I'm the god of chaos and stuff, but I've never felt that... powerful. I was in total control of everything. I guess back in Canterlot or Baltimare I'd never really needed to do a lot of powerful stuff but there I kinda lost myself for a bit."

"Well, keep a hold of that," I replied. "If we're in another tight spot that'll be really helpful. You're a lot stronger than you think you are. You're much closer to being a god than I am. I'm just immortal and really powerful. You? You're going to hit the point where nothing short of the Elements of Harmony could stop you."

"I know, and I hate that," Kristen muttered. "I never wanted this kind of power. I'm just content with swimming around in the continent sized swimming pool I have in my room."

"Yeah, and I wanted to teach fifth graders in a small town." A wry smile crossed my face. "Guess neither of us really got what we expected out of life, huh? If there's one thing I learned, though, it's that it's not about what happens, but--"

"If you start quoting Gandalf at me I swear I'm going to drop you."

I snorted as Kristen and I shared a small smile. "Sorry, it comes with being an alicorn. We've gotta be all wise and stuff."

"Then you really did change, because back on Earth? You were not wise."

"Well wisdom is born from stupidity," I pointed out. "No one ever got wise by not being dumb to begin with." I looked up to see where we were and saw that Capper had stopped in front of a wooden door. "I think we're here."

"Sure are, good sir," Capper said, pushing the door open and stepping aside to let us in. "Welcome to Casa de Capper. Please feel free to make yourselves at home while I get a doctor." He followed us into the house and pointed to a ratty couch that looked like it had seen the wrong end of a fight a hundred years ago. "You can lay down on that. I don't care if you get any blood on it. Once you stop bleeding we'll move you up to my bed so you can be more comfortable. Sound like a plan?"

"Whatever works," I said, gingerly lying down on the couch.

"Rock on, my man. I should have some food in the kitchen somewhere. I'm not sure if it was made with ponies in mind, but it's something to take the hunger off, right?"

"I might do that." Now that I was nestled into the couch, I actually managed to get a good look at the room. On the whole it looked worn-down and ratty, much like Klugetown in general. It could do with a new coat of paint or two. On the other hoof, various trinkets and baubles littered the desks and shelves, most of which actually looked kind of valuable. Maybe he was an antiques dealer, or something.

"You've got a lot of nice stuff here," I said, looking at what appeared to be a jade statue of a cat wearing a cape and a crown. "This how you make your living?"

"Something like that," Capper said, walking back into the room and shutting the front door behind him. "I deal in the rare and the mysterious. And anything shiny that catches my eye." He motioned to the top level of the room where I saw several books that I'd bet my crown were fairly valuable. "I'm also the closest thing that this town has to a library, not that anyone around here reads. It's still a nice way to kill some time, you know?"

I raised an eyebrow as a thought crossed my mind. "Books? I know this is kind of a long shot, but if you collect stuff like that, you wouldn't happen to have any maps, would you?"

"Maps?" Capper grinned and jumped up a nearby ladder with feline grace. "Most definitely. Anything you're looking for specifically?"

"You have anything about the lands south of here?" I asked. "That's where we're headed."

"Got you covered." Capper slid down the ladder with a rolled up map under his arm. He pushed an end table in front of me and swept the various empty cans and bottles off of it before unrolling the map. Kristen and I maneuvered closer to the table so we could see it better.

"Did Ce... your wife say anything about who we were looking for?" Kristen asked.

"No, but I think..." I leaned in closer and put my hoof on a section of the map marked "Mount Aris." Underneath that was one phrase that made my heart leap: "Kingdom of the Hippogriffs."

"Hippogriffs? Like the half eagle/half horse guys, right?"

"Yeah. I haven't heard her talk about them before, which, now that I think about it, is kind of an oversight, but they're the only civilization past the badlands." I glanced back up at Capper. "If this is a recent map."

Capper shrugged. "Wasn't made yesterday, but I think it's still good." He leaned against the end table and bent down to examine the map himself. "So the hippogriffs, huh? Yeah, I've heard of them. I mean, not for a long time, but then again, I don't think anybody has."

I raised an eyebrow and tilted my head. "Really? Why? Where did they go?"

"Can't say for sure. All I know is I haven't seen one around these parts for a long time. Ten, fifteen years, maybe? It's not like they came around here all the time, but we did some trade with them every now and again."

"Wherever they are, we have to get to Mount Aris. If nothing else it'll be a good starting point," I said. "Once I recover we'll be on our way. I wouldn't want to impose too much."

"Not at all, not at all," Capper said, straightening up and giving me a smile. "You won't be imposing. Happy to have you here."

Just then the door swung open, revealing what appeared to be a naked mole rat dressed in a suit of some sort with a ratty top hat and goggles. He was flanked by two of the locals who were carrying spears.

"These the ponies you were talking about, Capper?" the mole rat guy said, lifting up his goggles to get a better look at us. "They'd better shoot rainbows out of their eyes if they're going to pay off your debt. The one on the couch looks like he's about to die anyway." He grunted and jerked a thumb behind him. "Whatever. Brought the big cage for 'em." He turned to his two cronies with the spears. "Load 'em up, boys. Careful with that one. I don't want him to die before I can see what he's worth."

No. Freaking. Way.

I shot up to my hooves and glared at Capper. "You were going to sell us? Really?"

"Whoa, hey, man, it's nothing personal." He began backing away from me. "It's just business. This is Klugetown, you know?"

"Yeah, and I run Klugetown," the mole rat said as his cronies entered the room with their spears pointed at us. "Now are you gonna come quietly or do we have to make this a little more... interesting?"

"You're not taking us anywhere!" Kristen roared, knocking the table aside so she could stand in front of me with her wings flared. Her eyes narrowed and she bared her teeth. "Pick your next move very carefully."

The mole rat shrugged. "Interesting it is, then. Make sure you don't rough them up too badly." He poked his head through the door and whistled. "Hey, some backup would be nice here."

Kristen slammed her hooves on the ground and everything that wasn't bolted down flew over to her. She shot her hooves in the direction of the thugs, hitting them with everything she had. They raised their arms to block the assault as another half dozen thugs rushed into the room, all armed to the teeth.

"The female looks like she's powerful!" the mole rat said, rubbing his paws together with glee. "Make sure you don't hurt her!"

Kristen swept her forehooves aside, and half of the thugs were thrown into the wall beside them. I could hear one or two bones break from the impact. Anything to get them out of the fight. One of them rushed Kristen with his spear at the ready, but just as it was about to hit her, Kristen slapped it aside with her hoof, turning it into a rubber chicken of all things. The thug barely had time to register what he was holding before Kristen spun around and bucked him through the nearest wall. It splintered at the impact, and I could see blood on the tips of the splinters where he'd hit. I doubted that it had killed him, but he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon.

Another three or four thugs ran in, but unlike the other ones, I could tell that their weapons and armor were of a higher grade than the other bozos. Maybe this was the boss's honor guard, or something. I doubted that merely throwing a statue at them would work. Unfortunately, the addition of better fighters distracted Kristen for a second too long, and she was picked up in a bear hug hold by a burly thug. He wrapped one of his hands around her throat, holding her head in place.

Not good.

Drawing upon my untapped reserves of strength, I football tackled the guy, which had the effect of knocking him over so that Kristen could escape, but also aggravating my injury. I fell to the ground with a cry of pain. We weren't going to win in a straight fight unless Kristen got really crazy, which was a little harder to do in close quarters like this. Sure, they'd have a harder time maneuvering too, but the numbers didn't favor us, especially with me essentially useless.

We needed to get out.

I shakily got to my hooves. When did the room get cold? Did Kristen do that?

"Run," I croaked out. "We need to get out of here. If we don't--"

My side exploded in pain and I fell to the ground with an ear-splitting shriek when one of the armored thugs slammed the butt of his spear right into my wound. I almost blacked out from the pain, and the room felt a little colder. This wasn't how it was going to end. It couldn't be. I looked up to Kristen and pointed to the nearby window.

"Run. Find me." When she didn't move, I drew on the last of my power, lifted her into the air with my magic, and threw her straight through the window. Hopefully she'd get it. She'd be able to follow them in the air, or something. They didn't have the means to bring her down as far as I knew.

A heavy foot slammed into my head, pinning me to the floor as ropes were tied around my legs. I barely registered the mole rat kneeling in front of me, but I mustered enough will to glare at him.

"Jeez, you don't need to kill the guy. Bring him to HQ and get him to the infirmary. I saw that little trick he pulled, throwing the other one out the window. He's magic, too. Once we get him back to strength he'll have a few uses." The mole rat straightened up and looked over to Capper, who was staring at me with blank, haunted eyes. Yeah, bet he didn't see it going this way. "If we get a hold of the other one then we'll see about where your debt is. Right now you've definitely made a payment. In the state he's in he's not worth as much as the other one, though."

"Uh... yeah, Verko happy to help," Capper muttered, looking at the floor in an attempt to make eye contact with neither me nor this Verko guy.

"Good. Let me know if you find anything else."

I groaned in pain as I was lifted into the air and carried toward a large cage on wheels sitting just outside the door. I wanted to struggle, but all I could do was shiver. It was getting really cold. It wasn't winter here, was it? No, that wasn't right. We were still in the middle of summer. Why was it so cold?

I was roughly thrown onto the floor of the cage and the door was shut and locked behind me. After a few seconds I was jolted forward as the cage began moving. All I could do was continue shivering until I blacked out.

Comments

[everydaygamer]

This chapter did not show up in my feed, found out about it by complete accident but at least I now know to check.

Great chapter, gotta admit next to Tempest Capper is probably my favourite new character from the movie. Can't really say why exactly I just really like him.

[BronyWriter]

8555624
Yeah, I've been wondering about that. Since you follow me, did the story itself show up in your feed?

[everydaygamer]

8555647
Yes the story did show up. Judging by the post date I'm guessing the chapter was already uploaded but kept hidden so I guess it won't appear in the feed after being made available.

[BronyWriter]

8555665
Ah, I know what to do, then.

[Wysteria]

Wow. This definitely caught me off guard.

I'm really interested in seeing how he handles the pirates and hippogriffs.

[Aasha]

I noticed you kept referring to the desert as the Badlands. I worry I'm being the annoying know-it-all post and nitpicking something you could ignore and not change the story any, but on the world map Hasbro made it's named the Bone Dry Desert. The Badlands are right above it - they're the barren rocky area Chrysalis and her changelings are set up at.

Here's the map
https://i.chzbgr.com/full/9088801536/h0A9C506A/

I guess back in Canterlot or Baltimare I'd never really needed to do a lot of powerful stuff but there I kindakind of lost myself for a bit."

A little edit-worthy spot in case you wanted to scrub it.

This chapter feels like we're taking a turn away from the movie's format a bit more. I was so used to seeing the mane 6 stick together almost as one entity at this point in the movie that it surprised me when Antares and Kristen split up at the end. Dunno what exactly Vasto has in mind and I guess now we get to explore that.
I'm curious where Tempest is at this moment too. I guess disguises threw her off the trail.

[BronyWriter]

8560337
Except if I recall correctly, Celestia specifically refers to them as the badlands in the movie, so I went with that.

[Kitsune_Kenshi]

F**k