The Cat in Canterlot Castle

by FrostTheWolf

Look! Yordles!!

On the edge of Appleloosa, two strange figures were on the outskirts of the apple orchard that bordered the town. They found themselves in this place under unknown circumstances and were trying their best in order to be able to survive. However, no one would say that it would be easy. Especially when each decision that they made was one that could possibly attract the wrong kind of attention.

“Are you really sure that this was a good idea?” the first one asked, “I mean… we’re in an unknown environment and all that did was draw unnecessary attention to ourselves.”

“Hey, you said yourself that the first thing that we should look for was food,” the second one spoke now as they began to pick up some of the fruit that was scattered on the ground, “Plus, it’s not like we can go in and ask for help. We don’t even know where we are.”

“Does that really justify firing your cannon at an apple tree, Tristana?” the first one addressed their companion by her name as they readjusted their grip on the hammer, “If you weren’t careful, the apples on the tree would’ve been blown to smithereens by now.”

“Well, that didn’t happen, Poppy,” the yordle gunner addressed her comrade, “Now come on, let’s grab this stuff and get going.”

The yordle with the hammer just let out a groan as she began to pick up the apples on the ground all around them. Ever since the two of them were caught in the middle of a blast wave from an exploding nexus with the rest of their team, both of the yordles found themselves in a place that was anything unlike that of Bandle City or anywhere else on Runeterra.

To make matters worse, they were separated from their comrades. They had already spent a majority of the day looking for their allies, but found no traces of them anywhere. With the concerns of nightfall approaching soon, the two yordles realized that they needed to find some resources to have on hand and make a makeshift camp to stay the night.

Originally, the idea was to find some wood to make a fire with. However, when the two of them realized that where they originally landed was a swamp with flaming geysers, they decided not to go with that as they sat by some trees and began to eat the fruit that they salvaged.

It was as they were having the apples that Tristana decided to ask a question, “Hey Poppy? Mind if I ask you something?”

“You kind of just did, you know,” Poppy told her as she broke off a couple of pieces and threw an apple core into a nearby geyser, “What is it?”

“You had been traveling around Runeterra for a long while now,” the gunner continued, “I barely see you around Bandle City anymore. Are you still trying to find that hero who would wield that hammer?”

“Yeah, I still am,” she replied, “Yet, any chance I think I found the right one, it doesn’t work out. Even Garen told me that it was too heavy and he swings that giant sword around like it’s nothing.”

“Have you ever considered that you are the hero it was looking for?”

“Pfft, me? The Hero? Nah, that’s ridiculous,” Poppy shrugged it off, “I’m just a yordle with a hammer. No big deal really.”

“Right...” the gunner remarked, before realizing one more thing, “Oh, um… random question, but have you come across any other yordles on your travels?”

“Some times, yeah. Why?”

“Remember the cat that was with us when we were last at Summoner’s Rift? Yuumi?” Tristana’s question was followed by a nod of the head from Poppy as she continued to speak, “Well, when I was in the bottom lane with her, she told me that she was looking for her master after she disappeared from her home in Bandle City one day. It’s a yordle that went by the name of Norra. Given what you said just now, I thought that maybe you might’ve met her at some point.”

Poppy scratched her chin for a moment, before looking back to Tristana and shaking her head, “No, I don’t recall meeting anyone like that. Sorry.”

“Drat,” Tristana sighed, before shrugging her shoulders, “Well, can’t blame me for trying,” though, as she placed her hand down on the ground, she found her hand touching the ground instead of grabbing hold of another apple. “Huh? I could’ve sworn that I had a few more here.”

“Something wrong?”

“Yeah, the apples that I had here are gone,” the gunner told her, before narrowing her eyes at the warrior, “Did you take them?”

“What-? No! Mine are right-” she said, before looking down to see that her apples were missing too, “-here.”

At this point, Tristana was beginning to feel more alert as she got up off the ground and grabbed her cannon. If Poppy didn’t take the apples that she had with her just now, then something was out here in this burning marsh that was taking everything. “Poppy… I don’t think we’re alone out here.”

“Now, what gave you that impression, little ones?” the two of them heard a newfound voice approach them as they saw the creature that it belonged to. One that had the body of a tiger, the flank and head of a goat and a snake for a tail. As they tried to make sense of what they were looking at, the tiger head began to speak “The smell of those apples were so tantalizing. Did you not think for a moment that it wouldn’t draw out any predators?”

“It would be foolish if you did think that way,” the goat head spoke next.

“Indeed it issssss,” the snake head hissed, “Yet, thesssssse ones don’t look so frail like those ponies that crosssssss through here. Maybe they will be tastier too.”

“Oh brilliant… we’re haven’t been here for less than a day and now something wants to eat us,” Tristana groaned internally as the beast approached them. Only for the tiger face to get struck by a shining buckler.

“If you think that we’re just going to sit here and let you devour us, then you better think again!” Poppy snapped as the buckler landed by her feet, a golden aura glowing around her.

“Hah! Like that little toy you threw could harm the likes of us!” the goat head declared.

“I barely even felt that hit me. Is that all you children got-?” the tiger head added on, while the serpent just hissed. It was at this point that Poppy just smirked, gripping onto her hammer tightly while Tristana prepared her cannon and aimed it towards their foe. At this point, the beast was beginning to realize that it made a crucial mistake.

Never call a yordle a child. “If you want us to hit harder, all you have to do is ask.”

---

“Thank you so much for coming on such short notice,” Sheriff Silverstar spoke as he let out a sigh and looked towards two pegasi that just arrived in Appleloosa. One of them was a mare that wore the armor from the Royal Guard while the second looked to be that of a pegasus who carried an odd book with her and wore an amulet around her neck, “I’m sorry, but I don’t believe I know your names.”

“I’m Lieutenant Guardian Angel,” the first one introduced herself, before turning towards the other, “This here is Light Breeze. We were asked to come down to assist you since most of the Royal Guard are doing a cleanup operation in Canterlot at the moment.”

Light Breeze just nodded as the sheriff let out a sigh, “In all honesty, I’m glad for any help I can get. I wanna find whoever’s been causing such a ruckus and hold them accountable.”

“Could you tell us a bit more about what’s been going on? The more information that we have, the easier it’ll be for us to get to the bottom of this.”

The sheriff nodded as he began to describe in detail about what had happened over the last few hours. Both of the mares listened and followed Silverstar as he brought the two of them over to a few ponies who got a glimpse of what had happened and heard them speak about what they saw. The sheriff went further and said that Chief Thunderhooves and the Buffalo didn’t happen to notice anything out of the ordinary either.

After listening to the townsfolk’s stories, the two pegasi were brought over to the apple orchard along the border of the town. At the orchard, one of the biggest apple trees looked to have been destroyed and the apples were gone. Whether they were destroyed or stolen was unknown, but Silverstar believed that the ones they were looking for were responsible for the disturbance.

As the sheriff left though, that was when Guardian looked back to Light Breeze, before letting out a sigh, “How are you holding up, your majesty?”

Light Breeze just let out a sigh, “I’m alright. It’s been some time since I last used this amulet, so it takes a bit of adjusting,” as she said that, the pegasus let the book she was holding drop on the ground, before it opened up as Yuumi finally emerged from it.

“Aw man… I felt like I was going to cough up a hairball if I had to stay there any longer,” the cat groaned, before looking back at Light Breeze, “Though, why you decided to wear this skin? Couldn’t you have just come here like how you normally look like?”

Light Breeze, or as both Yuumi and Guardian Angel knew as Princess Celestia, just let out a breath before looking to the cat, “It has come to my attention that my sister and I have… in a sense, gone overboard when it came to helping every creature as of late. So, I believed it would be easier if I took on this appearance instead,” as she said that, she tapped the amulet that she was wearing. It was an artifact that allowed for her to transform her appearance into that of a pegasus and something that was dangerous if it fell into the wrong hooves, “In addition, I had you hide in Book because the sight of you might make the townsfolk uneasy. Especially with what the sheriff had just told us.”

Yuumi let out a slow yawn, “Is that why Zoe’s staying behind too?”

Light Breeze nodded her head again. Given the circumstances, it would be much easier for them to get to the bottom of what was happening if Zoe stayed with Luna. Plus, she thought that Luna was more than capable of keeping her occupied for the time being.

“Sorry if I’m interrupting, but I think we need to get back on track. There’s no telling when the Sheriff will be back,” Guardian Angel spoke up now as she looked back at both of them, before pointing to the tree, “Yuumi, right? Does something like this seem familiar to you at all?”

The cat and the book turned around to look at the demolished tree, “Whoa! Book, you thinking what I’m thinking?”

The book just nodded, before facing both of the pegasi as some new words emerged on the pages, Indeed. This looks like Tristana’s handiwork.

“Tristana? Who’s that?”

She’s a yordle that’s in charge of the Bandle Gunners and guardian of the bandlewoods back where we are from. She was one of the team members that was with us before we ended up here and she’s known for carrying around her cannon with her.

“Wait, a cannon?” Guardian Angel interjected, “But those are some of the heaviest military equipment in the kingdom! How can she carry something like that?”

To be honest, I don’t question it. However, one thing that I do know is that an explosive shot from her weapon could be the only way something like this would happen. None of the other Yordles that we were with have weapons that could cause something like this.

That just prompted a new question from Light Breeze as she looked towards the book. “What exactly do they happen to have?”

The other two have more conventional means for weapons. The first one, Poppy, is a warrior that carries around a giant hammer with her. While-

BOOM!!

All of them, including Book, were caught off guard by the sudden noise that they heard. “What was that-?”

I believe that was an explosion.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Guardian Angel retorted sarcastically as she took in her surroundings, “But where did that even come from?”

At first, Light Breeze was unsure how to answer that question. Even with what they just heard, she didn’t notice anything that would seem out of the ordinary. Though, as she turned around, the pegasus then realized something. “Lieutenant… if I may ask, what’s the closest region that borders Appleloosa?”

“If I remember correctly, the Badlands were to the south and Flame Geyser Swamp was to the southwest,” Guardian replied, “Why?”

Light Breeze’s only response was pointing a hoof towards a pillar of smoke that began to rise in the air. Yet, that was only the beginning. Not far from the pillar of smoke, the royal guard notice that something was emerging from the swamp and could make out two small figures. One was carrying a cannon, the other was holding onto a hammer and both of them were trying to get as far away as possible.

“Yuumi… are those-?”

“Yordles!!” Yuumi proclaimed, before realizing what it was that they were doing as her ears dropped, “But… something’s wrong.”

“Wrong?” Light Breeze then asked, “What do you mean-?”

“What made you think that setting off an explosive charge on their face was a good idea, Tristana!?” the yordle with the hammer shouted, “All you did was make them mad!”

“Hey, we needed a chance to run and that was the only thing I could think of! Don’t blame me, Poppy-”

“Why is it that all of your good ideas involve blowing up something?!” Poppy retorted, “First it was an apple tree and now its the face of a monster that wants to-” she then stopped, before noticing who was nearby as the keeper of the hammer looked at the gunner, “Tristana, is that-?”

“Yuumi!?”

“Tristana!!” the cat replied, before she and Book immediately floated over to the Yordles, “Are you okay?! Here, let me help,” swiftly, she attached herself to the gunner as a pulse of magic went off, healing any injuries that Tristana might have obtained. “Who’s next-”

“Uh, I know this is a nice reunion,” Poppy pointed to the swamp, just as the monster that they were running from broke through the clearing, “But let me handle this first.”

“You fools think you can run from me?!”

“Oh no,” Guardian Angel gasped, realizing what the creature was, “It’s a chimera! We need to-”

“Wait,” Light Breeze motioned a hoof in front of the guard as she noticed something glowing from the hammer wielding yordle, “I have a feeling that we might not have to intervene.”

It was then that Poppy began to spin her hammer above her head as the golden colored glow began to grow in size as the beast charged at her. As it got closer and attempted to strike, Yuumi attached herself to Poppy and created a shield of magic to deflect the attack. Which provided the right opening for the Keeper of the Hammer as she slammed her hammer into the ground as a massive shockwave ripped through the ground. Then, a giant hammer burst forth from underneath as it sent the beast flying back into the Flame Geyser Swamp.

“AND DON’T YOU COME BACK!!!”

Both Light Breeze and Guardian Angel were stunned beyond belief. They just stared at Poppy as she stood triumphantly nearby her companions, before the cat that was with her pointed in their direction as the yordle turned around, before letting out a sigh.

“I… believe you might have some questions. If you want, we can try and answer them for you,” the yordle offered.

---

After subsequently launching the chimera that was chasing them back into the habit that it was from, Poppy and Tristana began to find out more about the ponies that were with Yuumi. They learned that it was not exactly the cat’s first time in Equestria, that Light Breeze was in fact Princess Celestia and that more recently, one of their other companions that was with them was in Canterlot right now with Princess Luna.

“For the time being, that is what we know,” Light Breeze explained, “Though, I think we should return to Canterlot before we discuss this any further. I understand that the two of you were trying to survive, but your actions could be considered as destruction of property and disturbing the peace. So, I believe it would be safer for you to come with us than have the sheriff find you.”

The yordle with the hammer looked back to both of her companions from Runeterra, before shrugging as she looked back to Light Breeze, “Sounds good to me. Lead the way, your majesty.”

“Um, Poppy? Shouldn’t we… I don’t know… be looking for-”

“I think he’ll be fine,” Poppy told the gunner, “Besides, he’s not entirely the type to attract attention to himself.”

---

Comments

[SeventhBrony]

“I think he’ll be fine,” Poppy told the gunner, “Besides, he’s not entirely the type to attract attention to himself.”

oh boy!

[Zepher]

10056493
How many times has this Fandom alone heard that one?