A Thief and a Joker

by lolcatsmanseven

Chapter 2

Søren looked to his left, then to his right. He saw a multitude of four-foot tall ponies, all of whom were wearing golden armor. Some of the ponies had horns, making them unicorns; while others had wings, making them pegasi. The pony currently in a stare down with Clarín was a unicorn wearing purple armor.

"What the hay was that!" The white unicorn bellowed; he possessed a voice far larger than anything his size had any right of having. Søren took a step back; he was intimidated rather easily. Clarín, however, was not.

"Feh. Søren, what's the matter with you? This thing is tiny, I've seen dogs that are bigger." Clarín said without turning around. Despite his bold words, he hadn't taken his eyes off the white unicorn. Clarín was not the best at sensing other people's ability levels, but even he could tell that it would be unwise to take the purple armored unicorn lightly.

The unicorn took an aggressive step forwards, and the other ponies surrounding the pair mirrored that action. "You just killed eleven Diamond Dogs. What kind of sick bastards are you two? Give me a reason I shouldn't take you back to Canterlot in a body bag?"

Clarín opened his mouth, doubtlessly with another sarcastic response on the tip of his tongue. Søren roughly shoved his partner to the side, and raised his hands pleadingly. "See, our boat," He gestured to the wreckage surrounding their beach confrontation, "it crashed onto the shore. And we were just sitting here, minding our own business, when those dog things attacked us. It was all self-defense." He put his hands on his hips, and nodded. He was clearly proud of the explanation he had given.

The unicorn leader just shook his head, his blue mane swishing from side to side. He turned, and looked to the ponies at his left and right. "Really, self defense? Does this thing think we're stupid?" He turned and looked at Clarín and Søren. "We saw everything. You killed most of them in self defense, but we saw you execute the one that had surrendered. Explain that."

Søren's eyes widened, and he desperately tried to think of an appropriate excuse. As his friend thought, Clarín reached into his pants pocket, and pulled out a white handkerchief and brought it up to his face. He coughed a deep, raspy cough, and when he put it away, the ponies might have noticed that it was stained with blood, had they not been preoccupied with the verbal repartee between Søren and their leader.

Søren sputtered out, "But... But... He was an admitted slaver! It was just justice!"

The unicorn in purple armor snorted. "Vigilantism isn't justice. I don't know where you two freaks came from, but in Equestria, we have due process of law. We do NOT go around executing ponies willy-nilly. I've heard enough. Guards, take them in."

Suddenly his eyes widened, and his breath caught in his throat. Somehow, Clarín was standing right next to him, with the blade of his colichemarde an inch from his throat. All the other armored ponies froze, and looked at their leader.

Clarín said to his hostage, "Well now, I don't think it'd be a good idea to try and-" He was cut off by a light blue glow that surrounded him, and lifted him up into the air. The glow prevented him from moving completely, and yanked his sword out of his hand. He flashed white several times, but each time he was unable to move.

Søren's eyes widened, and he quickly reached for his dagger at his hip. But before he could reach it, he too was enveloped in a light blue glow, and he too was disarmed. He, like his partner had, also attempted to move, and was also rewarded with failure.

In contrast to his previous expression of fear, the purple armored unicorn now wore an expression of confidence; he had the situation completely under control. He manipulated the light blue glow surrounding the two suspended humans, and brought them close to him. He looked into their odd faces, and saw that the shorter one had an expression of fear, while the taller one was unreadable.

"Take heart, for none have bested me, Shining Armor. You had no chance from the beginning." The unicorn in purple armor, now identified as Shining Armor, smirked, and then shifted his head.

The two adventurers felt mounting pressure on their necks, until they began to pass out from lack of oxygen. The last thing they heard was, "Bag the bodies, and the freaks. I think we just had first contact with an intelligent race."

Everything went dark for Søren and Clarín.

Søren, Clarín, and a truly huge, muscular man were confronting a small, thin man with wavy brown hair. The three adventurers were clearly on edge, as opposed to the calm and confident man facing them.

He was an inch shorter than Søren, and even thinner than Clarín. He was wearing a black canvas vest that was unbuttoned, displaying a tribal necklace reminiscent of a dream catcher. He was also wearing a ball-crushing pair of white skinny jeans over black, steel-toed boots.

Clarín pulled his colichemarde out of his parasol, and with a growl said, “Akira, this is for Rin!” Søren and the large man both shouted for him to stop, but he ignored them.

With a cry of “Heavenly Step!” he flashed to Akira’s side, and swung his sword in a killing stroke. He was shocked when Akira caught the blade with his left hand. Akira straightened his right hand, and swung a brutal knife-hand strike at Clarín’s right elbow. Clarín took a desperate step back, and was unprepared for Akira to cobra kick him right in the chest, knocking him all the way back to his allies.

“Clarín!” Both Søren and the large man shouted. Akira laughed, and said, “And you three said you’d be the strongest in the world, and the fastest one of you can’t even keep up with me. Pathetic. And you said you’d avenge your friend. Tragic, simply tragic.” And then he laughed.

Clarín rolled over onto his stomach, and got to his feet clutching his sword. He limply felt his chest with his ungloved right hand. “Fuck! I think he broke a couple of my ribs!”

The large man hit his orange and grey steel gauntlets together, as a boxer might when warming up. “That’s what you get for being rash, Clarín. We need to all attack at once.”

Clarín brushed off his advice. “Shove it, Silas!” He picked up his colichemarde, and prepared to charge Akira again, but was stopped by an arm on his shoulder.

“Seriously, you’re gonna get yourself killed this way.” Søren said. “Here’s what we’ll do…”

While the three were conspiring, Akira was laughing to himself. “My oh my.” He said. “Do they honestly think that I can’t hear them? Ah, well. I guess I’ll play along, at least until they stop being amusing.”

The three adventurers straightened up, and prepared to attack their foe.

Søren pulled out his silver dagger, and Silas took several deep breaths. Clarín closed his eyes and centered himself, and then said, “Fallen Angel!” White energy was expelled from his body, just like when he used Heavenly Step, however, now the energy coalesced into a pair of large wings. Clarín grinned, and said, "When I use Heavenly Step, I emit a burst of energy in order to move much faster, now I am constantly emitting a huge amount of energy, compounding my speed several times. There's no way you can block this."

Three things then happened simultaneously. First, Søren disappeared. Then, Clarín charged Akira using Fallen Angel, while Silas brought up the rear while puffing up his cheeks. Akira smirked. “What, a frontal attack? Honestly, I expected more…”

With a cry of “Riiiiiiiinnnn!” Clarín swung his sword, intent on finally killing Akira, who simply batted the blade out of the air with a single hand. Due to his huge amount of momentum, Clarín went sailing by Akira. Suddenly, Søren winked into view behind Akira, and swung his dagger at the base of his neck.

Without looking, Akira jumped about twenty feet forwards, and glanced back at Søren. He heard a voice call out in front of him, “Dodge this!” Quickly turning his head, he saw Silas spit out a massive fireball at him.

Akira firmly planted his feet, and replied, “I don’t have to.”

Clarín awoke with a start. He leaned forward in the bed, and cupped his head with his hand. He was shaking, and his breath was coming out in quick pants. His panting turned into wheezing, which turned into coughing. He coughed until he spit a large amount of blood onto the comforter, which still covered his legs. After several moments, the coughing fit subsided, and the memories of what had happened to him cam rushing back. He became dizzy, and had a bad headache.

He looked to his left and his right, and saw he was in a windowless, stone room. It was clearly a prison, however the large bed Clarín was sitting on made it the nicest prison he had ever been in. He pulled back the sheets, and saw that he was still wearing the clothes he had been wearing yesterday, from his glove to his sash. The only thing missing was his wooden geta sandals, which he found next to the bed after a moment of searching. After seeing his sandals, he looked all around the room for his parasol, and by extension his sword, but didn't see it.

Swinging his legs over the edge, he placed his feet on a luxurious carpet that completely covered the floor. Shifting his weight, he stood up. His destination was a thick, wooden door on the other side of the room. He was dizzy, but he finally reached the door despite losing his balance several times during the journey.

Reaching out with his still-gloved right hand, he knocked on the door several times, hoping that someone would answer. As soon as the door opened, he would use Heavenly Step to incapacitate the person on the other side. He heard a clopping noise from the other side of the door, and realized ponies really had captured him. He tensed up as he heard the sound of a latch opening.

The door opened outwards, and Clarín prepared to make his move, until he saw that opening the door was a large, white, winged unicorn. Unlike the other ponies he had seen since landing on this new continent, she was able to look him in the eye; indeed she might have even been a few inches taller than him. Also, she didn’t wear armor, and was mostly naked save for a tiara and necklace. She held herself regally, and even Clarín was hesitant to attack what may be royalty.

“Hello, traveler. Welcome to Equestria.” The winged unicorn said with a warm smile.

Comments

[Book644]

i.imgur.com/tHw0b.gif

[Lionblaze103]

NUUU! ESCAPE! There's not that many fanfics where the person escapes after being captured, and instead are like sent to Ponyville or something. I would REALLY suggest that before you do something like that you at least make them escape, and go into the Everfree or something.