Chapter 46: To the Swamps!
Chapter 46: To the Swamps!
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It wasn’t long before the group was back on a train, heading for the next destination. The group had a bit more confidence now following the defeat and capture of Shade, though most people suspected he wasn’t going to talk, just as his partner from the kidnapping hadn’t.
“Hate to disappoint my cousin like that…” Applejack mused, staring out the window.
“It couldn’t be helped,” Blitz cut in, drawing her attention, “We need to collect these before those other ponies do, after all…”
He nodded over at a box, which was guarded by a rather eager-looking Virid—in posture rather than in face; Celestia help him if he broke the rules on that. In it, was the tarnished crown.
“We’ve already lost one to them, though…” Shining observed, “And we can’t afford to keep losing them, either. We have to keep moving as soon as we get intel—why we’re on course to Dodge Junction, the closest we can get to the Hayseed Swamps.”
“The wildlife there’s gone….for lack of a better term, wild,” recounted Twilight from the letter, Spike close by, “It sounds like a lead, alright…”
“So what are we going to do?” Spike asked.
“Same thing we’ve been doing,” Virid responded, not moving from his post, still in that haughty, over-eager stance. “Right, captain?”
“Well—“ Shining started, unsure.
“I mean…” Virid began, trying to explain himself.
“Um…” A quiet voice tried to interrupt, but Virid ignored it.
“Judging from the report, I can’t say the wildlife…”
“Can I just…”
“…will be so easily tamed without a little violence.”
“I’d expect something like that out of you…” Twilight responded, turning to Azure. At this, Azure’s face flushed.
“Well, I didn’t suggest it!”
“Hey!” An unusually sharp-voiced Silver cut in to the argument before it could progress further. All heads turned to him. In turn, he turned his head towards Fluttershy, who up until now couldn’t quite be heard over Virid’s suggestion. “Okay, Fluttershy, go ahead,” he said gently to the pegasus mare.
“U-um,” She seemed a little uneasy from Silver’s means of getting their attention, but proceeded anyway, “I-I could…use m-my skills with animals, t-to…”
She faltered, but Rarity picked up where she left off, “I understand, darling, you want to avoid causing harm to the animals...”
“Can it really be helped?” Crimson cut in.
“Don’t doubt her skills with animals!” Rainbow came to Fluttershy’s defense, “She calmed a raging manticore, and even dealt with a full grown dragon! If anypony can reason with raging beasts, it’s gotta be her!”
The train car fell into silence afterwards.
“Maybe she can reason with animals…” Virid cut in, “But…but…” His face screwed up in shame, and he bowed his head.
“Let’s just say when it came to loyalty, things Discord did really skewed them…” Shining said flatly, ending the discussion then and there.
“Pretty much…” Azure picked up, “We were close-knit, yet we all were eager to turn on each other the instant he came into the works…and I felt like I was in a vortex of self-doubt the whole way.”
Fluttershy hung her head, which drew everypony’s attention, “B-but…”
“Fluttershy,” Silver said, “If you can’t reason with them, there really won’t be any other choice…But…I promise…If it does, I won’t do more than I need to…”
“Same here,” Azure cut in, “And I’m sure all of us can agree to do only what we need to...”
“Glad that’s settled!” Shining said, stamping a forehoof onto the ground in approval, “Alright, everypony, take a rest. We’ll need it for when we get there...”
Nopony objected, everypony else seeming to do their own thing.
“You know, Shiny, I haven’t really seen you in action until recently,” Twilight said.
“Protecting the state is serious business,” Shining responded, waving a hoof as though it were no big deal, “You all should know that better than anypony else, after all!”
“Just wish you guys didn’t have to look like statues while doing it, though,” The blue pegasus mare motioned to Virid with a hoof, who immediately took offense to what he was told.
“It’s a rule!” shouted the offended unicorn, “Article IV, Section Six, page one hundred and two of the handbook! ‘When standing guard or on official duties, your countenance must be stony, unbreakable, not to let people know what you’re thinking!’”
“Uh…Nicely done,” Shining said, “That’s pretty much it.”
“Honestly, Virid, you don’t gotta impress anypony with your memory…” Rainbow cut in.
The sound of several hooves colliding with the bridge of ponies’ noses filled the air in the train car.
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A few hours passed. The train finally pulled into the station, screeching to a halt. The conductor’s voice filled the station.
“Passengers, we have arrived at Dodge Junction. You may now exit the train.”
One by one, the retrieval unit began to file out of the train, gathering the belongings they did bring with them and moving to the platform.
“Feels good to able to move again!” Rainbow shouted, hovering in the air, likely stretching her wings.
“This place ain’t all that different from Appleloosa,” Applejack observed, looking around, “Might have to come down for a proper visit once we’re done with this fetch quest!”
“Right, well,” Shining cut in, taking command of the situation, “The Hayseed Swamps are not too far from the east edge of town; just gotta cross a dirt road and then go through the forest, towards the south…Virid Strategem…”
Virid narrowly teleported in front of his captain. Most there swore he would have, but he hadn’t—had he leapt into action just like that?
“Yes, Captain?” he asked. Azure was still visibly disturbed—all he could remember of Virid was him being a general jerk. But ever since he’d joined the Royal Guard he’d been…odd. The fact he exhibited this behavior towards Twilight’s brother wasn’t much better for him.
“Have you formulated a general strategy to retrieve this Element?”
“Of course!” Virid said, launching into an explanation without even waiting for an actual order—nopony was quite sure if this was standard procedure for those three, though. “The Hayseed Swamps are deep in the forest, and from reports, the wildlife is very aggressive—more so than they should be.”
“Therefore, unless we need to, we must stick together. If Fluttershy’s skill with animals still works here,” Virid’s voice dropped low, but Azure could have sworn he saw Shining’s ears twitch, and one of his eyebrows creased. It didn’t take long for Azure to guess what exactly Virid might have uttered under his breath, but Virid continued without interruptions, “we can conserve our strength. However, if we need to deal with the animals by force, we will. Speaking of force…there is a chance the enemy might already be here. If they are…surely you know how we deal with them by now…”
The group gave a collective “hmph” of agreement.
“Conserve your strength, everypony. We’re going to need to if we want to be efficient in these swamps,” Shining took over, “Alright, let’s move!”
With Spike riding on Twilight’s back, the group began to make their way east, the Royal Guards in front, Rainbow flying, and Fluttershy and Silver towards the back of the group for the time being.
The townsponies that they passed cast confused looks towards the group, but the thought to stop and explain what was going on did not occur to them.
“Say, what’re the Royal Guards doing with that group?” asked one pony sitting at a local bar, watching them as the passed.
“Who knows?” asked his friend, sitting across from him, “Could be some kinda trainin’…”
“Ain’t you guys heard?” A third asked. “Royal Guards have been fanning out over the land, and strange things have been goin’ on all over the country! Why, not too long ago there was somethin’ strange goin’ on in Appleloosa!”
As the group disappeared from sight, the two turned to the third guy.
“Appleloosa? Ya mean that new settlement out west?”
“Yep. From what I heard their apple orchards were goofing up recently…” The third said. This was, however, cut into by a fourth pony, whose eyes were out to either side of his head.
“The end is coming!” he shrieked, “All these events are pointin’ to the end of us all!”
“Not now, Gong Mad…” said the first pony, burying a hoof into the bridge of his nose in annoyance.
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Back in Canterlot, as the day began to come to an end, Princess Celestia trotted through her castle, a very pensive look on her face. Her beloved student, Twilight, her coltfriend, Azure, the rest of the Element Bearers, the Captain of the Royal Guard, and a couple of high-ranking officers, were all out on the fetch quest. Though the fact so many were missing wasn’t a concern—it wasn’t a time of war, it was the nature of the quest they were on. It was hard not to worry after all that had happened since last spring.
Twilight and Fluttershy had gotten foalnapped following a string of incidents about cloaked ponies. Said cloaked ponies apparently had an organized gang, and they used this to bring back Discord, just to bring about the Elements of Chaos. It was obvious what they had planned to do. She had sent them into action, action she would have definitely indulged in during her younger years, but alas, she had affairs to run aside from raising and lowering the sun.
“Sister, what ails you?”
Affairs that she also feared her sister would be unable to run in her absence, to say nothing of her other family members, what with the current state of affairs. She looked over to Princess Luna, who had come down to run the Night Court, among other affairs. It was her shift now, and while the royals had accepted the moon princess with few doubts, there was still lingering distrust there.
“You’re worried about them?” Luna saw right through her—she’d been getting good at that recently, “It’s about those ponies that freed Discord, isn’t it?”
“Yes…” Celestia said, “It’s not that I don’t have faith in them—I do, they’ve come through time and again when they needed to; for each other and for all of Equestria, but…Those ponies are dangerous. They’re bad news…The worst part is, we still don’t know just what they’re planning—we don’t even know just how organized they are. I’m not just worried for them…I’m worried for our subjects as well…”
“I know not what they are either,” Luna responded, “It’s all become so strange…”
As Celestia’s horn lit up, as she prepared to lower the sun, so too did Luna’s, a cerulean glow. The skies began to move, the sun starting to set.
Twilight…Everypony, please…Be careful. You’re the only ones we can count on…
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The sun began to set on the group’s end as well, passing into the Hayseed Swamps. The group had more or less kept moving through the day and had hardly stopped since arriving. It would have been easier to teleport, but they had no idea where the item was. This in itself was what forced them to go on hoof. They did, however, know what they could look out for. By now, Fluttershy, with Silver and Rainbow close by and everypony else trailing behind, had taken point.
“I do hope we find this item sooner rather than later!” Rarity commented, her nose wrinkling. While the swamps weren’t the most foul-smelling place in the world, it was clear that Rarity didn’t have the tolerance most of the others had.
Azure shook his head slightly as Crimson cut in, turning his head back.
“No use in complaining about it, now…” he said flatly, “Just think about the good we’ll do while we’re here…”
“They’re not even fazed by it!” Pinkie announced.
“Have you tried standing in armor for eight hours?” Virid asked. “Or…being around ponies who have?”
Rarity’s nose wrinkled, and tears began to form at the corners of her eyes, no doubt imagining the smell.
“Think you went a little too far there…” Crimson responded.
“Look!” Spike said, pointing. All heads turned to some movement in the trees, and the group stopped, waiting to see what was about to come out. The group waited tensely. Could this be the out-of-control wildlife about to make an appearance?
Two birds flew out of the branches, causing the weaker-willed members to jump a little. However, their song seemed to be benevolent, a sweet little tune. The group sighed in relief.
“Alright, let’s keep moving…” Shining commanded, moving the group forward. Their steps were a tad more cautious now. They didn’t get too much further. Silver suddenly stopped, putting a hoof out.
“I can feel something…It’s definitely an animal…And I don’t like this feeling…” Silver commented, looking ahead with his milky, dead eyes.
The group once again held still, waiting for something to happen. After a few tense seconds, a bobcat, seemingly covered in moss and not much bigger than an average pony skulked forward slowly, towards the group.
“It’s a mosscat,” Fluttershy identified, seemingly in a trance over the sight of the creature, “An animal whose fur keeps it warm, and acts like a plant…”
“An animal with photosynthetic fur?” Twilight questioned, “I’ve…never read about anything like that…”
“It doesn’t look too friendly, though…” Azure noted, “As expected.”
“Go ahead…” Silver said to Fluttershy, voice neutral, eyeing the creature as though he could actually see what was going on.
“Okay…” Almost in her element, Fluttershy’s inhibitions were completely absent. The only thing that was scaring her is that, like with the manticore way back then, she didn’t know if this was going to work out so well. She took just two steps ahead of Silver. The mosscat eyed Fluttershy as she came in closer, but it did not stop its slow gait.
“Excuse me, Kitty,” Fluttershy addressed the mosscat, who didn’t stop moving. However, it did flick its ears, seemingly listening to the meek mare’s words, “Would you mind letting us by? We need to get something from the swamp here, and—“
She was cut off by the mosscat letting out a deafening screech. Fluttershy froze in a mix of disbelief and fear. The mosscat lowered its head. At once, two things happened. A rainbow shot past the front of the mosscat, seemingly making Fluttershy vanish. Not one second later, a transparent pulse collided with the mosscat’s chest, lifting it from its feet and knocking it flat on its side. Silver stood, head lowered, horn glow rapidly fading.
“Looks like it won’t work out after all…” Virid observed, sounding not surprised at all. “Given what he was capable of, it’s really not so surprising.”
Several mosscat cries could be heard in the distance now, and they were definitely coming to attack.
“I thought they were like plants!” Rarity called out, in confusion.
“Some plants can still eat food…” Twilight corrected, “Like a venus flytrap, for instance. They may be photosynthetic, but it doesn’t mean they don’t need food…”
“Spread out a little! Don’t get separated!” Shining barked. A few moments later, something green, slimy, and croaky hopped on his face.
“Captain!” Virid shouted, his horn alight in an amber glow. Crimson, seeing this, immediately executed a mild back kick into his comrade’s side.
“Virid, you idiot!” he shouted, the laser missing, landing in the swamps, causing mud to splatter on impact. “You’re about to shoot your superior by mistake…and besides, we can’t kill the animals…”
“I knew that!”
“More of them!” Applejack called out, hearing more croaking sounds. At least ten frogs were hopping up, no…more than that!
“Please, everypony, don’t…” Fluttershy’s voice echoed from above as Rainbow began to set her down, “Don’t do more than you need to…”
“Don’t worry, ‘Shy…” Rainbow reassured. Just then, a mosscat’s screech came up from behind her, and she turned, landing a powerful back kick to the charging beast’s shoulders, knocking it on its back. “I’m sure everypony understands your feelings…”
Azure backed away, his horn alight with magic, trying to actively restrain himself. There were frogs hopping about in earnest now, and they were unusually aggressive—not only were they making efforts to hop onto his face, but they were lashing out with their tongues as though they were trying to eat him, smacking him. While these attacks weren’t damaging, they were getting annoying, and it seemed like everypony else currently on the ground engaging said frogs were facing one of these two problems.
Azure stamped a magic-infused hoof down, letting out a mild shockwave, which sent the amphibians bouncing away against their will. A mosscat leapt down at him, trying to bring out its claws, but he quickly leapt forward, managing a roll and began to face it down. The beast began to charge him, ready to swat him away, but a magenta-translucent burst hit it from the side. This was odd, Silver’s magic wasn’t—
“Twilight?!” Azure yelled, slightly stunned.
“Been working on that one since I heard of it…” Twilight explained, Spike more or less close to her, batting away frogs that dared leap at her with a stick.
“Ah, get it off, get it off!” Rarity whined, seeing nothing but frog belly, one of the slimy creatures having hopped very eagerly onto her face. She swatted it off easily enough with her hooves, rising up on her back legs to do so. However, doing so left her open to a mosscat rising up from behind her, claws out and ready to pounce—
“Yee-haw!” Applejack bellowed, her lasso finding its mark easy enough. The farmer mare hadn’t had much cause to hogtie wild creatures recently—mostly because said creatures weren’t even real, but now that she had to worry about that detail, this wasn’t too hard. Within a few seconds, the mosscat that had tried to get the drop on Rarity was instead on its back, rope around its four feet.
“Thanks, Applejack,” Rarity said.
“Now ain’t the time for it, sugarcube,” Applejack responded, “There’s still a lotta wild animals to take care of.”
The Royal Guards weren’t quite so prepared for animal control, but it wasn’t hard for them to apply themselves to this situation. After shaking off the “frog on face” incident, Shining more or less weaved around the wild animals, erecting mini-shields with his magic, causing the mosscats to more or less blunt their claws on the magic. Occasionally, he would throw out a kick that would knock out an animal or shake off an encroaching frog, but overall, he played it defensively.
The same could be said for Blitz, who was using his speed spell to run around a mosscat. It couldn’t quite keep up. When Rainbow Dash decided to fly circles around its head, it made it so dizzy it fell, with a “timber!” from the blue pegasus to send it off in style.
Virid, however, was not following this example at all. His horn cloaked in amber light, he slammed both of his forehooves on the ground, sending out a concentrated shockwave, causing hapless frogs to disperse in either direction. The shockwave hit a mosscat, knocking it flat on its back.
Fluttershy, from behind Silver, could only watch with a pained expression as she watched her friends deal with the out-of-control animals.
“Fluttershy…” Silver whispered, “I know this isn’t what you wanted…But…we don’t have any other choice…”
“I—I know…” Fluttershy responded quietly, flinching heavily when Silver’s hoof was forced once more to act, “B-but…it’s so hard to watch…”
Silver grit his teeth as he sensed yet another magical discharge, probably from Virid. They couldn’t keep it up forever—even if their opponents weren’t too terribly strong, they were going to wear them down before long…
--------------
“Looks like it’s started…” Tack said, hearing the sounds of battle elsewhere in the swamp. His hood was still up. His griffin companion, also still cloaked, turned towards him.
“That much was obvious, Tack!” Bronclav shouted, “Sure enough, looks like the harmonics have just arrived…”
After a brief pause, Bronclav turned fully to face Tack. In turn, the smaller cloaked being turned to face him.
“Stall them,” Was the lone words out of the much larger cloaked being’s mouth.
“Are you sure?” Tack questioned.
“Don’t question me!” Bronclav picked up Tack by the head, yelling almost directly into his face, “The animals here can’t put up much of a resistance, even if they’re holding back!”
A bear snuck up on the two. The taller being heard it coming, though, evidently, dropping the one called “Tack”. From the cloak, a talon shot forth, curled into the best fist one could get. It struck the wild bear straight in the stomach. As it fell, Bronclav grabbed it by the throat, heaved the bear over his head, and knocked it out.
“The Element’s got to be close by…” Bronclav noted, “Why the animals are acting up more than they should…Hm, maybe that’s why you’re questioning so much…”
Tack scoffed, but didn’t say anything more.
“You know what to do, Tack. Just wait here for them. They’ll be through here…” Bronclav stated, pointing at Tack. “I’ll go on ahead and get us the Element that’s here…”
Tack watched as Bronclav left, head slightly down.
“You really think that I can truly go along with what you guys believe in after what you put me through...” he grumbled, “But it’s all I know…”
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The group had taken off through the forest, opting not to waste much more energy on the animals gone rabid. They had to have knocked aside an untold number of frogs and several mosscats, all driven mad by the item. The further they went into the forest, the more animals they passed, all looking more and more feral as they went in.
“We’ve got to be getting closer…” Silver noted, “I can feel it…”
“The animals look so…agitated…” Fluttershy said, sadly. The previous animal abuse had still lingered with her, but she knew that there hadn’t been much choice for the time being.
The group continued to run, the guards close behind the “animal experts”, when Virid gave a shout.
“There’s something standing still, up ahead!” he observed. Azure could see it. It was…surprisingly short, standing upright, and cloaked.
“It’s gotta be one of them…” he said. The group began to slow down. As they drew closer, Fluttershy let out a gasp.
Next thing Silver knew, Fluttershy had darted ahead of him, but why?
“Fluttershy, what’re you…” Silver started.
The short bipedal cloaked creature didn’t so much as move towards her, turning his head for just a little before turning ahead. The others took notice of what had Fluttershy so concerned.
A bear, unconscious at best, was sprawled out on the swampy ground. Fluttershy had practically warped over to it, and was low to the ground next to it, stroking its head with one hoof.
“I do apologize for the condition the bear had to be left in…” The short creature said, his voice deep, “My associate just can’t control himself when it comes to this kind of thing…”
“So…you’re part of that group, then?” Shining asked, cutting straight to the point.
The short creature mumbled something, shaking his head. A clawed, scaly hand reached up to his hood, and as it fell, everypony gasped, Fluttershy briefly looking up from the injured bear.
“He’s…?!” Twilight started.
“Another dragon…” Spike finished. At this, the cloaked dragon looked up.
“Huh?” The dragon asked, having seen Spike. He covered his face with one hand, “So I guess both sides are guilty of using dragons for their own ends, huh…”
“What?” Twilight asked, narrowing her eyes.
“Nothing, never mind…” The dragon said, “I’m just following orders… and I’m afraid I can’t let you through…The guy who’s with me is just up ahead, and he says he’s close to finding the Element…”
“And how do you plan to stop us?” Virid asked, “Last I checked, baby dragons can’t do a whole lot…”
“Hey!” Spike shouted, taking offense, “Without me you guys’d be totally lost on this fetch quest!”
Tack merely crossed his arms. Suddenly, something happened. The scales and grooves on the drake’s body began to glow a purplish color. The others could only pause, watching as his body began to swell. The glow extended to his whole body, and he began to grow rapidly.
“What the—“ Virid started, looking up.
“Is he like the others we’ve seen…?” Blitz asked himself.
The glow faded from Tack’s body, his cloak now merely a cape. He had rapidly aged to a teenage form, now a lot taller than the average pony. Fluttershy gaped at the sight, before cowering behind the nearest thing she could find…the bear.
The others stood, unsure, as the now large dragon looked down upon them.
“Surprised, huh?” he asked, his voice still the same now.
“So that’s why your voice was so deep?!” Pinkie squealed.
“Correct…”
At this point, Azure trotted forward, eyes closed. A second later, both his horn and eyes became alight with a magical glow.
“Most ponies I know would run away…” Tack commented, “But then again, none of your allies have either…”
“Everypony, keep going!” Azure called out, “I’m afraid we can’t let you guys walk outta here with another item!”
“You’d face a dragon one-on-one just to buy everyone else some time…?”
“He’s not going to be doing this alone!” Twilight called out, trotting up. Spike was still on her back, but it was clear he didn’t want to do this. “Spike, could you help Fluttershy with the bear?”
Spike went over to the bear. Fluttershy had at least gathered herself just enough to realize there was a fight that was going to break out, and if it did, the bear would be caught in the crossfire.
“Love to stay and help…” Silver said, “But I’d better help move the injured out of the way…”
The dragon did not so much as move when Silver went to help them. He seemed…perplexed?
“You two ain’t gonna do this alone…” Applejack stepped forward as well, “I’ll help you two out…”
“Can’t let you have all the fun—“ Rainbow was fully prepared to also help, but it was Shining who stopped her.
“Wait!” Shining called out, “We don’t know how strong the other one is. We’ve already budded off enough…Alright, Twily, Applejack, Azure, you can stay here. Everypony else who isn’t tending to the wounded, with me. Ready? Go!”
“Do they really think they’ll…” The dragon asked himself, shaking his head, “Alright, whatever. I doubt I could keep you all tied up anyway…Just watch out. He’s…a little…brutal.”
The beast’s words hung in the air for several seconds as the rest of the retrieval unit went around him. He looked down upon his three opponents, and got into a stance.
“Alright, is that it?”
“You were under orders…” Azure noted, “Yet you let them pass…”
“Enough talking! I still can’t let you three past me!”
A tense standoff…
Two ponies and a dragon tending to a bear…
What would happen in this swamp would be the tiebreaker in the race to get the items…
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4520060
To me, Azure (and the M6) are closer to late teens/early twenties (whatever the human equivalent is). He's probably treated like a child in the earlier works because of his over-the-top actions compared to the others. And as for the wording thing, at some points, somepony will say "fillies and gentlecolts" to address a crowd. It is kinda hard to break such a pattern, but it wasn't without problems.
I had thought of it, but I'm bad at Slice of Life style stories. I've never been able to come up with such an event without outside help, and I think I've run through most of the lessons that I could have done anyway. Besides, with recent events such a structure may not even be possible anymore...
I might be going back and editing some of the earlier chapters to be less...random. Back then I really didn't know what I was doing. If you think I should, please inform me, readers.