The Amphibious Hope

by TheClownPrinceofCrime

Chapter 9: Taken Alive

Feisty was sound asleep on her bed despite the loud thunderstorm outside the castle. She even quietly giggled to herself while she rubbed her hooves together. But then a few moments later, her little smile disappeared.

She opened her eyes and saw herself in a dark forest. A bright light caught her attention; as she looked up, she saw her father frowning on her.

“Dad? Daddy! You’re here!” she shouted, happily smiling for the first time in years. She tried to jump to reach out to him, but her hooves were locked on the ground.

“What the? I can’t move?” But as she looked up again, her father disappeared. Then he suddenly reappeared right in front of her.

“Dad, you have no idea how much I’ve missed you! With all those disgusting creatures gone, nothing will stand between us!” she spoke. Her dad still frowned at her.

She looked at him confused. “Wha-why aren’t you happy? I killed the changeling who took your life. I’m destroying those fiends in your honor!”

As her father remained silent, she became more agitated. “You always hated them, right? You should be grateful for what I’ve done! I’m avenging your demise!!”

At that moment, she began to sink under the quicksand. Panicking, she tried to blast it from her hooves, but it was unsuccessful. “Help!! Dad, HELP ME! HELP!!!”

As her father gave one last look of apathy, she sunk beneath the quicksand—silencing her pleas.

Then she woke up from the nightmare. She angrily punched her pillow multiple times. “Screw you, Princess Luna!! Don’t wanna help anypony anymore, huh?!”

She took a few breathing exercises and drank a cup of water.

“This is the first time I’ve had this dream. Why wasn’t he happy? After everything I’ve done for Equestria, this is how I get repaid?” she asked herself.

As she thought about it, she got another idea. “Wait a minute…I still haven’t found those six creatures the non-ponies admire so much. They haven’t been seen over the last seven years…”

She jumped out of bed and scrutinized all her maps she drew out. “I couldn’t find them in any of those countries no matter how hard I try, but there’s gotta be some place they’re hiding. And wherever they are—(gasp)—OF COURSE!”

She ripped out all the maps from her wall. “It makes perfect sense now! Considering how influential they are, they had to be gathering all the rest of their species under their protection. Maybe—maybe that’s the reason why Dad wasn’t happy.”

Then she glared at the wall. “They obviously still live. Once they’re all extinct, then my nightmares will be history.”

She jumped right back into bed. “Don’t worry, Daddy, you will finally be avenged once they’re all dead.”

Early in the morning, Feisty had breakfast, put on her royal cape and necklace, and entered the hallway.

Then she opened the door that led to the underground catacombs of the castle where all the prisoners were being kept.

Seeing the two changelings she interrogated before, she nodded to the frobots and let them awake the duo.

“Good morning, little fools. I hope you had an unpleasant night sleep,” she mockingly greeted.

“What do you want from us now? You know we will never tell you anything.”

“Oh, I’m aware of that, Marrow. That’s why I’m thinking about using a different approach,” said Feisty. Igniting her horn, she drew closer to the puzzled changeling.

“What in the—?”

She pressed her horn on Marrow’s forehead, entering his mind. The latter screamed in agony during the process.

“What are you doing to him?!” the other changeling yelled, violently shaking the prison bars.

Marrow continued screaming until Feisty finished the procedure. Evilly smiling, she released him.

“Wow, he didn’t put up much of a fight. So pathetic,” she condescended.

Then she gathered an entire squad of frobots. “Alright, listen up! I’ve finally discovered the location of the remaining non-ponies, and I am 100% certain they’ve been protected by six popular creatures you all should be familiar with.”

“Assemble your comrades and prepare yourselves! It’s time we crush them for good!” Feisty ordered.

“As you command,” they obeyed.

As they prepared themselves, Feisty generated a magical map with her horn. “Now I got ya.”

---

Later in the morning, two ponies ran together to the School of Friendship. As they got inside and made sure no one was following them, they pulled a rug from the floor and opened a door there.

Once they climbed down the ladder, they reunited with the large gathering of yaks, hippogriffs, griffons, and changelings alongside their younglings. There were also a dozen ponies who offered them support.

On top of a rocky platform stood Yona, Sandbar, Silverstream, Smolder, Ocellus, and Gallus. There were also three ponies next to them: Starlight, Trixie, and Sunburst.

“We gathered up all the remaining changelings. They’ll be safe here,” said Starlight.

“Man, I’m getting sick and tired of hiding down here like sitting ducks!” Smolder ranted. “Why can’t we just fight back?!”

“We can’t risk exposing ourselves! It’s too dangerous out there! The Core has guards everywhere which makes it all the more hard to avoid,” replied Sunburst.

“He’s right. Our best chance is to move out of Equestria. It’s…the only way to keep you all safe,” added Starlight.

“Yona not go anywhere! Yona stay and fight back!”

“Yeah, we’re not afraid of them! If they want to get us, then we’ll give ‘em a fight they’ll never forget!” said Silverstream.

The assembly shouted their agreement. However, Starlight and her colleagues looked at each other with uncertainty.

“Look, I get that things seem hopeless right now, but we can’t just give up. We gotta fight back, and the more we hide, the longer these villains remain here,” lectured Sandbar. “We need to show them who we are and why friendship is the greatest magic of all!”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Gallus agreed.

“And besides, they don’t know where we are, so we can use this time to form a plan and figure out how we can defeat them,” suggested Ocellus.

“I think so too! Let’s do it!” a pegasus concurred. All the others nodded in agreement.

Starlight looked toward Sunburst and Trixie who seemed hesitant at first until they smiled and nodded. “(Sigh) I gotta say…I’m proud of you all. You’ve learned so much over the years that you’ve become what we’ve trained you for. I know Twilight would be proud too.”

The Heroic Six sadly smiled. “Yeah…she would.”

Suddenly, the entire floor shook as if an earthquake occurred. It then made large cracks across the platform. “Uh, guys, I think we have a problem…” said Terramar.

At that moment, a humongous magical driller emerged from the ground—knocking out everyone that stood on that area. Once it dissipated, an army of frobots flew out of the hole and surrounded everyone.

Then Feisty revealed herself in front of her new captives while she held Marrow in her telekinetic grasp. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the rotten crumbs of a worthless generation…”

“It’s you again!”

“How did you find us?!”

“I’m so sorry, friends. She…broke me,” confessed Marrow. Feisty then paralyzed him with her magic and threw him to the ground.

“After seven long years of searching, you’re finally ours for the taking. Haha, and you thought you could escape your fate,” she taunted.

Starlight, Trixie, and Sunburst tried to blast her, but she cast a spell that nullified their magic and bound them with chains. She did the same with all the other ponies and creatures.

“I’m honestly disappointed in you all. You side with these dangerous heathens instead of the rest of our kind?” Feisty sneered.

“They are NOT heathens!! They are our friends, just like everypony else!!” Sunburst defended.

She then landed softly on the floor. “Can’t you see the truth? They are nothing but treacherous lowlifes who feed on your gullible minds. Especially the changelings! Ever since they captured Twilight and her friends, they revealed themselves to be truly disgusting, vile, and merciless. No…even before that—when they first stormed Canterlot…”

Ocellus listened as she remembered that day as well.

“That day…changed my life. When I was a filly, I never realized how horrid they were…until they took away the one person I ever cared about,” said Feisty, trying hard not to display any emotional weakness.

“From that day onward, I made sure that I honored the legacy of my family. And now the time has come I finally fulfill my destiny.”

“General Feisty, I…didn’t know you—,”

“Didn’t know what, Ocellus? That your kind is foul? That you all are disgraceful to the history of pony kind? Well, NOW you know!!” Feisty angrily yelled.

“No, no, I’m…I’m sorry you went through that experience. I may not know what it’s like to lose a loved one, but I understand it must feel awful—being alone and feel like you lost everything,” replied Ocellus.

“Please know that we’re not like that anymore. Starlight made the changelings realize that love can be given, not taken. That’s why we’ve become what we are.”

Then she stretched out her chained hoof to Feisty. The latter looked at her puzzled.

“You can start your life over. It’s not too late to realize that friendship can be felt by both ponies and non-ponies. I can show you the way,” Ocellus offered, warmly smiling.

Feisty stood silently still for a few seconds. Seething in rage, she pushed Ocellus away.

“You have the audacity to patronize me?! You don’t know me or what I can do!! I will never allow you or any of your stupid friends to entice me with your meaningless rubbish!”

But once she got a good look at Starlight, she rubbed her chin. “But there is one interesting thing you mentioned: Starlight Glimmer inspired the changelings to ‘reform’ all those years ago, eh?”

She forcefully pulled Starlight to her via telekinesis. “I never knew that until now. So…you inspired those wicked bugs to torment us with their wiles and made everyone conveniently forget all the terrible things they had done?”

Starlight struggled to free herself. Feisty punched her a couple times and knocked her down.

“I should’ve killed you years ago when I had the chance. But no matter—I’ll remedy that mistake later,” she smirked. She signaled the frobots to take everyone away.

“No! Stop, please! Don’t do this!!” Ocellus begged.

Feisty looked at her with scorn and allowed the frobots to take her away as well. Once they had done that, she ignited her horn, generated an orange capsule the size of a banana, and laid it on the ground.

She jumped back into the hole with everyone else before Marrow’s paralysis wore off. He tried to get up until he noticed the capsule was ticking.

“What the—?”

The entire School of Friendship exploded, eviscerating all the premises.

Later on, Feisty returned to the palace where Gloam Fall was expecting her. “Having an excellent time, General?”

“You can say that again, Master. I managed to capture the last remaining members of their respective species. We’re this close to getting rid of those creatures once and for all! I can already taste their anguish as we speak!” Feisty reported.

“Wonderful! Now all the ponies of Equestria will learn to forever revere the name of the Core. Tonight, we will execute the survivors and all the traitors who harbored them. Once that’s accomplished, we will have concluded…the age of extinction,” Gloam Fall declared, orange eyes brightly glowing.

Comments

[ChazMLPFIM]

It's appear Feisty will fail to see her father will disown her.

[OP Omni God-Emperor Doom]

11639470

Agreed.

[MLPFollower]

11648589
At least until she’s finally finished. THEN, he’ll vocally tell her how disappointed he is in her giving into evil before allowing the powers higher than Alicorns to take her to the Underworld ala The Princess and the Frog and Primal: