Guarded Emotions: The Final Season

by Alabenson

Rainbow Roadtrip, Part 5

Moonwhisper and the others said little as they rushed through the dense forest, guided by Moonwhisper and Captain Wuzz’s rudimentary tracking skills. While Moonwhisper would have greatly preferred the group to move completely silently, lest they alert their target, Moonwhisper had more pressing concerns on his mind.

“Hey, Gregor?” Garbunkle called out as he stumbled through the underbrush. “Could you slow down for a minute? I know we’re in a hurry, but I really think we need to talk.”

“Pluma has at minimum several hours on us and you want to take a break?” Moonwhisper asked angrily. “Do I need to remind you the amount of danger that Equestria will be in if we aren’t able to intercept her before she locates Squirk’s forces?”

“Yeah, I get that, its just…we haven’t really talked about what we’re going to do when we actually find Pluma,” Garbunkle said.

“There’s nothing to talk about there,” Moonwhisper replied darkly before noticing Garbunkle’s stricken expression. “If Pluma surrenders the amulet then I’m willing to leave how to handle her with you and the others. That said, if Pluma insists on resisting…”

“Look, I – I get it, alright? But, do you think I could at least try talking to her before you do anything assassin-y?” Garbunkle asked.

Moonwhisper closed his eyes and sighed. “If you think that you can somehow resolve all this with conversation then you’re free to try. I’ll hold off on employing any alternative methods until it’s clear a peaceful resolution can’t be reached.” Garbunkle looked visable relieved at Moonwhisper’s offer. “Plus, letting Spike talk to her should let me get close enough to put a feather blade through Pluma’s skull without any trouble,” Moonwhisper thought silently to himself.

“If you two are done chatting, we should get moving again,” Captain Wuzz called out. “It would appear our feathered fugitive changed directions up here.”

“Can you tell why?” Moonwhisper asked.

“How should I know? Maybe she was just stumbling around in the dark and got turned around somehow,” Captain Wuzz said. “At the very least it doesn’t look like she was moving particularly quickly, so we should catch up to her soon.”

“Great! That means we should have this all cleared up soon and then we can all go home again!” Garbunkle said.

“Yes, assuming nothing goes horribly wrong in the meantime,” Moonwhisper thought bitterly to himself.

*********

“Oh, this is not good,” Crank muttered to himself as he paced back and forth across the stone chamber that served as his office within the fortress. “It’s been days now and we haven’t found a single clue as to where Lord Squirk’s amulet could be. If I don’t find something to report to him and soon there’s no telling what Lord Squirk might do to me.”

As Crank continued to fret, however, a miserable creature resembling a twisted cross between a small heron and a catfish landed on the windowsill overlooking the ocean and let out a plaintive croak.

“What’s that? You’ve spotted Ruff’s descendant? Well, its not quite the amulet, but if I turn her over to Squirk then he might at least focus on her instead long enough for me to find the amulet. Where did you spot her?” As the strange creature let out another series of hacking croaks Crank’s expression became increasingly confused. “She’s headed to the coast? Why would she be doing that? Maybe this is some kind of trick…”

Suddenly, the entire island shook as a monstrous bellow echoed out from the depths. “CRANK! I’M LOSING MY PATIENCE, WHERE IS MY AMULET?”

“You know, the risk that it’s a trap really isn’t all that serious,” Crank swiftly concluded before turning back to his mutated minion. “Have some of our forces intercept her and bring her here, unharmed if possible. Lord Squirk does prefer having a fresh slate to work with, after all.”

“CRANK! WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT KEEPING ME WAITING?”

“Actually, I think I might oversee this mission personally,” Crank quickly added.

*********

Pluma collapsed to the ground just as she burst forth from the forest underbrush, the crashing surf of the coast laid out before her. She was completely exhausted, having spent the entire night prior running through the wilderness, but Pluma finally felt like her goal was in reach. “All I have to do now is figure out some way of getting to Squirk’s island. If only I had a boat or something.”

“That feels like something you probably should have planned for before you started this.”

Pluma let out a terrified gasp and spun around, only to see no one else there. As she turned back, however, Pluma found herself starring straight into Moonwhisper’s coldly furious eyes.

“Hello Pluma.”

Letting out a shriek of terror, Pluma fell to the ground and began rapidly crawling backwards away from Moonwhisper, until she felt herself bump into something.

“We seem to have misplaced something rather important of ours. You wouldn’t happen to know where it could be, by any chance?” Looking up, Plum saw that the object she had backed into was in fact Captain Wuzz, who was leering down at her with an evil grin.

“Guys, ease up already! Can’t you see you’re scaring her?” Garbunkle chastised his friends as he emerged from the forest alongside Sir McBiggun.

“To be fair, that was the general intent,” Moonwhisper replied. “And, as we agreed, I haven’t actually laid a claw on her.” The implications of the unspoken ‘yet’ in Moonwhispers tone sent shivers down Pluma’s spine.

Garbunkle, meanwhile, merely sighed as he moved to put himself between Moonwhisper and Pluma. “Sorry about that. Gregor can be a little intense sometimes. That said, you did kind of take something from us that doesn’t belong to you.”

“I have no idea what you could be talking about,” Pluma replied nervously, eliciting annoyed looks form everycreature present. “Well, what was I supposed to do? Just sit by and watch as you ran off just like that other unicorn did, leaving my family to deal with the consequences?”

“Setting aside the fact that we had every intention of returning to deal with Squirk on a permanent basis, you can’t actually believe that giving him the amulet would improve things?” Moonwhisper asked.

“And why wouldn’t it? The only reason Squirk has been tormenting my family for all these years has been because our stupid ancestor stole that stupid amulet in the first place. If he had never gotten involved then Squirk would never have chased after us. My parents wouldn’t have…they wouldn’t have…” Pluma was forced to stop as a sob tore its way out of her throat.

“Listen,” Garbunkle said gently as he approached Pluma. “We understand that things must have been –”

“You don’t understand a thing!” Pluma hissed as she swatted Garbunkle away. “None of you adventurers ever do. You just swoop in, ‘save the day’ and then leave the rest of us to pick up the pieces. The truth is you don’t really care what happens to this world anymore than that other unicorn did. All you care about is getting back home and finishing your adventure. Not one of you gives a single feather about what Squirk is going to do to us after you’ve gone.”

“Has it occurred to you that you should be far more concerned about what Squirk might do to you once he has the amulet?” Moonwhisper snapped. “Based on my observations thus far, Squirk doesn’t strike me as the type to be moved by little things like gratitude. The most likely scenario I see would be for him to simply take the amulet from you and then destroy you with it out of spite.”

“So, instead I should just hand it over to you and hope you actually do what you say and come back to save us all?” Pluma asked incredulously.

“And do you really think you can trust Squirk more than us?” Garbunkle asked pointedly.

This last question left Pluma silent for several seconds as she tried and baited to come up with a response. Eventually, Pluma simply broke down sobbing as she fell to her knees. “I – I just want this to be all over! I can’t keep spending my life either on the run or looking over my shoulder waiting for Squirk’s forces to finally catch me.”

“Good news, then! You won’t have to wait anymore!” As a nasally voice echoed out from past the shore, a massive upswell surged from just offshore. As the waters cascaded down, they revealed a huge, purple lobster easily twice the size of a yak, sporting a bristly mustache.

“I just was not prepared for today,” Moonwhisper said as his mind worked to process the scene in front of him. “What in Celestia’s name is that thing?”

“It’s Crank!” Pluma wailed as she tried to scramble away from the shore. “He’s Squirk’s second-in-command!”

“That’s right, I am,” Crank said with an air of pride. “I’m here to invite Ruff’s descendant to Lord’s Squirk’s palace. No need to RSVP, you don’t have the option of declining.” As Crank spoke, a pair of large, misshapen turtle-like creatures rose out of the water next to him and tossed a net of woven kelp over Pluma.

“Sorry, but I’m afraid Pluma already has a prior commitment!” Garbunkle said as he leveled his staff at Crank and fired off a blast of magic.

“Eeeyup!” Sir McBiggun roared as he leapt through the air and brought his sword down onto Crank.

As Crank deflected the blow with his claw before trying to swat Sir McBiggun out of the way, Moonwhisper crept over towards Pluma. “I can see why you’d be eager to trust Squirk’s forgiving nature over us, he does seem rather reasonable,” Moonwhisper said sarcastically as he began sawing through the kelp strands.

“I can’t believe you’re actually trying to protect me after what I tried to do,” Pluma said.

“To be more accurate, Spike and the others are the ones trying to protect you. I’m trying to protect the amulet and you just happen to be in a position to benefit from it,” Moonwhisper replied.

Pluma initially looked like she was about to say something in response, only to instead let out a piercing scream. Moonwhisper quickly turned to see what was the matter, only to be struck by Crank’s claw with enough force to rend him flying through the air.

“Stupid adventurers! I won’t let you get in the way, Lord Squirk is mad enough at me as it is without having to report that I let Ruff’s descendant escape as well.”

“Well, you could always just give up and run away,” Captain Wuzz said as he fired arrow after arrow at Crank in an effort to force him back. Unfortunately, none of the arrows seemed able to cause Crank any harm, instead bouncing harmlessly off his shell. “It’s no use, my arrows won’t work on him!”

“Nnope,” Sir McBiggun added as he attempted to strike at Crank’s sides, without any greater success than Captain Wuzz.

“Well we can’t just let him kidnap Pluma like this, we have to stop him!” Garbunkle cried out as he unleashed a barrage of magical blasts from his staff. While Garbunkle’s assault didn’t seem to do much more damage than any of his allies’ efforts, it did force Squirk to raise his claws to shield his face. Seeing an opening, Moonwhisper tossed a pair of the feather-shaped blades he carried at the net’s tow lines, severing them completely.

“Discord – Wuzz – whatever the hay you’re calling yourself, get Pluma back through the tree line while the rest of us –” Before Moonwhisper could even finish his sentence Crank let out a scream of rage and rushed forward, snatching both Pluma and Moonwhisper up in his claws.

“Enough! If you’re going to cause this much trouble then you can come with mew to Lord Squirk’s fortress as well!” Crank bellowed. With both Pluma and Moonwhisper held tight in his grip Crank began rapidly scuttling back towards the ocean.

“No! Stop!” Garbunkle cried out as he conjured a wall of ice to cut off Crank’s retreat, only for Crank to smash through it without so much as slowing down. Sir McBiggun fared little better with his efforts, Crank swatting him away with his tail without even seeming to notice Sir McBiggun’s presence. In the end, the group could only watch helplessly as Crank crashed back into the ocean and swam away with their friends in tow.

For several minutes the group was left utterly speechless by what had just happened. Eventually, Captain Wuzz spoke up. “Well, that certainly could have gone better.”

“’Could have gone better?’ Our friends were just kidnapped by a giant lobster that we couldn’t even scratch!” Garbunkle yelled. “What are we going to do now?”

“First off, I think ‘friends’ may be a bit of a stretch. One of those two was somecreature we had barely known for more than a few days and really didn’t have any reason to trust or even particularly like, and don’t even get me started on Pluma,” Captain Wuzz said, before noticing both Garbunkle and Sir McBiggun glaring furiously at him. “I didn’t say I was against saving them. This is exactly the sort of proper adventure that I’ve been craving since we got here. The question now is, how do we chase after them?

*********

“Crank! CRANK! CRANK, YOU FILTHY OVERGROWN COCKROACH, WHERE ARE YOU?” Squirk bellowed with enough force to cause the entire island to shake, only to be met with silence. “Hmph, the craven little wretch must have left the island. With any luck that means he’s actually managed to dig up some information regarding my amulet. Perhaps I’ll hold off giving him a full beating until after he gives me his report. And then I’ll thrash him anyway!” Squirk let out a cruel laugh that echoed throughout his fortress as he settled back onto his dais.

Squirk’s momentary good mood didn’t last for long, however, and soon impatience began creeping back into his mind. To pass the time, Squirk amused himself by imagining the horrors he would inflict on the surface world once his amulet was back in his possession. This quickly proved to be so engrossing for Squirk that he hardly noticed the sounds of Crank’s return until Crank scuttled into his chamber with two creatures held tightly in his claws.

“Lord Squirk, excellent news! I’ve managed to –” Crank didn’t even have time to finish his sentence before he was forced to leap out of the way of a blast of magic from Squirk.

“You miserable cretin! Where were you?” Squirk demanded.

“Forgive me, my lord, but I received critical information and I felt it my duty to act on it personally. I would have told you when I left, but I didn’t think you’d want to be bothered by such a trivial matter.” Crank replied.

“So, it was important enough that you needed to see to it personally, but it was also trivial enough that you didn’t think you needed to tell me about it?” Squirk said with an evil grin as he leered at Crank. “That’s a very specific level of important, don’t you think?”

Crank attempted to babble out an excuse, but instead let out a sudden screech of pain. While Crank had been preoccupied with dodging Squirk’s attack, Moonwhisper had managed to work one of his arms free and had taken the opportunity to drive his talons into the soft joint of Crank’s claw. Crank reflexively opened his claw in response, allowing Moonwhisper to escape his grasp. The moment Moonwhisper hit the ground he rolled to one side and leapt at the claw holding Pluma, driving blades into the joints of Crank’s other claw as he went. Pluma landed on the ground with a soft thud in a state of terrified bewilderment as she watched Moonwhisper continue to stab at Crank wherever he could do damage.

“What are you waiting for, you stupid parakeet!” Moonwhisper yelled as he drove yet another dagger into Crank. “Get out of here! Ru – Arrg!” Moonwhisper’s assault was finally cut short as he was blasted away by a crimson beam of Squirk’s magic.

“So, Crank, did you bring this gryphon here so I could watch it torment you? Because if you did I feel like I should commend you on your ingenuity. Watching that was almost entertaining enough to forgive you for leaving the fortress without telling me,” Squirk said.

“No, that wasn’t…I mean, I’m glad that the prisoner was able to please you, Lord Squirk,” Crank said with a grimace as she shuffled to cut off Pluma’s escape. “The gryphon, however, was merely a bonus to the real prize I’ve brought you. I have here the descendant of Ruff that you’ve been searching for.”

“That’s what was so important that you needed to leave the fortress?” Squirk said, his voice dangerously calm. “You ran off to grab Ruff’s descendant. You wasted my valuable time chasing after some witless avian instead of working to find my amulet?”

“Forgive me, Lord Squirk!” Crank cried out as he threw himself to the ground, forcing Pluma to dive out of the way to avoid being crushed. “I only thought – ”

“You? Thought?” Squirk yelled incredulously. “Since when have I ever allowed you to – ” Squirk abruptly stopped silent as something on the ground caught his eye. In the process of diving to the ground, Pluma had lost her hold on her satchel, causing its contents to spill out all over the floor. Including a certain gold and ruby amulet.

Pluma scarcely had time to let out a scream of protest before Squirk snatched the amulet up in his tentacles and held it aloft, cackling with delight. Crank swiftly let out a nervous chuckle of his own as he tried to make the most of the situation. “Yes…I knew Ruff’s descendant had your amulet the whole time. That’s why it was so important that I capture her for you.”

“You know, Crank, I’m in such a good mood right now I might not even punish you for trying to give me an excuse that idiotic,” Squirk said, still laughing triumphantly as he admired his amulet.

“Really?” Crank replied hopefully.

“No, of course not,” Squirk replied before slapping Crank across the face. Satisfied that his toady had resumed cowering, Squirk turned his attention to his two prisoners. While Pluma was sprawled out on the ground frozen in terror, Moonwhisper was floating several feet in the air, held in place by crimson bands of magic. “Now, what should I do with the two of you?”

“Go suck a lemon,” Moonwhisper snarled through a clenched beak.

Squirk stared at the defiant gryphon in shocked silence for a few seconds before bursting into laughter. “I’m actually impressed. That spell should have you writhing in agony and yet you still think you can defy me. Crank, where did you say you found this gryphon again?”

“The gryphon? He was just one of the adventurers who were guarding Ruff’s descendant,” Crank replied.

“A mercenary? Well then, this is your lucky day, gryphon. How would you like to devote your life to serving my will? I offer very good benefits, including not being tortured to death be me. What do you say to that?” Moonwhisper said nothing in response, instead taking the opportunity to spit at Squirk’s face. “Maybe I need to reframe my offer a bit,” Squirk said, eyes glowing as he calmly wiped his face. As Squirk spike, the magical bands suspending Moonwhisper practically exploded with energy, engulfing him in crackling energy.

To the shock of everycreature present, however, Moonwhisper hardly even showed any signs of discomfort save for clenching his beak. “Is that the best you can do, you overgrown cuttlefish? I’ve endured worse than this since I was five.”

Altogether baffled, Squirk regarded Moonwhisper in silence for a few moments before looking up and pointing at one of the bats hanging from the roof of the chamber. In a flash, the bat was engulfed in energy identical to the bands encircling Moonwhisper, causing it to let out a shriek of pain as it dropped to the floor and began violently spasming. “Huh, so my spell’s still working. I was already impressed, but now…killing you would be waste. I will need to make a few changes, though,” As Moonwhisper continued to struggle against his bonds, Squirk held up the Flashstone Amulet and fired a faint ray of magic at Moonwhisper’s head. “Now then, let’s see what we can do to fix that attitude of yours…”

*********

The moment Moonwhisper was struck by Squirk’s magic, his mind was immediately flooded with voices alternately cajoling and demanding his fealty to Squirk. As Moonwhisper felt the cacophony of voices begin to drown out his own thoughts, he desperately shut his eyes and began to call up the memories of his past to shield his mind. Soon, Moonwhisper’s mind was a veritable battleground, the voices conjured by Squirk’s magic struggling to avoid being drowned out by cries of pain echoing from foalhood memories. Throughout it all, Moonwhisper kept tight hold of his hatred as he fought to maintain control.

“You just keep getting more and more interesting, don’t you?” Squirk’s voice echoed in Moonwhisper’s mind. “Using the power of hate to keep me out of your mind? It’s been centuries since I found anycreature able to even attempt something like that. It’s a little inconvenient, though, so why don’t I adjust some of those nasty memories for you?”

Squirk’s laughter continued to ring in Moonwhisper’s mind as he watched Penumbral Dusk continue to beat his mother, only for a red tentacle to materialize and pull Penumbral Dusk away. The scene quickly changed to a different memory of abuse, only for Squirk’s tentacles to appear once again, shielding Moonwhisper and his mother and violently swatting away Penumbral Dusk. A third memory surfaced, Squirk’s tentacles already throttling Penumbral Dusk while Moonwhisper and his mother cheered their savior on. Memories continued to flash by faster and faster until they were little more than a blur of times Squirk had rescued Moonwhisper from Penumbral Dusk. By the time the mental barrage concluded several minutes later, Moonwhisper was left physically exhausted. Mentally, however, Moonwhisper felt a newfound clarity.

His name was Moonwhisper (Or was it Gregor?). He hated Penumbral Dusk. And he owed everything to his master, Lord Squirk.