Legends Of Ponyville

by mechafone

9 - East Goes West

Three Weeks and five days ago...

It was dark, and it was cold. This prison holding the mare inside was fool-proof, and such precautions were of course called for. She was the nation's most-wanted, a war criminal, held for trial for the last year, accused of treason, murder, and probably too many other things to count.

Fire Lotus glanced at the door to her cell. Had she heard something just now? The guard hadn't been by in quite some time. He usually strode on by every five minutes. No one was allowed to take their eyes off of her for more than four.

It wasn't long before she saw movement. Not just movement, but light. It was a flickering light, as if someone was approaching with a lit candle, the movement slow and halting. When the light was close enough, a sound entered her range of sense: a jangling sound. Fire Lotus started to pace back and forth. She hated being made to wait.

Finally, the source of Fire Lotus' torment came into view, and her eyes widened in a mix of horror and anger. Her exotic features lit up as a small ball of angry crackling energy floated towards her cell. It sparked like a sparkler that children in the villages would play with, but it's light fluctuated between red and yellow, like fire.

"You!" Fire Lotus said, starting to pace back and forth in her cell with fervor now. "I thought I told your people I won't work for them! I believe in money and power, not their hocus-pocus and superstition!"

"Oh, please," an entirely unexpected voice said, the deep, sarcastic tone echoing loudly in the stone prison. "The Will O' The Wisps aren't in right now, sadly." The single bouncing light suddenly became many, filling the space in front of the prison and shedding blinding light on Fire Lotus. She gasped and fell to the dirty floor of her cell, covering her head.

Just as quickly as it had appeared, the blinding light was gone. Fire Lotus slowly looked up through her hooves to find the single light before her once again. She climbed cautiously to her hooves and approached the bars slowly. "...So what are you, and what do you want with me?"

"Oh, I think you'll find that who I am is completely unimportant, my dear," the voice said, emanating from the small crackling ball of light. "What I want with you, however...is extremely relevant to my interests, as well as yours." With that, the little light dropped two five-inch long metal objects, both sharpened to a point, just in reach of Fire Lotus. She cautiously took a closer look, then snatched them both up, a skeptical look on her face.

"You'll need Shimmering Oasis to get out of this place. I can't help you there, but she can. Tell her what you saw, I guarantee she'll know who I am. Whether she chooses to tell you any more than that I'll leave up to her. It's no fun knowing everything from the beginning!"

Fire Lotus resisted the urge to skewer the annoying light with one of the kunai it had dropped for her, but something told her it would be a fruitless effort. "Fine. I can get the both of us out of here with these, but you still haven't told me what you want us for."

The light seemed to darken, and Fire Lotus was given the impression that whatever was actually looking at her was looming over her, like a tall, dark figure, imposing and threatening. She almost took a step back. "My dear, I'm giving you the opportunity to avenge yourself. I'm sending you and the dethroned princess to the land of your oppressors. I want you to go and take revenge on the ponies responsible for overthrowing you."

Fire Lotus needed more no convincing. She aimed one of the knives and threw it through the bars of her prison. It ricocheted and landed tip-first into the lock of the cell door, the throw so precise and strong that the lock fell to the floor loudly in two pieces. The little light backed away as the mare stepped through the door, making it creak noisily.

"Well, now you've done it," the voice said as it turned to acknowledge two guards coming down the hall. "Just how do you think you're going to-" the light and the voice was snuffed out as Fire Lotus brought her hoof down on it, blanketing herself in darkness.

"Fire Lotus! I...I saw you? Where is she?!" One of the guards asked, a tall red unicorn.

"Shut up, you fool!" his partner hissed, a yellow earth pony mare. The two of them bore their own lights attached to their necks, just enough to see through the dark hallways. She approached the cell cautiously, observing the broken lock and the open door. Fire Lotus was nowhere in sight. "You can't just mouth off in front of a mare like this," she cautioned. "Fire Lotus is an assassin, trained to kill in the dark. You'd never see her coming."

The silence was suddenly very unnerving. She turned to her partner, or at least where her partner had been. He was gone, and there was a dark splatter on the wall behind where he had been. The mare gasped quietly. It was already too late. She didn't panic, she didn't scream or run for the exit. She reached up and casually grabbed the light around her neck and switched it off. She closed her eyes, and waited for the end. It was quick and merciful.

---

Silence. Silence as always. Silence as it had been for more than a year. Shimmering Oasis stood in the center of her room. Despite her betrayal to her father, the king of Neippon, and the vile murderous acts she had used her father's dragons to commit, he had not seen fit to make her sit out her five hundred year sentence in a dirty cell. It was a place that was cleaned every day, and she was made as comfortable as possible. She was given meals every day.

Of course, she was asleep for most of it. She might have gotten over this punishment eventually, but she wasn't even allowed to suffer her punishment properly. She never did have much respect for her father, but this was just adding salt to her open wounds. It was bad enough being beaten by a pony whose powers dealt with trivial things like love.

At this moment, Shimmering Oasis was doing what she did all day, every day: she reached out using her enhanced psychic abilities to reach beyond the sleeping spell that the most powerful unicorns in the land had her under at all times. They could successfully put her body to sleep; they were far too weak to suppress her mind. Her senses were currently telling her that things were about to change.

Sounds came alive in her mind. Her eyelids fluttered, her ears twitched. While her mind sensed things happening outside her room, her body tried to keep up, unconsciously attempting to comprehend what her mind was experiencing. A shout. A cry of pain. A gurgling death rattle. The sound of metal scraping on metal.

And then...her door opening. Shimmering Oasis' excitement grew and grew until she could feel her horn throbbing with pressure. She could physically hear hoofsteps approaching her, and for the first time in so long, the hoofsteps were not apprehensive, as if she were a fire to be taken seriously, with precaution. The alicorn's lids fluttered one more time, then snapped open.

Fire Lotus, her mane stained with blood, stared back up at the alicorn. This was the first time they had seen each other in quite some time, even before they had been imprisoned. The two stared at each other for several minutes, until Fire Lotus broke the silence. "...Look at you. So pitiful. Look what they've done to you. They've taken what freedom you had and traded it for a spoon-fed life of blissful sleep. This is a true crime, not what they locked us up for."

The Alicorn princess glowered down at the earth pony that dared speak to her like that. She was the only pony she ever allowed to speak to her in such a way. It was refreshing. It was brutally honest. And it was true.

There was something much more important on the princess' mind now, though. The why's and the how's of how Fire Lotus had come this far. "How have you come to me? Why are you here?"

When Fire Lotus spoke of the seemingly possessed Will O' The Wisp, the alicorn's eyes widened in realization, and a small smile lit up her face. "So it is time. After all these years..." Fire Lotus frowned as the princess walked past her, towards the door.

"Mind filling me in? What's going on?"

"My master calls. We shall do his bidding. If he wants us to travel to Equestria to destroy the fiends who put us in this prison, then I shall be all too eager to answer his call and take my revenge on that prissy pink princess."

Fire Lotus ran after Shimmering Oasis, out into the dark hallways now lit by the alicorn's horn. "Wait, your 'master'? Since when do you answer to anyone?" She shrugged at the look the princess gave her. "Willingly. Since when do you give your loyalty to anyone willingly?"

"I met him many, many years ago, long before you were born. He came to me much in the same way he came to you; in the form of a pitiable creature, offering such riches in knowledge and power. I was young at the time, but even now I would still take his deal and offer myself to him in servitude for what he gave me."

"Uh huh..." Fire Lotus murmured skeptically. "And just what did he give you?"

"My freedom," the alicorn said, narrowing her eyes as a company of ten guards appeared to block their passage through the dark hallways. No words were said, no movements were made, at least not until every last guardspony dropped their weapons, then ambled slowly past the two, gathering up the dead bodies that Fire Lotus had left behind. A smirk came over the warlord's lips. She hadn't seen it, somehow she hadn't seen it when Shimmering Oasis put all the guards under her hypnotic spell. Usually she had to be close for that to work. She obviously hadn't been sitting on her laurels this whole time while in prison.

The warlord let out an amused chuckle as she continued to follow the princess towards the exit. "What now?"

"We will continue to be 'guarded'. They will be under the illusion that we have not escaped, and our freedom shall go unnoticed for weeks. By the time someone comes to check, it will be far too late to stop us from crossing the ocean." Shimmering Oasis smiled down at Fire Lotus, a genuine smile, with nothing hidden, no secrets in her eyes. It was a terrifying sight, something that made even Fire Lotus flinch. "We will rain vengeance upon our captors, we will make them all pay for hindering our freedom and our ambitions."

---

The next few hours were a blur. After casting a glamour spell to disguise themselves as a pegasus and a unicorn, the two escaped prisoners traveled to the city of the Golden Lord, then found and commissioned a ship captain to sail to Equestria. Fire Lotus, disguised as a unicorn, shocked the captain by producing more money than he would be able to spend in two years if they could begin traveling that very day.

And so, the two traveled to the port where they would meet the captain and his crew for their trip. The very next day, they set sail. The voyage was long, it would take three weeks to travel from Neippon to Equestria. The trip was spent meditating for Shimmering Oasis. There was little to no interaction with her once she disappeared into her cabin.

Fire Lotus, however, spent her days training, working out, or sleeping around with the captain. It had been a long time since she'd enjoyed such pleasures.

When Equestria was finally in sight, the ship was halted several miles from shore, the crew's minds were wiped of their memories, and were sent home. The two escaped prisoners continued to shore, the princess bearing the warlord on her back. There could be no witnesses to their approach.

Once ashore, the two continued on, avoiding the roads. They took to the forests. It was slow-going and quiet, and after a mere day, Fire Lotus was getting annoyed. Where were they going, and how would they know when they got there?

Before these questions could be asked, though, Fire Lotus noticed that the woods had gone quiet. The princess had noticed it as well, though she didn't seem concerned. The warlord was, however. She brought out her kunai, ready for a fight. It wasn't long before a dark figure presented itself to the two. It was tall and thin, and somehow resembled an alicorn. There were many things wrong with the comparison, however.

One, the horn. It was long and twisted, like a gnarled tree branch. Two, the creature's skin was dark and hard, like a carapace. Three, the holes. Sweet Celestia, the holes. Fire Lotus had never seen anything like it. She looked between this new creature and Shimmering Oasis, the two seemingly staring the other down. After a moment of pause, many other, smaller creatures emerged from the woods, completely surrounding them.

A grin crept up Fire Lotus' face. It had been a long time since she'd faced such odds. It was usually quite fun. She was to be disappointed, though. Shimmering Oasis stepped forward, as did the tall alicorn-like creature. They approached each other, their eyes harshly judging the other. They met and circled each other slowly, a look of distaste in both their eyes. Finally, at the same time, they bowed to each other, a curt, politely forced motion.

"Hail," Shimmering Oasis said after the two no longer looked like they wanted to kill each other.

"Hail," the tall creature returned.

Fire Lotus looked between the two for a moment of silence, then approached slowly with a light clearing of her throat. "Uh, pardon me, but-"

"You dare?!" cried one of the smaller creatures. It and three others flew into the air and bore down on Fire Lotus. "You shall not approach our queen so flippantly!"

Fire Lotus simply rolled her eyes. As the nearest creature came within reach, she grabbed his hooves, outstretched to grab her, and pulled, using his momentum to drive him face-first into the ground. Hardly finished, she hooked one of her kunai through one of the holes on each other of the other guards' hooves and pulled, causing the two of them to circle around her and crash into each other at her back. She flew up into the air to catch the third in the face between her hind thighs. She flipped forward over it's back, pulling it backwards where it crashed into the ground face-first in a well-timed pile driver.

While Shimmering Oasis watched with mild amusement, the Queen stared with wide-eyed approval. Her minions were usually quite adept at protecting their queen. Then again, this red earth pony was quite fearsome. She had no doubt that she could have just as easily have spilled their blood.

"Well," Fire Lotus said as she slipped her favorite kunai back into their hiding spots just above her forelegs on her chest, "that was fun. So sorry about that interuption, now...oh, yes. I was going to ask, who are you?"

The tall creature drew herself up proudly, an arrogant smile crossing her lips as she said, "I am Que-"

"She is a servant of Discord," Shimmering Oasis interrupted, a slight frown of disapproval in her eyes. Chrysalis glowered down at the alicorn, her eyes burning with anger. "Hmph. Don't look at me like that. You have earned no title in this land. My comrade and I wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for your incompetence." Chrysalis sputtered with fury. She took a few steps back, searching for the right words to express her indignity. "Look at you," the princess said, closing the distance between herself and the Changeling queen. "Look at what little power you have left. You and your entire army have failed to eliminate one child, despite multiple efforts."

"He is ellusive!" Chrysalis spat in her defense. She turned and started pacing back and forth in front of the two, her tail flicking in agitation. "He is constantly surrounded by those that make it difficult to get close, and he himself is powerful. He has nearly singled-hoofedly thwarted my efforts to kill him. Also, he is favored by Princess Celestia! Do you have any idea how powerful she is? My magic and my forces cannot compare." She whirled on Shimmering Oasis, stomping closer. "How my lord Discord thinks you will do any better is beyond me!"

Fire Lotus smirked and waited for Shimmering Oasis to put this pouting monster in her place. However, Shimmering Oasis did little more than shrug. A bit of a disappointment to Fire Lotus. After all the sex she'd had on that ship, she wanted blood. The two mixed together was a great way to relieve the anger and stress of her year-long imprisonment.

"I suppose you'll just have to trust our lord Discord in his infinite wisdom, won't you." Chrysalis flinched as if she'd been slapped. Of course she couldn't question Discord. That was one of the decrees he set down for their people more than three thousand years ago. Finally, she turned around and called out to her minions.

"We move out! Begin the march back to our home! First squadron, on front. Seventh squadron, to our flanks!" As the Changelings began formation, Chrysalis turned back to look at the two, eyeing and judging them one last time. "We move out. Don't fail m-er, Discord..." she sighed and flew off to the front, leaving the two surrounded by Changelings on all sides, the long escorted walk home beginning.

---

Anorax woke up from his dream with a horrified gasp. In his sleep, his Halfling form had activated. His heart pounded, and the last remnants of his dream haunted him: dozens of his Changeling brethren, stampeding the town, capturing some and killing others. At the heart of this stampede, three figures emerged, bathed in a golden light. One, a warrior with a bloodlust that could not be satiated. Another, the queen of the Changelings. He'd never seen her before, but he could see her, clear as day. And the third, the most imposing, the most dangerous: A golden alicorn. She was beautiful, but her eyes...those eyes that saw everything, controlled everything...

Suddenly, a head popped up over the bed from the floor below. "Wha?" a sleepy voice sounded.

Anorax, having thought he was alone in his room, let out a startled scream. Lyra, who had been lying on the floor, screamed as well, startled by the Halfling's appearance. This continued back and forth for a good ten seconds before they both calmed down. "Geez, Lyra, what are you doing in my house, in my room, at night?!"

Lyra lowered her head slightly in apology. She drew in on herself, her tail curling around her legs. She looked sad and vulnerable. "I'm sorry, Anorax. The last few nights have been really hard. I can't sleep at night unless I'm with someone. It's...it's getting really hard without Bon Bon."

Anorax had a sudden lapse of sense and blushed. "Whoa, so you guys already..." A glare from Lyra pulled him back to the moment. He hopped down beside her and rested a hard, white hoof on her shoulder. "Er...that's not important right now. What is important is that you do something about this, Lyra. Have you tried talking to her? Do you think she feels the same way?"

Lyra shuffled closer and settled into an easy embrace against her best friend, never minding the fact that he was still in his Halfling form. "I don't know, Anorax. What if she doesn't? Am I just wasting my time waiting for her? What if she doesn't love me any mor-" she cut off, unable to continue as she started to cry. She leaned herself against Anorax, burying her head against her shoulder and wrapping her hooves around him.

Anorax sighed quietly and held the unicorn in his arms, the two of them leaning against his bed. He just held her and let her cry, and after a few moments she was asleep. Now that he had some time, he tried to remember his dream before he discovered Lyra in his room. The details were almost all gone, having drifted away like a cloud on a high wind. Those eyes remained, though, haunting, glaring. He shivered, and had a very bad feeling about those eyes.

Comments

[Jacensolo43]

It seems to me, like Anorax had a vision. Is this normal for halflings, or is it just a him thing? And if Discord's their... 'boss(?)', then how's he communicate with them? As for the rest, i have to agree with Lotus, cause i was looking forward to a fight. Oh well! It's still a great chapter!

[mechafone]

1194642 Anorax is connected to the Changelings, something that he's very dimly aware of. It doesn't really affect him unless it's something big, like with what happened in this chapter. As for how Discord is even able to speak to his minions in the physical realm, well..that's a secret for now, but it will be revealed later ^_~
And thanks :D

[LordGremlin]

" The next few hours were a blur. After casting an glamour spell to disguise themselves as a pegasus and a unicorn, the two escaped prisoners traveled to the city of the Golden Lord, "
should say "a"

[mechafone]

1197657 D: Darn grammatical mistakes. *goes to fix*

[Melody Brush]

I'm still ticked off about Oasis. Why did she have to be evil?!

[Old Diggy]

I only just thought of this, back when Shimmering Oasis made her little fortunes for the ponies, were those fake than if she was constantly lying to most everybody?