Baa-Ram-Ewe!

by Darkonshadows

56. Secrets of Elhorn.

-Equus, Sweet Apple Acres, Yona-

“Yona is sorry about the trees…” I was apologizing for knocking them over. Yak be best at knocking things over, but there were some things that I shouldn’t have knocked over.

“It’s okay, I’m just glad you set them back to where they were.” Applejack is being very understanding about this. “Can you tell Sandbar that Fluttershy needs to see him about something the next time you see him?”

“Of course, Yona can do that easily!” I talk to sandbar all the time and wouldn’t forget. Yaks and elephants have a great rivalry in remembering things.

“Also, if you can, find out what Starlight is doing this week, that mare really needs to take a break from her research.” Applejack nodded to me. “I learned my lesson about taking on more than I can chew in a few orchards worth of problems all by myself the hard way, see if she’s open to spending time at Sugar Cube Corner with a few friends.”

-Elhorn, Hydrigal Castle Courtyard, Shanty-

The fog be sitting fairly distant from us and I be looking to Smolder for conversation, but all she be doing is being quiet and looking worried.

“The quiet be unnerving, do you have anything we can be talking about?” I be asking as I wanted to be breaking the silence somehow.

“Something to talk about huh? Let me think for a moment.” Smolder looked up at the fog filled sky thoughtfully. “So you have any plans for what you are going to be doing once we get back to Equus?”

“I be plundering the world for adventure and will be traveling with Dodo of course.” My friend Dodo warbled at me happily, he was willing to follow and carry me anywhere. “I be wanting an airship, though maybe a regular boat would work just as well.”

“How would you go about getting one?” Smolder be asking the hard questions.

“Maybe I will simply steal one, maybe I’ll just buy one outright. I know I be earning one somehow.” I had no illusions about what Pom would be doing, she be yearning for her home Huoshan. I be yearning to be let loose to the winds, but right now I’m helping out friends. I really be needing more of those, then I be getting back to my mission to prove to those pirates I can be something great. “I want to at least be an adventurer and I be learning much from just traveling with you guys.”

Some of the fog drifted closer and I warily looked at it, it moved in odd crescent shape. Why would it do that? I kept looking at the fog as it did this several times as I watched it shift and not much else.

I started to follow the motion with my hoof, the way the arc of the fog flowed and felt something odd going on with my hooves.

Something be up with this fog, I started to hum a pirate tune to myself.

“Don’t you want a place to call home though?” Smolder asked with worry. “Pom would actually be willing to give you one.”

I froze for a bit.

“I will be thanking her for that when she offers, home is where my friends are and I plan to have friends in every part of the world.” I would make the whole of Equus my home. No matter where I may roam, I will always be wanted somehow, for good or ill.

I continued to hum my tune and watch the fog shift in strange patterns near our wagon as Mr. Strum scrutinized Dodo curiously.

-Hydrigal Castle, Ocellus-

“How are you feeling Pom?” So we have just learned that Hydrigal had a ‘genius loci’, one that seemed friendly for now. From what Pom said, it can at least be reasoned with until we got information telling us otherwise.

It wasn’t able to flow far into the castle at all, but the fog had control of the town and it seemed desperate.

“Don’t you know?” Of course she’s terrified, those statues really put us through quite a bit of trouble and we just got a hoof in the door to the castle. We still don’t know where the panther machine went or what it was currently doing.

“That’s not what I asked Pom and you know it.” I know that she knows I can feel emotions, I was asking about her physically as she rubbed at her chest. She was tough and took a few bad blows from that fight.

I felt Pom wrap her hooves around me. Underneath the underlying fear, I felt a fountain of love that started revitalizing the magic I spent as she fed me. I was probably the only changeling from Equus to ever get love out of a lambkin, tasted like family or a life trusting friendship. It was nice, but didn’t taste half as good as Smolder’s pure unbridled unconditional affection.

“Thanks, but you still didn’t answer me.” She was trying to redirect the subject.

“A few possibly cracked ribs, not that bad.” What did Pom mean not that...

“Pom… are you in pain right now?” Seeing the head shake, I easily felt Pom was lying to me.

“I’ll be fine.” That would be more reassuring if I couldn’t feel your emotions Pom.

“What’s going on?” Jean asked as we moved up the right staircase in the foyer area past the beheaded stone statue.

“Pom’s chest is in pain and she’s trying to be reassuring that it is nothing.” I answered immediately. “Let’s just find the switch in the throne room, it’s behind the smaller throne right?”

“Can we remove my stitches after this?” Pom muttered quietly. “My side is beginning to itch.”

“Yeah, that water you got blasted with can’t be helping, let me have a look at it when we get to the throne room.” Not getting much of a response, I turned to Bruno and Colleen getting the door open. Colleen looked a little nervous and Bruno looked ready for another fight. They almost expected that panther machine to show up out of nowhere.

Jean on the other hoof…

“Is she going to be okay?” He asked as we walked into the throne room, which was fairly odd considering the décor.

No gold, no jewels and nothing to proclaim the richness aside from some nice pillows on some less than noble looking thrones. The smallest of which hides a secret we needed to look into.

“Pom can actually take a lot of punishment, but I don’t know if we want her facing too many more threats so soon. Now if you’ll excuse me… I have to check and make sure that the water that statue was spewing didn’t cause an infection or worse.” I turned towards Pom and motioned her over to me. “You three look for the switch around the smallest throne, at least that’s what the fog wants us to find for some reason. I’ll try to be a good friend by taking care of mine.”

Pom made her way over to me and sat down in front of me with her eyes closed and heaving a sigh.

“Feeling battered, cold, wet and have chest pains?” I said dully as I checked Pom over, those statues got in quite a few decent hits. I put a bit of pressure on her chest with my right hoof and she winced.

“Yes.” She stated dully.

“Despite all that, you do have to admit that you’re amazing, you broke that sword in half on yourself.” I was trying to be positive and cheer her up.

“It was hollow, rather easy to break in that respect.” I checked her side and looked at the stitches as she sat there still slightly damp and dripping. Jean wasn’t bothered by the water blasts nearly as much as everyone else, but frogs had their mucus layer to protect against attacks like that.

“It was still made of metal, sharp and tough, you snapped that in half just by blocking the attack.” The stitches were, oddly enough, ready to come out. It hasn’t been that long since the train, barely a week. “You’re side is healing fairly well at least, you also have a strong bark worse than any dog’s bite.”

“Yes, I’m seldom willing to use it against a living opponents though. Lung and Kai could take it, machines can ignore it and it hurts my throat to rip out more powerful blasts like that. I have to be positioned close enough to even damage them or I’m just wasting the energy.” Pom had some incredible magic. Her fluffmancer talents were easy to understand, but the bark blast she had was the unique thing I was more amazed by. “I lost my concentration a few times and it resulted in injury, mostly bruises. I wish I had Paprika’s talent for automatically having my armored fluff going at all times. Do you think Shanty and the others will be okay outside?”

“If the fog is friendly as you think it is, if not then Shanty can fight it.” I light up my horn and carefully removed the stitches with precision use of a safety scissors spell and some levitation. Her side was miraculously unblemished and without scarring aside from the little pinpricks the stitches left behind as I pulled them. “I mean she wields that odd magic with her hooves and you helped her learn how to fight, she’s also learned how to live thanks to you. I’ve even learned a few things myself.”

“You should try out for the filly scouts when we get back to Equus.” Pom smiled, it was a bit tight on her face, but she was trying for me and I appreciated it. “I really don’t have much more to teach Shanty, she doesn’t really need me much either.”

“Maybe not as a teacher, but she still looks up to you though and Smolder and I do too! She’s not going to up and want to leave your side when she wants to be a hero as much as she does a pirate. She’s putting the pirate thing on hold and we all know that for a fact.” I patted her on the back gently and loosed a small mending spell not meant for medical use at her chest. It wouldn’t fix any big problems, but it would have to be enough. “Sure you’re terrified out of your mind, but you’re really pushing for the world record of the bravest lambkin to ever exist.”

“Brave? If no one was in danger, I’d already be halfway over the horizon by now.” She stated sardonically. “I used my beasties as a shield from the world and they should by all rights be constantly upset with me because of it, yet they love me for tending to their wounds after protecting me. I learned how to bark blast to aid them ever so slightly with what meager nerves I can gather to protect them. Is it strange that my ability to magnetically attract canines is something that I don’t actually like? It’s caused me no end of headaches.”

“Yet, you love each and every one of them that kept you company when you were lonely.” We entered the castle with only me carrying a bag of snacks for all of us. I pulled out a small wedge of cheese and Pom took it while looking away. She started nibbling on it. “Here you are trying to find and help Jean’s people against wanting to be a coward and avoid trouble… it’s also strange that you accepted the fact that we would tear through Gedol territory just to get here.”

“It was far safer to do something stupidly dangerous like come out this way than go anywhere else and have danger pop up in the towns we would passed through. I just hope danger didn’t pop up when we could have been there to help.” Lambkin logic one oh one, path of least resistance and danger. Yep, Pom was still a product of her people and their beliefs. “I think we did more than enough damage to their supply lines as we crossed through Gedol’s territory to cause them numerous issues. Also we did pick up a new friend that apparently needed an out.”

A clunking noise drew out attention as Bruno drew our attention with a show of glee and we heard a rumbling from below us. We looked to each other and made our way out of the throne room to look over the banister to see the solid stone wall between the two spouts of water dribbling into the fountain sunk down to reveal a hidden entrance.

“Let’s see if the fog has the right of it… it seems to know much about this castle.” Pom stated as she started down the stairs with us following.

I’m surprised that we managed to handle battling in the darkness of the castle with very little light from our dropped torches.

Pom was lead us to the fountain where several stepping stones rose out of the water. She held the torch forth and we saw a metal hallway leading downwards into the abyss. We looked at one another and made our way down the steps and the metallic walls that were not naturally part of the castle, as we came to the bottom of the silent staircase light lit up along the walls.

We were now in a lit corridor, technology lining the walls.

“What is all this below the castle?” Jean asked with no answer forthcoming as he moved up to a door and saw something on the side of it lit up. There were strange symbols lining some of the walls.

“… a ship…” Colleen muttered drawing both Bruno and my attention.

“What do you mean by a ship? You know something about all this!” Bruno asked as he brandished his blade at Colleen. Pom got between the both of them, but she was looking more at Colleen curiously.

“What’s going on Ocellus?” Pom asked quietly.

“Apparently Colleen knows something about where we are.” I turned my attention away from Pom and asked gently. “Colleen, what do you mean when you said something about ‘a ship’, was it in reference to this place?”

“… yes, but I’ve never been here before.” Colleen moved over to look at the glowing markings next to the door. “I’ve heard of places like this, that there is one under the castle… it’s a bit daunting that it even still works.”

She traced her fingers over some faded markings next to the door and then took off her gauntlet and placed her paw, digits and all, against the glowing thing next to the door. It turned red and made a buzzing noise, this made Colleen frown and put her gauntlet back on.

“Jean, could you do what I just did?” After asking that, Colleen watched as Jean nervously placed his hand on the thing and the door slid downwards revealing a room.

A room which lit up as soon as we walked inside. There were bits of machinery about the place and Colleen quickly made her way over to one machine in particular. It was a like a movie screen for film you’d see at the local Ponyville theatre and a computer far smaller and several times more advanced than the ones Twilight kept around at the school of friendship for calculating things.

“What is all this and why was I able open the door?” Jean look at his webbed digits flexing them warily.

“We’re about to find out.” Dusting off the chair, in front of the screen, Colleen sat down and turned the thing on. “This thing is storage of knowledge.”

Looking about she looked at a brick of dust and picked it up to shake it, the dust fell off revealing an odd piano like board and she started to tap at the symbols on it. Pom looked at me and I shrugged, I didn’t have much of a clue either.

“When you said this place is a ship…” I started.

“It is… or was…” Colleen fingers hit the various piano like keys with random symbols and it brought up something on the screen, it was a large flying structure moving through space. The structure slowly fell towards the planet and landed in a mire, eventually Jean’s people came from the ship as did several other species of beings. One of which was lizards. “Jean’s people built the castle on top of it after emerging from it. The structure we’re in now, it used to travel beyond the ether far above the planet’s surface from space beyond. I don’t think this thing can fly anymore, but it certainly is an amazing find.”

“So Jean’s people are aliens?” Bruno said looking at Jean with a curious eye as he sheathed his blade. “Wait… how do you know how to wield this ancient technology?”

“To be fair… I think all the intelligent life on this world was brought here by our ancestors.” Answered Colleen, who after hitting a few keys, a new scene popped up.

The screen showed the horrors of some kind of factory. Small animals were being stuff into larger animal shaped machines and they came to life and started attacking inhabitants of another world. A world slowly being consumed by technology, said inhabitants were shown fighting back.

“What do you mean none of us are native to this world?” Bruno stopped being grumpy and stared in wonder as an ancient pig broke a machine. A small animal escaped its confines and scampered away quickly into some trees, apparently its soul was being used as a power source for the machine. “Where did we come from?”

“Good question, wish I had all that information… it’s about time I told you all something about myself and why I know about this stuff.” Colleen turned around and took in a deep breath and let out a slow sigh. “I was part of a special forces project to recreate rocket knights for the cause and protection of Yellow Dog. Unfortunately that project failed to produce anyone viable, I… was the closest to being successful… it almost killed me and I didn’t appreciate the violence required.”

“Is this the part where you say your part machine?” I asked curiously.

“No, I’m all flesh and blood, I just have an insane magical ability for interacting with machines. Every time I use my new weapon, I’m charging it with my own magic through the technology.” She turned back to the computer and started typing something. “Unlike Pom, I can’t fire energy blasts out of my mouth on command. What I can do is charge up machinery with a touch, find out what’s wrong with a machine and maybe have an easier time of making use of figuring out they work. Dodo is a very interesting thing, he’s an open book really and happy to help. He has a really curious connection to Shanty.”

A scene came up on screen and showed a large metallic sphere, one half the size of the moon and the words across the screen were written in the local language ‘Pig Star’. Time seemed to flow backwards until the words rewrote themselves as ‘Prototype Death Egg’ and it looked vastly different.

“So even the Pig Star was meant to be used by us as a last resort, to protect against the mechanical machinations that our ancestors fled from to come to Elhorn.” It wasn’t just Colleen who seemed trouble, Jean was too and Bruno was wild with panic at seeing the Pig Star. “We’re in one of the arks that brought us to this world, where we soon became a part of its nature.”

“That is correct.” A voice said making us all jump, Pom turned towards the open entrance, but didn’t see anything. The scene on the screen froze and a cat appeared on it, a lynx type of feline from appearance. “Artificial intelligence administrator for Amphibian Ark systems Nicole Beta at your service mister…”

The cat was looking at Jean.

“Me?” He stated dumbly.

“Okay Mr. ‘Me’. If I’m active again, then that means that trouble was unavoidable.” The lynx on the screen was definitely talking to us. “Now can I get a proper name please?”

“Oh uh, Jean De’ La Frogois, you’re- not going to eat our souls are you?” Jean backed away from the screen and Bruno had his back to the wall with a sword out.

“Nope Jean, I’m not a soul sucking machine. Detecting two unknown lifeforms here… curiously neither are of Mobius descent. Scanners indicate… that…. that is… a problem. A rather big one.” The lynx paled slightly and looked upset about something. “You… wouldn’t happen to be looking for a large population of amphibians by any chance?”

“Yes, where are they, are they still alive?” Jean turned his tune around at hearing this.

“Cargo Hold Subsection D… apparently it’s become part of a vast cave network, putting the map on screen now.” We were in the top portion of what looked like the ship we saw crash into the mire and onto this world. To think there were ways to travel beyond a world… well my group was already doing that, but this was same dimension world traveling. “You are here… your destination is here and the elevators are out of order, sorry for that inconvenience. If you wish for more help in this situation please ask for me, my name is Nicole Beta as I have stated previously.”

“Can you show me my people?!” Said a panicking Jean.

“Hold on… cycling sensor information… reconstructing current time feed… information retrieved.” Nicole stated with a smile and with a wave of her hand, we could see where all the amphibians were being kept. They were trapped in a large spacious area and were sitting around. They were trapped and weren’t going anywhere with a massive barrier of energy holding them. “Two further unknown signatures detected. One is powerful and is utilizing dark magic, location… unknown. Another is… please tell me that you didn’t activate the Evil Core Project! Please tell me you’ve been putting them down with extreme prejudice if you did! They were only supposed to be a last resort and only meant to be used when there is no hope left but to fight evil with more evil!”

The image of Nicole on screen seemed angry, we saw what looked like schematics for an evil core popped up, but she erased it quickly.

“No, no, no! Now I know what you meant by machine’s eating souls, it’s happening again here and that mad monster behind them isn’t even here to be causing it… or even keep it under control for that matter! His programming must have gotten through the systems on the Pig Star, checking data logs…” A seriously grim look crossed the lynx’s face. “Please, I beg of you, please tell me that half the world isn’t covered in horrid life destroying machines that have no care for nature…”

Nicole looked to be close to tears.

“Only a city, a big one.” Bruno muttered.

“Smog infested, towers to the sky, full of random factories that produce deadly machinery?” Nicole asked and Bruno nodded. "Has it spread far?”

“No, it’s not spreading at all, but a hero did destroy the Pig Star.” There was an unease in Bruno’s voice.

“Thank goodness for small mercies… that the opossums held true.” Nicole had tears in her eyes. “Planning route to Cargo Hold Subsection D, I’m sorry that I cannot help you further outside this room. My current functions are sadly… limited… for the moment.”

"How are you limited?" I asked warily.

"I'm basically stuck to seeing things, while operating lights and doors." Nicole answered swiftly. "Follow the path down and help those people."

This was all worrying.

Author's Note:

Given that Elhorn has a single short series in 'S. Comic' appearance of Rocket Knight... well... there's quite a bit more to the back story of this world. We won't be seeing the mentioned 'Mobius' though.

Comments

[Herald of Opera]

Oh hell, the Crossover tag rears its head again in the most unexpected of ways.

[Shadowshame]

Wait Mobious as in Sonic the hedgehog mobious? well the small animals begin trapped in robots sort of clears that up a bit though I’m guessing this is set around the first few sonic games as the later ones have no small animals powering eggman’s robots

[Herald of Opera]

10753153
Apparently you missed the fact that it's set far enough in the future that nobody even remembers that space travel exists.