• Published 17th Apr 2022
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Gusty the Great book 2- The crusades - Dianabel



Having accepted her destiny, Gusty embarks in the adventures that will change Equestria´s history.

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Chapter 9: The weeping roar

“Aaah…” Fizzy groaned as she opened her eyes slowly. “Where am I?”

Her answer came once her vision cleared. She found herself in a dark and quiet room. The walls were made of an ugly-grey stone. At her right, there were black bars, which made her realize where she was. She gasped horrified.

“Oh no. No, no, no, no.” she said to herself in denial as she touched her bars.

She tried to run to the left, but something made her trip. She realized that her hoof was chained. She snarled. Scared, she walked backwards until she touched the wall, taking a glance of her surroundings in hopes of finding somepony familiar.

“Buttons? Gusty? Glory? Lancer?” she asked scared. “Where are you?”

Unfortunately, none of them replied to her. Her breath started to accelerate. Fizzy was not the type of pony that got easily scared, but she was not immune to fear. Cells terrified her. They were such small spaces, there´s barely light in them, you hear the heart-wrenching screams of tortured prisoners begging for mercy. But mostly, it was the loneliness that terrified her the most. Throughout her life, she was always accompanied, whether it was her family or Buttons. She never experienced what it was like being alone until she came to Grogar´s castle. Fizzy got distracted very easily or had problems doing chores, added to her upbeat and free-spirited attitude, which caused her to be punished in a dungeon. And those moments were terrifying because nopony was around her. After Gusty´s incident, she had hoped to never be in a dungeon again. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the door opening. Fizzy widened her eyes when she saw a cat-lady dressed in smart red garbs, with purple fur at both top and bottom and the end of the sleeves. Next to her, there was another brown cat dressed in a dark green shirt and wearing a pointy hat. Fizzy softly sighed in relief, as she was expecting Grogar. Nonetheless, this cat lady didn´t seem to be much better though. The cat smiled at her as she approached the bars.

“Well, well.” she said. “Look who we have-”

The smugness faded away once she checked the unicorn in detail, giving Fizzy the sensation that she was not the unicorn she was expecting.

“You´re not the Wind Warrior!” she spat angry. She turned to the other cat and grabbed him by the shirt. “You told me that we had the Wind Warrior!”

“No…” the cat answered shyly, trying to hide his blush. “I said that we had one of the Wind Warrior´s soldiers.” he rectified.

“Oh.” Katrina replied, surprised at her mistake. “But that was not for I asked for! I asked for the Wind Warrior, not one of her pathetic little soldiers!”

“Says the one who´s yelling at her henchcat instead of admitting her mistake…” Fizzy muttered under her breath.

Katrina´s ear twitched.

“What did you say?” she asked Fizzy.

“Nothing!” Fizzy answered innocently.

“That stupid jaguar… Thanks to her, Crunch´s soldiers might take the Wind Warrior first!” Katrina said as she let go of her henchcat´s shirt, making him fall on his back.

As soon as she heard the word `jaguar´, Fizzy remembered what had happened. She had found an enormous and glowing feline creature. She got so scared that she lost conscience. This jaguar must have brought her to this dungeon to the cat lady. Speaking of which, she seemed to be working for Grogar, since she wanted to bring Gusty to Grogar herself so bad. She immediately knew who she was when she noticed the potion hanging from her neck, which made her recall the conversation they had with Starswirl about black magic.

“You´re Katrina!” she exclaimed as she pointed at the potion.

The two cats turned their heads to her. Katrina smiled.

“Aah… So you know about me. Of course, Majesty must have told you.” Katrina moved her mane smugly. “Well, you might not be as valuable as your little friend, but you could still be a good asset to get to her. So tell me.” she cornered Fizzy against the wall. Where is she?”

“Ha! What makes you think that I will speak to a meanie who wants to hurt my friend and impede our chance to get freedom, huh?” Fizzy clicked her tongue. “You´re the villain. You are the one supposed to know this.”

“Oh don´t worry. I was counting on that.” Katrina snapped her fingers.

“Which one you want me to use mam?” the cat asked to Katrina as he took out various torture tools. Fizzy´s ears dropped in both fear and surprise. “Spear, lash, cat´s paw, a breast ripper, a mask, an axe, or-”

“Whatever you want!” Katrina replied impatient.

“I choose a spear!” the cat picked it up from the floor.

Ay ay ay.” Fizzy whispered.

She gulped as the cat walked to her.

“Ok, ok!” Fizzy exclaimed. “I´ll speak. I´ll speak.”

“Aw, I wanted to use it so bad!” the cat complained.

Katrina rolled her eyes.

“I´ll ask again. Where is she?” she asked threateningly to Fizzy.

“Uh…” Fizzy whimpered as she fidgeted with her hooves. “Well… I don´t know where she´s not.”

Katrina blinked, both confused and surprised by the answer.

“You´re telling me you don´t know where the Wind Warrior is?”

“It wouldn´t be accurate to assume that I couldn´t exactly not say that it is or isn´t almost partially incorrect.”

“So you do know where she is!”

“On the contrary! I´m possibly more or less not definitely rejecting the idea that in no way was any amount of uncertainty that I undeniably…”

The more Fizzy spoke, the more confused the cats got, which made Katrina more impatient.

“Stop it!” she ordered in hopes of shutting her up, but the unicorn kept on speaking.

“…do or do not know where she shouldn´t probably be, if that indeed wasn´t where she isn´t. Even if she wasn´t at where I knew where she was, that´d mean I´d really have to know where she wasn´t.”

Katrina smacked her forehead. Frustrated, her henchcat covered his ears. Furious, she walked to a wall and scratched it with her claws to make her stop talking. Fizzy covered her ears with aversion. She gave our a nervous chuckle.

“Rep! Rip her apart!” Katrina ordered him.

“With pleasure!”

Fizzy gasped terrified. Luckily, before the spear could reach her, a soft voice started singing a melancholic melody, puzzling the unicorn and the two cats.

I hear you every night at the castle, weeping roar

Even in my sleep I hear you

I hear you every night at the castle, weeping roar

Even in my sleep I hear you…”

Wow. And I thought I sang beautifully.” Fizzy thought to herself.

Unlike Fizzy, the two cats didn´t listen with pleasure. Instead, they complained.

“Seriously?!” said Katrina as she lifted her paws to the air.

She got up and exited Fizzy´s cell.

“A mournful painful cry you give me, weeping roar

It feels like your soul fle.

A mournful painful cry you give me, weeping roar

It feels like your soul flew.”

However, it stopped singing abruptly and whimpered instead. When Katrina came back, she was grabbing an earth pony by her foreleg, much to Fizzy´s surprise.

“Posey! Whatever are you doing here? Aren´t you supposed to be doing your duties?!” Katrina asked her angrily.

“Well, I wanted to tell you something but seeing that you were super busy, I wanted to wait. And in the meantime, I sang.” Posey smiled apologetic.

Fizzy stared at the earth pony. This was the first time she had ever seen an earth pony. She wasn´t much different from unicorns, except for the fact that she didn´t have a horn on her forehead. Nonetheless, it was one of the prettiest mares she had ever seen. Her long decorated pink braids, her green eyes, the brown coloured spot in her muzzle, her colourful dress… She looked away when she felt the earth pony´s gaze upon her.

“What is it that you have to tell me?” Katrina asked her impatiently.

“The guards require your presence. They need to tell you something.” Posey replied.

Katrina growled. Rep simply complained.

“Aw, I wanted to show off my abilities to Katrina.” he blushed when he realized what he just said. “I mean, wanted to do my job.”

“You and I are not over.” Katrina put her claw on Fizzy´s nose. “Come on, Rep.”

“Yes, mam.” he said pleased, almost as if he was lovestruck.

“Gee. Looks like some creature has an awful taste.” Fizzy said once she was sure that Katrina and Rep were out of sight.

“I know right?” Posey replied.

“GAH!” Fizzy jumped backwards when she noted that Posey was still there. “Didn´t you go away?”

“Nope I didn´t.” Posey smiled back. “From what I´ve heard, you are part of the unicorn rebellion, right?”

“Um… Why do you want to know that?” Fizzy gasped excited as she widened her eyes. “Oh! I know, you are part of the revolution of earth ponies!”

Panicked, Posey shushed her.

“The walls have ears. Katrina is a cat, and cats have excellent hearing. Not to mention, cats are known for being sneaky. Not to mention,” she grabbed Fizzy´s foreleg and tilted her head. “the guards can hear us.”

“But I don´t see any guards…”

“They are not here, but like I said, the walls have ears. Even if I´m in another room, I can hear everything. And they can too…”

Fizzy looked from side to side. Usually, she was the one to be called eccentric, and she couldn´t blame the ponies around her, since she always had her head on the clouds or arrived at random conclusions. But this mare… This mare was a whole new level of being eccentric.

“Oops.” Fizzy chuckled apologetic. “Sorry.”

“How do you know about the earth pony rebellion?”

“Oh, Gusty told everypony in front of Grogar.” she shook her hoof.

“What? What? Who´s Gusty? And did she do that?” Posey asked shocked.

“Gusty is the Wind Warrior. Have you heard about that?”

“Yeah, I heard everything from Katrina. Is it true, is she really going to defeat Grogar?”

“That´s what the prophecy says…”

“So, if you defeat Grogar, that means, earth ponies will be free as well, right?” Posey asked hopeful.

“Well… I suppose so because sooner or later we would have to go through Katrina. And that moment might be sooner than we thought, considering that I´ve been ponynapped, but I´m not so sure if my friends will rescue me or Majesty first.”

“Who´s Majesty?”

“Our leader.”

“But I thought the Wind Warrior was your leader…”

“Honestly… I have felt more lead by Gusty than by Majesty, but the second is the queen, so basically, she is our leader. What about you, who´s the leader in your rebellion?”

Just when Posey was about to answer, they heard mournful sobs and cries. But it was not a normal crying. It was an echoing, almost phantasmagorical crying roar. Overwhelmed with fear, Fizzy pressed her body against the wall. Posey was right, you could hear everything through those walls. Speaking of her, on contrary to Fizzy, Posey was surprisingly calm.

“What is that?” Fizzy asked panicked.

“The weeping roar.”

“The weeping roar?”

Posey nodded.

“It´s always the same. Every night at the castle, at approximately this time of the night, you can hear those bone-chilling ghostly cries. At first, I thought I was the only one that heard them, since every time I told Katrina she called me crazy. But after talking to other slaves, I realized that there was indeed a voice crying.”

“Does that mean there are ghosts in this castle?” Fizzy started to shiver in fear. “Is that voice from one of the miserable souls of prisoners who died here?”

“I have no idea. But during my time in the castle, I discovered that it calms down when you sing to it.”

“Oh, so that´s why you were singing!” Fizzy widened her eyes. “Wait. You sing to a ghost?”

Posey giggled at Fizzy´s disbelief.

“I know it sounds crazy, but it truly works. Watch.” Posey told her.

Calmly, she closed her eyes and placed her hoof on her chest.

“I hear you every night at the castle, weeping roar.

Even in my sleep I hear you.

I hear you every night at the castle, weeping roar.

Even in my sleep I hear you…

A mournful painful cry you give me, weeping roar,

It feels like your soul flew

A mournful painful cry you give me, weeping roar

It feels like your soul flew

Fizzy widened her eyes in disbelief. Posey´s soft voice did truly influence the mysterious cries. The more she sang, the softer the sobs became.

I´m with you weeping roar, weeping roar, weeping roar

in this lonely night.

I´m with you weeping roar, weeping roar, weeping roar

in this lonely night.

No matter how dark it is now, weeping roar,

I will be your bright light.

No matter how dark it is now, weeping roar,

I will be your bright light.”

After hearing the lyrics, Fizzy understood the mysterious voice stopped crying. It was comforting, reassuring her that she wasn´t alone. Nevertheless, from what Posey told her, this happened every time. What could have happened to that ghost for her to cry every night?

“I don´t know what´s troubling you weeping roar

That makes you cry in so much pain

I don´t know what´s troubling you weeping roar

That makes you cry in so much pain

I wish you could give me an answer weeping roar

So I could free you from that chain

I wish you could give me an answer weeping roar

So I could free you from that chain

I´m with you weeping roar, weeping roar, weeping roar

Your sadness can stop

I´m with you weeping roar, weeping roar, weeping roar

Your sadness can stop

I will cover you with my shawl weeping roar

Because I can feel that you´re cold

I will cover you with my shawl weeping roar

Because I can feel that you´re cold

Once Posey finished her song, the ghostly cries were heard no more. Fizzy sighed in relief.

“How can you be so calm when this happens?” she asked Posey shocked as she held her chest.

“The first time is scary, but if you´ve been living here since you were a filly, you get used to it.”

“You´ve been serving Katrina since you were a filly? Oh my…”

“Yeah. I would have honestly preferred to have drowned in that river.”

“What?”

“On my last day home, I climbed a tree near the river at night like I used to. It wasn´t wise in the slightest, considering the number of dangerous creatures that live in the rainforest´s trees, but it felt so peaceful there, away from everypony´s affairs. Unfortunately, I would soon realize the consequences when I noticed a snake going up that tree. In efforts of walking away, the branch I was on broke and I fell to the river. And just when I was losing conscience, I felt something pick me up. I couldn´t tell who, though, the only thing I could see was a blurred bright light, nor I couldn´t hear a thing, as my ears were full of water. Must have been somepony in a boat, I don´t know. And when I opened my eyes, I was in a completely different place: the castle!” Posey expanded her forelegs.

Fizzy blinked surprised.

“You´re kind of a strange pony.”

“Says the one who has a horn in her forehead!” Posey said playfully.

Fizzy looked up at her horn.

“I guess if you are used to living without one, it sure can seem strange.” she touched her horn.

The two mares shared a laugh. Who would have thought? A unicorn and an earth pony sharing and enjoying a peculiar but interesting chat. Like every other unicorn, Fizzy had been told that the two species didn´t seem eye to eye, so they didn´t interact much. In fact, if it wasn´t for Grogar, they would have never interacted at all! Yet right now, an earth pony was standing in front of her, offering her a smile and treating her as an equal. Posey might be odd but Fizzy was odd too. They might have not interacted much but Fizzy could tell that she could learn many things from this special pony.

Unfortunately, reality hit back when they heard Katrina´s voice.

“Posey! Posey! Where are you?!” she called her.

Posey gasped horrified.

“I have to go.” she told Fizzy.

“What? Can´t you tell me how to escape at least?”

“I would, but right now I can´t. Both of us will get in trouble if I don´t tend her now. But don´t worry,” she held her hooves. “I´ll find a way to help you, I promise.”

“POSEY!” Katrina yelled once again.

“I´m coming!” Posey replied to Katrina. She turned back to Fizzy. “I must go.”

“Wait!” Fizzy stretched her hoof. “What´s your name?”

“My name´s Posey, and yours?”

“Fizzy.”

“Ok, Fizzy. I´ll see you again soon.” Posey winked an eye on her.

In just a few seconds, she ran upstairs, leaving Fizzy alone once again. Or maybe not completely alone, since there seemed to be a weeping ghost on the dungeons, which ironically made her feel more uneasy than being completely on her own. She didn´t know if this mysterious entity was either a soul in torment, or a soul that came back for revenge. She hugged her knees scared.

“Weeping roar, if you can hear me, please don´t hurt me. I´m not here to cause any harm on you.” she begged scared. She looked at her dungeon´s window. “Oh guys, I don´t care if you go to Majesty first, but at least be quick. Without you, I´m as terrified as a little filly.”

Unknown to Fizzy, beneath her, there was a chained ghost-like jaguar hearing her words. She lowered her head in lament, tears silently and constantly running down her face.

Author's Note:

Huzzah everypony! Wow, so many things have happened since I last updated. But perhaps the most important one is that last week I began my last year of college, which means that this year I´ll have to do my thesis! Oh boy...

And the start has been less than ideal to say the least. I don´t know how they did it, but out of five subjects, they only got teachers for two. Only two. Fortunately, they managed to get two more but there´s one lacking and it´s possible that we might have to wait for a long time again (yes this happened last year as well and we had to wait one semester to begin that subject). Plus, they are also having trouble finding teachers to tutor students in their thesis.

Basically me and my classmates reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y6TBl0IhVM&ab_channel=BubbleKing

But don´t worry. This year might be stressful but I know it will be alright in the end.

Anyway, coming back to the story, the song that Posey sings is a parody of La Llorona, a popular Mexican song, which you might have heard in Coco. You can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5z99EYHY4I&ab_channel=AngelaAguilarOficial

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!