Chapter Ten – Strawberry for Bait
After a busy morning catching up with things at the Station, Hitch was making his way towards the Brighthouse. As he approached, he felt confused as he could see Misty and Strawberry were stood outside. He thought they would still be searching in books.
Then, he realised they could have found something. However, he couldn’t see what they were doing from a distance. Seeing Misty suddenly disappear with a flash before reappearing again moments later added to his confusion.
As Misty reappeared, she looked at Strawberry with an almighty scowl. “What happened that time?”
Strawberry grunted and scowled back. “I did exactly the same as before,” she snorted. “You must be doing something different.”
Misty sighed with frustration. “I didn’t do anything different. You must be getting the incantation slightly wrong or something. We’ll need to keep practising.”
Strawberry grunted with annoyance as Hitch finally arrived. “Morning, what’s happening here?” he asked brightly. “Did you find something in the books?”
“Morning, Hitch,” Misty sighed. “Yeah, we found a spell that prevents teleportation.”
“That’s excellent news!" Hitch grinned. "Just in time too, we’ve got to get everything ready for this evening. How does it work?”
“It’s an area effect,” Strawberry said matter-of-factly. “I cast the spell and anypony within the area around me can’t teleport.”
“That sounds like just what we need to capture a Nirik," Hitch beamed.
“Yes," Misty sighed, "But there’s a few complications.”
“Oh?” Hitch blinked. “Which are?”
“The area is really small,” Misty explained. “So, the Nirik will need to be very close to who’s casting the spell.”
“Which I keep saying isn’t a problem,” Strawberry replied crossly. “I can get as close as I need to be.”
Hitch blinked and suddenly looked very confused. “Wait, how are you going to do that?”
“She’s going to be the bait,” Misty sighed.
Strawberry couldn’t help grinning as her horn glowed. She transformed into an Earth Pony security guard.
“Woah, woah, woah, I thought the Security Guard was going to be a dummy,” Hitch exclaimed. “Least that’s what Zipp and I planned.”
“Yeah, that’s changed,” Misty admitted. “The only way for Strawberry to be close enough to prevent the teleport is for her to be the bait.”
“Oh,” Hitch gasped. “I’m telling you now, I really don’t like the idea of somepony else playing bait.”
Strawberry smirked arrogantly, “You don’t need to worry, I’ll be completely fine.”
“You won’t if you can’t cast the spell correctly,” Misty frowned.
Hitch blinked before staring back at Misty. “Wait, what?”
“She can’t cast it reliably,” Misty groaned. “She needs more practice.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Hitch sighed. “Are you able to cast it, Misty?”
Strawberry couldn’t help smirking as Misty shook her head sadly.
“I don’t know if I could cast it any better as there’s nopony I can test with,” Misty explained. “Also, that’s an advanced disguise spell she’s using. I’ve looked and it’ll take me ages to learn.”
Strawberry’s chest puffed out with pride. “You see, she’s not the most advanced magic user after all.”
Misty sighed and frowned with annoyance. “It’s not a competition.”
“Says the pony who’s currently losing,” Strawberry grinned triumphantly.
“Okay, okay, we get the point,” Hitch said diplomatically. “Does Zipp know about all this?”
Misty nodded. “Yeah, she does. She’s already been making the arrangements.”
“Good, then I’ll go check in with her,” Hitch smiled. “Strawberry, I suggest you keep practising. I’ve not seen you stop Misty teleporting yet.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Strawberry smiled arrogantly. “I will!”
It was late afternoon at the CanterBlocks Hydroelectric Construction Site. Phyllis stood on a balcony outside one of the Portacabins that made up the main site office. She was looking out towards Maretime Bay from her elevated position, watching intently.
Meanwhile, down below, Cobalt Blocks was busy moving the last few items of construction materials as he cleared a landing pad.7
Finally, Phyllis spotted the Marestream approaching and called down to Cobalt. “They’re nearly here.”
“No problem,” Cobalt called back. “Everything’s ready down here.”
It wasn’t long before Phyllis and Cobalt watched as the Marestream touched down on the makeshift landing pad. As they both waited as the group disembarked, Phyllis sighed and looked worriedly at her business partner. “I…I don’t see Sunny.”
“The reports must be true then,” Cobalt frowned.
Zipp had a look of concern on her face as she made her way towards where they were standing.
“So, is it true then, Zipp?” Phyllis asked. “Sunny is gone?”
Zipp gave a small nod. “Yes, she didn’t listen and got herself in over her head. Finding her and the others rides on being successful tonight.”
“Are we hearing right?” Cobalt frowned. “You’ve swapped from using the dummy to having somepony play bait?”
Zipp let out a sigh. “Yes, and it’s not my preferred option. But for the anti-teleport spell to work, the caster needs to be close to the Nirik. Strawberry will disguise herself with a spell and be our bait.”
Phyllis gulped and looked at Zipp with concern. “I don’t like this, Zipp,” she admitted. “I don’t understand spells, but we’ve done a really good job on the old CanterLogic test dummy. These Nirik wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
Zipp was about to respond when Strawberry trotted over, chest puffed out proudly and with a confident smirk on her face. “I appreciate your concern but there’s really no need,” she said arrogantly. “When the Nirik appears, I’ll cast the anti-teleport spell, and it will be completely helpless.”
“You’re certain you’ve learnt the spell,” Zipp frowned.
“Completely,” Strawberry said haughtily. “You keep asking and I keep telling you. I’m not a beginner, it doesn’t take me long to learn new spells.”
In the background, Misty frowned and rolled her eyes. Meanwhile, Zipp ignored Strawberry’s posturing and turned back to Phyllis and Cobalt. “Have all the other arrangements been made?”
“Yes,” Phyllis nodded.
“We sent the entire workforce home this morning,” Cobalt explained. “They should be back with their families now.”
“Queen Haven provided us with members of the Equestria Guard for security,” Phyllis continued. “Their checkpoints are someway away. Cobalt and I are the only ones here and the site is completely secure.”
Zipp nodded thankfully. “Good, Good, you both should stay with Hitch in your offices where it’s safe. Leave this all to us.”
Phyllis and Cobalt both nodded in agreement.
It didn’t take long to set things up. Hiding places were positioned whilst Strawberry donned her disguise and sat in the guard hut. As she looked around, she activated her earpiece. “So, what do I do again?”
Hitch couldn’t help sighing before responding. “Just sit there. Now and then, I’ll tell you to walk out of the hut to the other side of the gateway and back. Make it look like you’re patrolling.”
“Is that all?” Strawberry grunted.
“Yes,” Zipp groaned. “Misty and I are close. We’ll back you up once you stop the Nirik from being able to get away. Then, Pipp and Izzy are ready to help contain it.”
Strawberry grunted with annoyance. “Why can’t I go further than just across the road? It’s not much of a patrol route. Why don’t I…”
“Because last time we did this there were too many variables,” Hitch interrupted. “We’re keeping this simple. I’ve got an overview via the site’s CCTV. Strawberry, please, do as I tell you.”
“Fine, fine,” Strawberry grumbled.
From her hiding spot, Misty held a hoof to her mouth as she yawned. She couldn’t help feeling worried. Not only because she wasn’t sure Strawberry could cast the spell. She was feeling increasingly tired and didn’t want to fall asleep.
It wasn’t long before night fell, and it got increasingly darker. Although, the area was floodlit which made things simpler.
However, as time ticked by slowly, Strawberry got increasingly bored. Eventually, she let out a deep sigh as she looked around. “If this is what being an actual security guard is like, it’s a boring job.”
From her hiding place, Pipp too was getting bored to death. “Are we sure the Nirik is coming? There’s not even any signal out here!”
“Good job,” Hitch grunted. “Or you’d not be paying attention. The Nirik that took Sunny appeared much later than this, so stay alert. Strawberry, if you're falling asleep, do another patrol.”
Strawberry rolled her eyes and got up from her chair. She walked to the door of the hut and out into the now frigid night air.
She walked across the gateway, looking around with an uninterested expression. As she reached the other side, she rolled her eyes and sighed with annoyance. Holding her tongue, she turned around.
Which was when there was a flash of flame in front of her. Strawberry squeaked with surprise and looked on, wide-eyed, as a Nirik appeared. She stared blankly at the creature before her, she’d never seen anything like it. The Nirik snarled and its curved horn started to glow.
Strawberry gasped, suddenly remembering what she was supposed to be doing. She tried to remember the anti-teleport spell. However, before she could even start, the Nirik fired a beam straight towards her.
“Aaaah,” Strawberry cried as the beam hit her and she disappeared.
The Nirik gave a small growl, its horn was just starting to glow again when a beam hit it in the back of the head. It growled with annoyance, whirring around and through narrowed eyes, it began scanning for the source of the beam.
Suddenly, a flash from the nearby undergrowth caught its attention. The Nirik snarled and fired a beam directly at it.
However, there was another flash behind it as Misty appeared. Immediately, she fired another beam into the Nirik’s back, making it stumble forward.
The Nirik spun around with an enraged growl. Its horn glowed again, and it fired a beam directly at Misty.
Misty narrowed her eyes, lighting her horn and creating a shield around herself. The Nirik’s beam impacted the shield and had no effect. Jumping to one side as she lowered the shield, Misty fired at the Nirik again.
From her hiding place, Zipp watched in awe as Misty and the Nirik traded shots. It was abundantly clear that Misty was holding back. She wanted to knock the Nirik out and was trying to do so without severely hurting it.
What was less clear was what the Nirik was doing. Why didn’t it teleport away?
Zipp decided that didn’t matter, she needed to help Misty. She reached for her earpiece and readied herself. “I’m moving in to help.”
“NO! Stay hidden, Zipp,” Hitch ordered. “The Nirik could be using teleporting beams. We need to leave this to Misty, she can defend herself. You can’t. Everypony maintain your positions!”
Zipp scowled and begrudgingly held her position, “Understood.”
Misty reappeared after using a teleport to reposition. She fired a beam which hit the Nirik in the side of its neck. As it impacted, it’s mane was deflected, and Misty gasped as she spotted something. A box attached to a collar around its neck, the multiple flashing LEDs making it stand out clearly.
The Nirik growled and spun around to where Misty was now standing. Misty squeaked as the Nirik fired another beam at her, only just managing to raise her shield in time.
However, she now had a new target. With a look of determination, she teleported again and swapped sides. After reappearing, she spotted where the collar was and carefully aimed.
The Nirik was slow to react as Misty’s beam hit its mark. Impacting the collar, the beam cut its way through the material. As the collar fell away, the Nirik let out a visceral growl as it was suddenly enveloped in a ball of fire.
Everypony watched in surprise as the fire dissipated. Instead of the Nirik, another creature stood in its place. The creature looked completely dazed, wobbling on its hoofs before its eyes turned back in its head. Groaning, it fell to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust as it did so.
Misty stood panting as she watched the creature intently. However, after a few moments, she let out a sigh of relief as she sat down. Gasping for breath, she looked upwards and closed her eyes. Her mouth was dry, and she suddenly felt exhausted as the adrenaline of battle started to wear off.
With the threat seemingly over, Izzy came bounding from her hiding place. “MISTY!”
Misty looked but had no time to react as Izzy jumped at her. Squeaking, Misty found herself held tightly in Izzy’s embrace. Her eyes bulged as Izzy squeezed her.
“You did it!” Izzy cried. “You caught it!”
“Well, she’s caught something,” Zipp said as she approached. “Misty, what did you do?”
Misty didn’t reply, she only grunted and gasped for air. She desperately tapped Izzy on the side with a hoof.
Izzy blinked and her eyes widened as she spotted Misty’s desperate wide-eyed expression. “Oops.”
Misty gasped for air as Izzy loosened her vicelike grip around her. Feeling her wobble, Izzy held Misty to support her as Pipp and Hitch finally arrived.
Eventually, Misty recovered enough breath to respond. “I…I spotted a collar,” she panted. “Around it’s neck. I managed to cut it off.”
“Wait, and that’s when it transformed?” Zipp gasped.
“Y…Yeah,” Misty gasped. “It had loads of blinking lights on it. I thought it must be important and went with my gut.”
Zipp frowned as she found and picked up the now damaged collar. “Interesting.”
“Well done, Misty,” Hitch smiled as he patted her on the back with a hoof before sighing. “Why didn’t Strawberry use the anti-teleport spell? Now we’ve got to rescue her as well.”
Misty’s face fell into a scowl. “She wasn’t ready, but she was too arrogant to admit it,” she grimaced and looked down sorrowfully. “Now she’s gone.”
“Everything keeps going wrong when ponies play bait,” Pipp commented. “Can we not do that anymore? I don’t want to be next!”
“You won’t because nopony is playing bait again,” Zipp frowned as she studied the collar. “Misty, can Strawberry contact you?”
Misty sighed and shook her head. “I can message her, but she won’t be able to respond. We concentrated on the anti-teleporting spell.”
“And she can’t teleport,” Hitch sighed.
Misty groaned as she shook her head sadly.
“Okay, there’s two things,” Zipp said optimistically. “Firstly, they’ve not taken Unicorns before and hopefully won’t want one. They might send her back.
“Secondly, when our friend here wakes up. They should be able to tell us how to find the airship or the quarry.”
“Speaking of what are we doing with it?” Hitch asked as he checked the creature over. “It’s still breathing, just knocked out.”
“Misty, can you put it in the Prison Sphere?” Zipp inquired.8
Misty took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes, “I can try, I think I remember the incantation for the basic one. The same that Opaline used on Sunset. It will stop it from getting away or teleporting.”
“That should do fine,” Zipp smiled.
Misty nodded and started to get to her hoofs. Izzy gasped as she was forced to let her go. Misty smiled at her gratefully before indicating to her friends that they should all get back.
With a deep calming breath, Misty closed her eyes and focused. Then, she opened her eyes and fired a beam of magic at the creature. With a flash, the creature was trapped within a translucent sphere that floated a few feet from the ground.
“There,” Misty groaned as she sat down. “It’s going nowhere. C…Could I maybe go have a rest now? Please?”
“Phyllis prepared quarters for us,” Hitch smiled. “Go rest, Misty. We’ll take our friend here somewhere safe and wrap things up here.”
“We’ll come and get you when food’s ready,” Pipp smiled kindly.
Misty nodded and slowly started heading towards the main offices.
After speaking with Phyllis, Misty was shown to a small room. It had a single bed, a desk, and a small washbasin.
Groaning, she lay down on the bed. Hoping to at least have a nap before she was summoned to eat. However, a tingling sensation in her horn put paid to that.
Misty couldn’t help groaning as she sat up. However, she suddenly realized what the sensation was. Gasping, her horn glowed as she focused on the messaging spell.
“Misty, are you there? It’s Sunny, you’ll never guess all the progress we’ve made!”
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Another really well-done job on the dialogue, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up. I definitely appreciated the discussion on the spell practice between Misty and Strawberry as well as the lampshading on the fact "live bait" always backfires (even if they DID succeed in capturing one of the Niriks, Strawberry got nabbed and can only be messaged - not respond back). At least Sunny managed to get through with another message concerning the progress that was made.
I'll definitely be looking forward to more of this.
11921196
Indeed and honestly it's taken me sometime to work out where to take her. Still open for suggestions:
Personally, thinking the last option. Reason being that the orders from Allura are no Unicorns which rules out the first one.
Second option is ruled out because they've captured the Nirik that caught her.
Also, I think Strawberry will benefit from some thinking time after her failure here.
11921204
Yeah. Definitely thinking the last one, too, for the same reasons you mentioned,
Misty have got Sunny's message, along with her teleportation spell and remove the collar from the Nirik's neck. I hope when it wakes up, it's going to ask a lot of questions.
Also, adding CCTV cameras and Security guards over Maretime Bay is great.
And I picked the last one, she may be Misty's mom's friend but she really needs to stop being a jerk.
11921259
Oh she's a proper arrogant pony when she wants to be.
Somehow, I think she's likely to be eating some humble pie after this though.
11921268
Okay I see what you mean there