Capture
Capture
It was funny how words that conveyed feelings, even the most extreme words, just couldn't do them justice.
Wrathful frustration. Wrathful frustration was the closest thing Soarin could think of to describe his current mood as he lay upon the soaking wet ground, a particularly useless unicorn stallion sitting beside his weakened and vulnerable form.
Soarin was so close, sooo bucking close. He had him, Celestia knew he was this close to claiming the target, to securing his own freedom! All of that work, all of that wear down, all of that pain to be thwarted by a... a Sun dammed bolt!
He couldn't understand it, the two had observed the Islander for weeks, and never once had they seen anything like the bolt he'd used to subdue the former Wonderbolt. Electricity didn't sit well with any non-electric resistant creature, but pegasi were especially susceptible to the effects.
The question was how? How did he manage that? How did he get it? How did it work? Never had Soarin even heard of such a device being tested, let alone weaponized as it was. He wasn't a unicorn, so he couldn't of enchanted the item, and Soarin couldn't see him creating i-
"GAH! CELESTIA'S ALL MIGHTY FLANK!" Soarin yelled. A red aura surrounded his muzzle, a pair of crimson eyes bearing down on him in warning.
"Be silent! Do you wish us exposed!?" Sombra glowered.
Soarin gave the unicorn a look of contempt as the ex-king's magic continued his work through the pegasus' body, working the electrically charged muscles to relax.
Sombra, the bastard, where was he when Soarin was engaged? The plan was that he'd teleport the collateral's away and then return to assist. Instead, he'd disappeared with the civilians and stayed gone the entire conflict, leaving Soarin to handle Islander on his own.
Typical, it was just like his lot in life to be stuck with a useless partner. Just like how Spitfire would always set the schedule for the rest of them to do hard core endurance drills while she went to Trottingham for her little errands, and then come back the next day to fly circles around the rest of them.
It caught up with her in the end, the lost time in practice to meet up with that little coltfriend of hers. So he could take solace in that, at least.
"That should do it." Sombra said, his magic dissipating. "It will take time for the effects to wear off completely, I have made sure there were no lasting effects."
As much as it would make him feel better, Soarin didn't voice his irritation to the Unicorn's incompetence. What would have been the point? He knew what he was supposed to do and chose not to do it. Besides, it wasn't like he could break contact with Sombra even if he wanted to. Luna had stuck the two together, and like it or not, the emerald eyed pegasus was stuck with him.
At least the unicorn had his uses, if nothing else.
Some time passed, and the painful cramps began to subside to the slow tingle of numbness and normalcy. Soarin spent the time allowing his anger to subside and consider what would need to happen next. They'd lost contact with the target, they'd need to get back into contact with Luna to find out where he was. After that, Soarin would need to consider a new strategy to subdue him.
"Soarin, I would like to apologize. For leaving you on your own." Sombra said.
The pegasus sighed and said dismissively. "Yea, okay."
Alright, so swooping and making quick engagements and exits did well against countering that staring thing the Islander did. It also did well against the crossbow. The electric wire bolt was another matter, though. The wire was thin, too thin for him to see while going as fast as he needed to. Hmm, how could he counter that?
"Soarin?"
The stallion gritted his teeth. "What?"
Sombra gave him an apologetic look. "The fillies were in need of assistance, and I found it prudent that I remain to offer."
"Uh-huh."
Hmmm, maybe Soarin should get a crossbow of his own? Or some other projectile. A rubber flight suite might be in order, they'd protected the Wonderbolts from lightning in the sky well enough. Maybe a net to pin the target down? He was pretty stationary the entire time, and nets wouldn't dissipate against the stallion's magical immunity.
"What is on your mind?" Sombra asked, breaking Soarin's train of thought yet again.
Soarin gave the unicorn a level look. "How to catch the target, what do you think?"
Opening his mouth to speak, Sombra was about to say something to the spiteful comment but thought better of it.
As he should, Soarin mused. The great and terrible king Sombra. The terror of the north, the enslaver of the Crystal Empire, one of the greatest threats to Equestria, was a stallion more preoccupied with indulging the hedonistic and pointless enjoyments life had to offer. Honor, duty, and obligation to responsibility taking the secondary role.
It wasn't all that surprising, considering Soarin's luck of associates. Reputations really were an overblown joke, sometimes.
Sighing, Krystal looked out the window of the house that stood on the path to the lake, the one Sin had approached. Angel stood guard there, watching out side the portal with vigilance.
Night had fallen not long after the incident, and both she and Scootaloo had taken shelter after a fruitless search for their... friend.
Despite the declaration of what happened being the result of Nightmare Moon plaguing him, Krystal still wasn't sure about how to get a handle on everything. It was so far out of her control, out of her relm of comprehension. Stopping Sin was difficult enough on it's own, but now they had to stop him and the demon whom influenced him?
The former rock farmer didn't know how to feel about that, how to approach it, how to do anything for him.
Scootaloo lay by her side, snuggling into Krystal's side to stave off the cold chill of small draft in the walls of the cottage. This house wasn't built to be a home, it's construction made more for a type of meeting ground or storage than long term or even short term living.
The filly stirred and and panted a little in her sleep, another nightmare. Krystal leaned down close to her ear and did as she always had when the filly was troubled. She sang a sweet and wordless hum.
And as usual, the power of her song, her cutie mark, slowly soothed the filly to rest.
Poor thing, she'd already been having fretful sleep as it was. After what she'd just gone through, her life threatened like that, Krystal couldn't even imagine how terribly plagued her mind must be.
Of course, the elder pegasus could sympathize herself. As tired as she was, she didn't dare go to sleep. Even awake as she was, she could still hear the threat Sin had spoken, that distorted, dual-voice that he used, and it made her shudder to think about.
"Maybe you really don't give a flying fuck about if Macintosh lives or dies. But I do, and I'll see you dead before I allow them to bring harm to him. Is that understood?"
The words replayed in her head like scratched record.
It was hard to understand such a thing being said by him, said by a pony who'd gone so far out of his way to help others like he did. Yea, he wasn't the nicest pony ever, very irritable and prone to anger more than anything, but he was still good, or so she believed.
Sighing, Krystal thought back about home, about what Mama Gem would want her to do. She said that Papa was an angry and irritable sort too, still was, but that she had to see the good in him, the potential greatness that all ponies had inside them. Granite had made a huge mistake in past, and both Mama Gem and Mama Sandy had to help him push passed it to make him the father and husband he was to them.
Sin did what he did because he cared about somepony, somepony so important that he was willing to hurt others and he was being foolish with how to handle it.
Question was if it was a mistake worth forgiving or not? Yea, it wasn't his fault, but that didn't make it any easier for her to deal with.
Angle squeaked and drew the mare's attention. The rabbit was hopping up and down, pointing outside.
Krystal's heart leaped into her throat and she nuzzled Scootaloo awake. "Scootaloo, Scootaloo, wake up." She pressed, but the filly wouldn't budge. Poor thing being too tired to stir.
Standing, careful not to disturb, Krystal made way to the window. Though, her dreadful anticipation slowly fell away to hesitant confusion. It wasn't one pony approaching the house like she'd hoped and dreaded, but two.
Lighting flashed and she could see the two ponies as they were. A light pink pegasus pony with a shabby mane and a lilac unicorn sporting a short cloak and hood, approached. Krystal didn't recognize them, but a sudden thought sent her mind into a panic.
Was... was this their house? Oh goodness, how was she going to explain their presence here?
"Scootaloo! Scootaloo wake up! We need to..." Krystal said, not knowing exactly what to do. They couldn't be found out, if those two got the guard involved, the orange filly would be in trouble.
"Wa, wha? Wha'sgoin'on?" Scootaloo said groggily.
Angel jumped down from the window and pointed frantically to the door. "Somepony's coming." Krystal warned.
Scootaloo groaned and stood up before making way for the back of the house... to discover there was no backdoor!
The two looked about to see if they was another way out, but to no avail. The windows weren't large enough for Krystal to fit though and the only other exit was the front door, and those two would see them for sure.
"Okay, okay. Listen, I've done this before." Scootaloo explained, calming their anxiety. "Back in Ponyville, I was caught in somepony's house once. All we have to do is explain that we were just trying to get out of the weather."
Krystal bit her lip and looked at the door in earnest. She'd heard stories about what happened to ponies who were caught trespassing back in Twin Springs, they always got a good lashing from their folks.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive, just follow my lead." Scootaloo said confidently.
Krystal gulped and nodded.
"... believe I let you drag me back here." A voice said behind the door.
"I'm telling you, Panzy, we just didn't wait long enough."
They heard footsteps on the porch and then the door opened, allowing the two mares entry.
Scootaloo cleared her throat to let the two know they were present and a yellow aura emitting from the unicorn's horn bathed the room in a golden glow.
"Who's there?" The pegasus asked, her eyes catching on the two. "Who are..." She fell silent, eyes widening as she took the two in before her.
Scootaloo stepped forward, looking as guilty and sorry as possible and apologized. "We- we were just trying to get out of the rain..."
Neither of the other mares moved, both looking too bewildered by Scootaloo and Krystal's presence to speak. The amber eyed rock farmer was about to elaborate on Scootaloo's story, but the unicorn nudged her associate and the two forced themselves back to the present.
"You two..." Said the pegasus, a smile slowly taking her face. Though, the hooded unicorn used her magic to cover her mouth, shaking her head.
"Is there anypony else in the house?" The unicorn asked sweetly, looking around.
"Umm, no, it's just us." Scootaloo said, watching Angel standing by the door frame, out of sight of the mares.
The unicorn pressed her lips and nodded. "I see, well then, I suppose I cannot fault you for being her to get out of the rain. Quite the bad storm this evening. Wouldn't you say, Panzy?"
Krystal noticed the harshness the pony put on her words, but didn't know what to make of it. All she knew for certain was the she didn't like it.
The aura around Panzy's mouth dissipated and a knowing smile split the pink pony's lips. "Yes, Clover." She said, her voice making Krystal more than a little uncomfortable. "A very terrible storm."
A shooting pain in his hind-legs brought Sin stirring from slumber, he groaned and lifted a foreleg to his head to sooth the migraine in his head.
The sound of some kind of jittering entered his ears, and even more pain as his legs were suddenly dropped. He cringed as a bolt of lightening lit up his place in the cave and groaned.
Realizing that he was being moved, Sin immediately shot up right and fought to keep himself from throwing up. Two ponies stood before him in the blackness, both illuminated by a sickly green light emitting from the horn of the stallion.
"Are you alright?" One of them asked, a stallion by the sound.
Seeing no immediate threat, Sin lost his rigidness, swallowed a few times in a futile attempt to stop it, and then proceeded to throw up on the floor beside him.
He hated the Nightmare, he really, really hated her.
"Yea." He groaned, spitting out a last bit of bile. "Yea, just, sick I guess."
He took a few moments to regain himself, allowing the migraine to subside a little before collecting his thoughts. "Who are you?" He asked. "And why were you moving me?"
"Sorry." Said the male again. "We have a camp farther in the cave and, and when... um, Far Seer went out to get water, she found you and we were bringing you back. We tried to wake you up, but you didn't and we were bringing you back to see if you were hurt."
Sin nodded and nursed his head.
"Do you have head trauma?" A mare asked, Far Seer, Sin supposed.
"No, no I'm fine. Just a little... yea. Anyway, sorry to interrupt you two." Sin stood on wobbly legs, he wasn't sure if muscles could be bruised, but the fire in his hind legs where Soarin had struck suggested he win a bet if he dared.
"Oh don't worry about it." Far Seer said with a nod.
The two began speaking in whispers to each other, too quietly for Sin to hear them.
He took his cue to leave and made way for the cave's mouth. It was still storming, but he needed to find the girls as soon a possible. To at least offer some kind of apology.
The two ponies behind him seemed to have other ideas, however. Well, one of them did. The stallion asked for him to stay, telling him to wait out the storm and not make his sickness any worse.
"Umm... Blister, maybe it would be better if he went." Far objected. "He isn't as we thought he was, you can see that now, can't you?"
Blister gave his companion a glare. "Yes, but he's still a hurt pony, and hurt ponies need to be looked after."
The mare wanted to argue the point, but Blister silenced her, making his decision final.
"If mother were here, she'd want him gone." Said Seer.
"Well mother isn't here, now is she? Which makes me the elder, and puts me in charge. Now, if you're going to act like this, why don't you stay at the mouth of the cave and wait for... uh, Typer to come back." Blister seethed, his tone commanding and imploring. "That way, there are no surprises when he comes and sees our new friend."
Sin watched the exchange and felt a shiver go down his spine.
"Something is wrong." Nightmare growled. "They... feel wrong, somehow."
Sin could see that easily enough, but the fact the Nightmare sounded disturbed by them made the entire scene just a little more creepy.
"Thanks, but I'm fine." The Federalist declared before moving slowly for the cave's entrance, keeping a wary eye upon the two, cautiously reaching over to...
Sin's eyes widened in alarm when he finally noticed his crossbow was not secured to his foreleg.
"Where is my bow?" Sin asked calmly.
"Uhh..." The two said in unison, both looking at the other for help to answer his inquiry.
"Umm, well, you see... the thing about that is, um- GET HIM!"
Sin's muscles tense and he called upon the aura, only to collapse onto the ground as the mind splitting migraine returned in force terrible enough to almost push his eye out of it's socket. He grunted as both ponies pilled on top of him, moving to restrain his hooves.
"Don't let him look at you!" grunted the stallion, his hoof pushing down on Sin's head.
"I know!" replied Seer, her voice taking on a slithering, serpentine like edge to it.
Sin struggled for all he was worth, but between the pain in his head and the throbbing in his forelegs, he didn't have an honest chance against the two assailants.
The struggle was over as soon as it had begun, and the stallion found himself being dragged once again into the cave's entrance.
He didn't want to go too quietly, struggling to move as much as his body would allow, but it was ultimately a fruitless effort.
The roar of rain outside grew fainter as he was pull into the cave, the roar of the rain and light outside completely gone at one point as he was pulled.
A shimmer of light was seen farther in, a light that grew more and more pronounced as they approached.
A small, dome like cavern was converted into a makeshift hide out for the two. A pair of bedrolls under an oil lamp that hung from a tree acting as makeshift lamp post.
Sin's heart froze at what he saw once he was in far enough to see the cavern entirely. Green... sickly green pods stood next to the entrance. Black coated, bug like constructions. He didn't know what they were for, and a sickly feeling in his stomach told him he didn't want to know...
"This was a poor decision." Seer spat, the two dropping Sin in a heap onto the ground.
"Yes, we should have just killed him when we had the chance." Blister spat, before taking on a mocking, childish tone. "But nooo, you wanted to let him live. Hmph, this is why mother doesn't allow your kind any free will. Foolish idealism like that."
Wait a minute... No free will, the green and black pods, the disturbing, insectoid typed voices, sickly green magic... Sin's eyes widened as the horror he wanted to deny began to set in.
"Hopefully, Thirty-Three will bring a more suitable candidate for us to feed on."
A sudden flash of green light erupted from the pony mare, engulfing her in flame for a single moment.
Then Sin's heart dropped at what he saw, and he swore he'd have wretched again from pure terror if he'd had anything in his stomach to vomit.
Where the mare once stood was now a blackened figure, covered in hard, bug like chitin plating, peering at him with pupil-less sky blue eyes. Long fangs protruded from it's mouth in a wicked and hungry smirk, promising it's indulgence. It's legs were full of holes going through the thing's limbs entirely, even where the bones should have been. All completed with a curved horn atop it's brow and translucent, insect like wings that stood on end on it's back.
Very few things in the world legitimately scared Sinbad Von Islander, and even fewer terrified him.
Changelings were at the very top of that list, and being at their mercy was his worst nightmare made flesh. In this terror, Sin had done something he hadn't done ever since he was a young foal afraid of the dark.
He coward and whimpered.
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Wow. I was gonna say that Soarin was just grousing when he talked about Sombra's incompetence but... wow the place Sombra took the girls too.
The worst possible place.
So everyone's in bad straights, now!
7477610 Okay, now to be fair, Sombra took them somewhere else, they just made their way back to that house and stayed there through the storm...
7477648
Oh! I thought they woke up in the house after Sombra took them.
Maybe I didn't read closely enough.
7477669 Nah, Sombra took them, he explained and then left, and then they went out a searching.
7477669 Alright, fair warning, you... may not like the next chapter...
I can believe that.
Close but no cigar you son of a bitch.
Huh, didn't know that Spitfire was that lazy.
At least Sombra acknowledged his mistake and Soarin is not making a big deal about it.
So Khrystal and Scoots are on their own.
If I remember correctly, her singing put a damper on the nigthmare's abilities.
Yeah....
I never realized that Sin was double speaking at the time. Makes me question if his decision was really his own or the nightmare's.
Her pacifism still gets on my nerves.
Oh shit.
I would suggest you hide first.
Well shit.
My advice, let Scoots and the rabbit out, and then you fly out as soon as the door opens.
YOU NEED TO FIRST DETERMINE IF THEY'RE HOSTILES FIRST!
OH FUCK! THEY ARE SCREWED NOW!
You are screwed Scoots. Angel, you do your thing.
Shit. How are they gonna get out of this mess.
So, who caught Sin?
Phew. They're friendlies.
The feeling is mutual.
So that's what happened.
So that's his next course of action.
My first inclination would have been to ignore the nightmare, but considering that I do not know these ponies, I can't dismiss the uneasiness of the situation.
Shit.
The crap just hit the fan!
Just like him to keep on fighting to the bitter end for his life and freedom.
FUCK! It's the changelings!
I'm kind of surprised that Sin can get scared like this. Then again, the Changelings in his homeland produce a lot fear when you hear about them.
Jeez, the Changelings must be scary as hell if they can produce that level of fear into Sin. If the Equestrian changelings are scary, I do NOT want to know what it would feel like to be in the presence of the federation changelings. THAT is a legitimately scary thought.
Well this is just fucking great. Scootaloo, Khrystal AND Sin are in a VERY tough situation, Sin's being the worse.
7478355 I dread from that statement.