Lions, Tigers and Bears and.... Ponies?!

by Titan Commander Sebaste

Chapter 1: Breakout

The Canterlot Gardens

“Oy… remind me again why Sunbutt turned us to stone?” A male voice mentally said from a cat statue to three others.

“Because we were quote “A threat to Equestria because we were traitors” unquote.” A female voice replied in a tired voice.

A second female voice then butted in. “If you ask me, she just wanted an excuse to make sure we didn't turn on her like Luna.” She said in a bitter tone. “And we never got to see her kid...”

“From what I heard from some of the guards passing by, the kid didn’t make it through the night, it was too sickly. ”

“That's enough.” A fourth voice entered the conversation, this one was male but it had the tone of a leader. “Whatever the reason, she did what she did. We just have to bear it like our Draconequus friend over there.”

“You do realize I can hear you four over there? All this complaining about being turned to statues just because Celly went mad with grief is starting to grate on my ears…” A new voice interrupted the conversation. It came from an odd looking statue a few feet from the four.

“Oh sorry Dissy, like you have it any easier?” The first voice snarked. “At least you're noticeable, we mostly get passed over!”

“I’ll be out soon, don't you worry…” Discord chuckled. “And as for you four, I’ll let you out and let you have a nice heart to heart chat with Celly. See if she still remembers you after all of those years though…. She may have already forgotten you. As for the child, she’s not dead, but she will be in danger. You’ll recognize her when you see her...

“I doubt it…” the second female voice said with a hint of a feline snarl. “And how do you know it’s a filly?”

“Oopsie, spoiler alert! I’ve said too much!” Discord said.

Just then a school group came by, and the four stone cats heard the teacher ask her students who Discord represented, just as soon as she asked the question, a brawl broke out between three of the fillies, a pegasus, earth pony and unicorn, only for the three to be berated by their teacher.

“Geez, ask a question about Discord and the claws come out!” The first voice said. The other three murmured agreement.

After the fight subsided, the group moved on, the four then heard the Teacher say to them, “And these four cats were known as the Night Pride, the lion is Pallo, the leader of the four and a inspiring commander, his second in command is Ares, Warrior of the Night, a white tiger with an attitude much like a certain pegasus we know back in Ponyville and a fierce fighter .”

The first voice snorted, “I may be cocky, but I'm not as brash as that lollipop!”

The teacher continued, “Next we have Venus, another tiger and Guardian of the Pride, she was the more gentle member of the four, but if someone threatened her friends, she would fight to defend them. And last is Minerva, a Black Panther and Huntress of the shadows. She was the tracker and stealth fighter of the Pride, and while she had a sarcastic attitude, she would not let any harm come to anyone in the shadows unless they were her enemies. These four served both Celestia and Luna until Luna turned into Nightmare Moon and the four then turned on Celestia and she was forced to turn them into stone.”

“Now wait just a minute, that is not true!” The first voice said indignantly. “We helped fight Nightmare Moon but then Sunbutt then turned on us! That is a total lie right there!”

“Just leave it Ares…” The first female voice said.

One of the Fillies that was in the brawl, a orange Pegasus named Scootaloo, spoke up. “ Ms. Cheerilee, why were they called the Night Pride?”

“They helped defend Equestria from monsters that attacked in the night and tried to ponynap fillies like you called Beasties.” Cheerilee replied. “I remember seeing them back when I was a filly.” She then looked up at the sky to see what the position of the sun was “Alright kids, time to head back to the train.” she said before giving a sad look to the four and whispered “I truly wish this hadn't happened to you four…” she then led the group to the train that would take them back to Ponyville.

As the group left, no one noticed the cracks that had suddenly appeared on the five statues

Soon after, shards of stone broke off from the five statues, freeing them from a millennium of being imprisoned in stone. The four cats stretched before standing up while Discord vanished in a flash of light.

“Oh man, so glad I’m outta that stone case!” Ares, or in his old life Carlos, said, the white Bengal tiger scratching his ear while talking.

“At least we don't have to hear you complain over and over again…” the speaker, a black Panther with green eyes muttered. This was Minerva, or in her old life, Katelyn.

Ares rolled his blue eyes at her. “Sorry Minerva, just got bored with being encased in stone. You would too if you were me, oh wait, you also got stoned!”

The other two chuckled. “Okay Ares, we get it.” Another Bengal tiger, this one orange with blue eyes said with a smirk. Her name was Venus, or in her old life,Alexandra. She then looked over to the last member of the group, a blue eyed lion. “Pallo, what should we do now?”

Pallo, or in his old life, Viktor frowned. “We should probably pay Celestia a visit, and confront her on why she turned us to stone after we helped her fight Nightmare Moon… and maybe we'll be able see Luna also.”

The other three nodded before the four headed to the castle entrance. As they approached, two guards stationed at the doors spotted them and immediately alerted the others nearby. “The Night Pride have been freed! Alert the Princesses!

“Great… Just like when we first arrived… I hate being used as target practice…” Minerva growled.

“Ya think?” Ares asked her dryly.

“Let's not worry about our old lives, right now we need to worry about these guards!” Pallo yelled before dodging a magic blast from a Solar Guard unicorn.

Ares yelped as the blast exploded near him. “Hey, watch where you shoot! That's my tail you know!” He yelled before sending a nearby Solar Guard Pegasus into a Solar Guard Earth Pony.

Two more Pegasi dived down towards them, wing blades primed. “Venus, those two are gonna try and give you a buzz cut!” The white Tiger yelled.

Venus looked up and growled menacingly, remembering the last time that happened. “Not this time!” She then leapt and swatted the two out of the air. They crashed into the ground with a sound not unlike a pantry full of dishes smashing into the floor.

Minerva meanwhile had managed to ambush the two unicorns that were taking potshots at the rest of the Pride. “That should take care of you…” she muttered to the two unconscious ponies before stalking into the shadows.

Pallo smashed aside an Earth Pony before roaring loudly. The remaining conscious guards then wisely fled but not before two more unicorns fired arrows at them, the projectiles streaking towards them and striking Venus in the back leg.

“AAAGH!” She cried out in pain, stumbling.

“Venus!” Ares ran over to her, looking at the arrows imbedded in her hind leg, blood trickling down it.

“I’m okay, AH!” Venus said, groaning in pain. “These arrows aren't going to stop me from going to seeing Celestia or Luna.”

She then grabbed the shafts and snapped them before she tried to stand up, only to fall as her wounded leg gave out on her.

“Minerva, give me a paw!” Ares yelled to the Black Pantheress. She nodded before the two of them went to either side of Venus and supported her up, letting her lean on them as they headed towards the throne room, the Bengal limping slightly as she refused to put weight on her injured leg.

Inside the castle...

Luna, princess of the night, was not happy. She had just fallen asleep, only for a loud roar and shouts from the guards outside to wake her up. Annoyed, she looked outside before teleporting to the throne room intending to get to the bottom of this, only to find the door locked and guarded by five Solar Guards, Shining Armour among them. Not wanting to argue with the guards, she then teleported into the room and walked up to Celestia.“Sister, what's going on?” she asked in an irritated voice. “I get woken up by your guards yelling and a roar from some creature, and I then find out that the castle is on lockdown! You have better have a reason for this, or I will find out what's going on myself!”

Before Celestia could answer, the door was cracked opened and Shining Armour poked his head through. “Y...you have some visitors that need to speak to you…” he stammered, his face looking even paler than his white coat. The two Alicorns gave the Captain a confused look before he disappeared behind the door.

The door then swung open and four figures Luna thought she would never see again approached the two. The Night Pride! They're still alive! But… what happened to Venus? Why is she limping?

“Hello Luna, Celestia. Been awhile since we last saw each other.” Pallo said, his voice steely when he said Celestia's name.

Celestia nervously looked at the Night Pride, who glared at her. “It… has been awhile.”
She said, trying not to meet their gazes. “How did you even get free?”

“You can thank Discord for that. Now why did you stone us and make it sound like we were the bad guys? We helped you fight Nightmare Moon and her beastie allies, and you go and turn on us!” Ares growled.

Luna turned to Celestia. “You turned the Pride into stone? Why?!” She asked in disbelief.

The sun princess looked down in shame. “I… I was maddened by grief, and blamed them for you getting banished. I was too full of myself to see that they were trying to warn me of you turning into Nightmare Moon and when I defeated you, I… I turned on them and… turned them to stone...”

“Well we’re here to tell you that we quit serving you.” Minerva spoke up. “We will keep fighting off Beasties, but not on your orders Celestia.”

Venus looked up at the Princesses, her eyes hard. “We trusted you Celestia, and you broke that trust when you disregarded our warnings about Luna and turned on us after Nightmare Moon was banished.” Luna winced at the memory. “We’ll keep helping your subjects, but you will need to re-earn our trust if you want us to serve under you again.” She growled, wincing at the pain in her hind leg. “From now on, we take our our orders from Luna.”

“Before we leave, we need a medic for Venus. Two of your guards managed to hit her with arrows on our way here.” Pallo said.

Celestia nodded hesitantly before sending for one of her doctors. Luna stood nearby, glaring at her sister. Serves you right Tia, you never did listen back then… she thought. But… I wish I had been there for my niece when she was born, even if she was alive for a day...

As they waited, Ares thought, It's hard to believe we used to be human… but now we don't even use our real names… he then reflected on their life before and after they had arrived in Equestria….

The Everfree Forest

Loneliness…. Confusion… Fear...

These were the first things the figure felt as it woke up in the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters. Two teal reptilian eyes looked around as it stood up on four shaky hooves. A starry violet-blue mane waved in a nonexistent breeze.

“Wh… where am I? How...how did I get here?” it asked, the voice revealing it to be female, nervously looking around. Then memories of how she came to be surfaced and her eyes filled with tears. “What… what have I done…?” she sobbed, her head lowered. While she had her own memories, some of Luna’s managed to stay with her.

After a few minutes, she looked up at the sky. “I should be angry that those six foiled me, yet… I can't help but be grateful for them separating me from Luna… if they hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to think back on my mistakes...” she murmured.

A sinister chuckle was then heard from behind her, causing her to spin around, her wings raised and her horn charged up. Her eyes widened in fear as she locked onto a pair of glowing red eyes that belonged to a bipedal armored rat like creature, with plates on its shoulders and back but nothing on its head, chest, legs or arms and armed with a pair of massive paws tipped with sharp talons.

“Beastie! You dare show your face here?” The midnight colored Alicorn bellowed.

The creature’s eyes narrowed. “I would have thought you'd remember my name. I was one of your allies when you fought Celestia.” It said.

Memories of the fight resurfaced, but this only made the Alicorn even more upset. “I… I was a fool for trying to defeat Celestia…” And for allying with these monsters...

The creature then laughed, a harsh sound. “Unlike you, I plan on making sure she and that blasted Night Pride pay. Our master Valthraax is back, and unlike you, he has his sights on taking the throne and he has something special planned… Too bad you, the Princesses or the Night Pride won't live to see it.” It snarled before charging, only to have his target dodge and fire a blast of lightning, scoring his armoured back.

“GAHHH! You’ll pay for that, you weakling!” The creature growled, smashing the Alicorn aside with a single blow and sending her through a wall. She landed outside, the wind knocked out of her and three large claw marks on her side. She winced in pain before standing back up and spreading her wings. The creature advanced only for its size to hamper it. The Alicorn heard it swear as it tried to find a way to her.

I...need to… warn Celestia and Luna…. I may get imprisoned, and in all honesty, I deserve it... She thought laboriously before flying out above the forest, each wing stroke sending a wave of pain through her, and upon spotting a town nearby, flew over and landed at the edge of it before collapsing on the ground. As she sank into unconsciousness, she saw a yellow Pegasus with a pink mane staring at her in shock and fear. “Please….help…..” she croaked before her vision blacked out, but as she faded she heard a voice calling for help before she finally succumbed to darkness.

Back in the ruins, the creature roared in frustration and smashed a pillar. “We’ll meet again Nightmare Moon… and next time you won't be so lucky….” It growled clenching its fist, before looking over at two other Beasties behind him. Like him, they were bipedal but both had yellow eyes.

“Grok, what do we do now?” One of the Beasties, a purple furred rounded creature with stubby arms and legs with dark spots on its back, asked. “The Princesses will know that we're back and the Night Pride will hunt us down!”

Grok glared at it before replying, “Shut up you buffoon! We’ll report this to Valthraax. In the meantime Grumble, you and Mumbler keep grabbing the fillies and colts. Soon we’ll be able to take the Stuffed Animal Kingdom back in our universe once we're done here.”

“ Why don't we ever get to see some action….?” The second Beastie, a tall orange furred ape like creature with an oversized group of upper dentures grumbled, the words hard to make out because of the large upper teeth. “We mostly get stuck snatching kids…”

Grok looked at Mumbler before facepalming. Why do I even keep these idiots around…. “GET MOVING!” He roared. The two tumbled over each other in their haste to get away.

The Beastie Lord then looked out over the ruins. “Soon…. The Age of Beasts will begin… And this time Abner, you and your Stuffed Animal Militia won't be able stop us...”
He began to chuckle madly and soon, the forest was ringing with the sound of his laughter.

Author's Note:

And so our story begins...