Cadence Unbridled (Sections 1 & 2)

by Flikaline

Alicorn : Part 2

Alicorn : Part 2

Cadence opened her eyes. It was almost dawn. She thought of Princess Celestia. She’d be back soon and worrying. It had been Cadence’s worry and guilt which had caused her to wake so early. She needed to get back. Whatever the goblins said, she was leaving.

She spotted them over by the fire. She silently walked towards them, but then concealed herself. She got a sudden bad feeling from the tones of their voices. As she looked around, she noticed that the winged goblin was hovering. Hadn’t he said his wing was damaged?

‘So we’ll take her back to the base,’ the winged goblin was saying, ‘so we can collect a few things, and then . . .’

‘We go off into the mountains!’ exclaimed the horned goblin, taking another enthusiastic bite of the meat he was eating, leaving bits of blood around his mouth. Cadence sincerely hoped that meat wasn’t what she thought it was; but what were they talking about?

‘So what are we going to do to her then?’ asked the earth goblin eagerly.

‘Well,’ replied the horned goblin with a horrid chuckle, ‘I have a number of ideas . . .’ The other two waited enthusiastically. ‘First, we enslave her. I dare say there are quite a few things that princess can do without being damaged too much . . .’ The other two goblins snorted with laughter.

Cadence felt sick. They were talking about her!

‘That way we can wait around a little until she gets a bit bigger,’ the horned goblin continued, ‘and then she and her horn will be more valuable.’

‘We will be the envy of all the goblins that see us!’ exclaimed the winged goblin.

‘And we’ll be rich,’ added the earth goblin, ‘once we’ve cut her horn off.’

Cadence only just managed to hold back a terrified squeal.

‘And the horn isn’t the only valuable thing,’ the horned goblin told them, ‘the mane and tail, and, of course, the wings; I think the teeth may be of some value too actually.’

Cadence had begun to shake violently.

‘What about the skin?’ the winged goblin asked, ‘we could skin her!’

‘While she’s still alive!’ added the earth goblin, nudging the winged goblin who grinned.

‘She’d make a nice coat, perhaps,’ the horned goblin sneered, ‘or maybe we could use her to line our boots . . .’ The other two laughed.

Cadence felt like sobbing. She felt so betrayed. For the first time she wished she wasn’t so kind and caring. If she weren’t, she wouldn’t be in this awful situation. They had never needed her help, it had all been a horrible trick.

‘You two seem to have forgotten about the meat,’ the horned goblin continued, ‘pony is rather delicious . . .’ The other two nodded vigorously, saliva dripping from their mouths.

‘How are we going to get her there?’ asked the winged goblin.

‘Simple,’ responded the horned goblin, ‘I can send one living creature to sleep for a short time every twenty four hours. She should be awake by the time we’ve collected our things from the base. We will put everything in a wagon and ride in it ourselves while forcing her to pull it the rest of the way.’

‘How come we didn’t leave last night then?’ asked the earth goblin.

‘Because it’s hard to see in the dark and we need our rest,’ the winged goblin snapped.

Cadence tried to calm herself; they hadn’t seen her, they didn’t know she was there; she might be able to save her skin (and a large amount of her body parts by the sound of things) just by quickly sneaking away.

She picked herself up with slight difficulty, as she was unable to stop, or even control, her shaking. She took a few steps back. A twig cracked loudly beneath her back right hoof. The three goblins turned, their red eyes fixed on the staring, terrified, princess.

For a long moment, they just stared at each other. Cadence suddenly came to her senses; she turned tail and bolted off as fast as her hooves could carry her.

‘She heard our entire conversation!’ the horned goblin growled, ‘come on!’

*

Cadence hadn’t been the only pony to wake up early. Shining Armor hadn’t slept well for four days. His parents, Twilight Velvet and Night Light, were beginning to worry. It was so early that Shining Armor’s little sister, Twilight Sparkle, who had a habit of waking up early, wasn’t awake yet.

As he was up so early, Shining Armor had decided to go and do some training as he had high hopes of getting into the Royal Guard. He wondered if getting into the Royal Guard would earn him his cutie mark. He couldn’t understand, and neither could anypony else, why he didn’t have it. The only explanation he could come up with was he needed to do something specific, or, something specific had to happen for it to appear. It had been so long since everypony his age had got theirs, or it had been a key topic of conversation that he often forgot he didn’t have one.

He had left a note for his parents and his sister before he left and was now occupying himself with trying to think about anything but her, his ex-fillyfriend, who had dumped him, via her little sister, Trixie, who had been sent round to tell him very bluntly that he was no longer relevant. He sighed, it wasn’t that he had been dumped, it was the way he had been dumped. He hadn’t liked her that much in that way, he had felt sorry for her, so made friends, then it had developed, he had thought he could help her but he had been wrong. Either that, or she had got over confident and decided she didn’t need him anymore.

He didn’t really know why he was so surprised; she always was a bit of a malcontent. Whatever the reason, the result was the same. He was a dumped colt with no cutie mark. He was just about to start training when he thought he heard a terrified scream. He stopped and listened. There was another one. Somepony was in trouble! He galloped towards the noise.

*

Cadence couldn’t help but scream. The conversation between the goblins she had just heard wouldn’t stop echoing in her head. The goblins weren’t gaining on her much, yet, but she knew she couldn’t keep this speed up for long, and certainly not all the way back. As she thought this, her eyes pricked with tears.

Suddenly, as Shining Armor was galloping, a pale pink streak passed in the opposite direction. He stopped and concealed himself among a couple of trees as he heard hooves approaching. It is doubtful that the goblins would have noticed him if he were in the open. He watched them as they hurried by and recognized what they were. He stared.

‘Those goblins are after that poor pony!’ he said to himself, galloping off after them, ‘I must help him or her!’

Cadence was getting very worried and very tired. She really wished she could rest, and wished even harder that Princess Celestia would come and rescue her. As she hurried on, she stared. She was on a short narrow path now, headed towards flat rock which was too smooth and too tall to climb unless you came round from the other side. She was trapped.

She desperately tried to climb up anyway. It was impossible. She tried to fly. It was hopeless, her wing was too damaged.

‘We’ve got her now!’ exclaimed the horned goblin. Cadence turned her head to see the three goblins advancing towards her, grinning broadly, red eyes glinting and saliva dribbling down their faces. Cadence flattened herself against the rock behind her.

‘Come on, Princess, make it easier on yourself,’ came the voice of the winged goblin.

‘It won’t hurt that much,’ added the earth goblin. The other two goblins snickered.

Cadence gave a defiant snort, she wasn’t going to let them take her that easily, but she knew she stood little chance, and no chance against that sleeping spell. She tried not to show how frightened she was. They were quite close now, and getting closer every moment; it was very difficult not to cry.

‘You two hold her down while I perform the spell,’ the horned goblin told the other two. Cadence prepared to resist.

They were just about to attack when the three of them were attacked from above. Before they knew what was happening, they had been leapt upon and kicked hard against the rock.

‘Leave her,’ Shining Armor shouted; he turned his head, ‘alone . . .’ She was so lovely, so amazingly beautiful. He couldn’t stop staring at her.

‘Look out!’ Cadence yelled.

Shining Armor’s attention quickly returned to the goblins. He had never felt so full of rage. How dare they even think about hurting her! How dare they! He would make them pay! He sent the goblins smashing into the rock.

‘Run!’ he told Cadence.

She hesitated for a moment. For some reason, she couldn’t put her hoof on it, she really wanted to help him more than she had ever wanted to help anypony else before, but seeing his frightened look at her hesitation, she galloped off. Seeing this, the goblins picked themselves up and headed after her.

‘Oh no you don’t!’ growled Shining Armor, before giving chase. He soon caught up with them and attacked ferociously. ‘Keep running!’ he shouted to Cadence.

It wouldn’t be long now until those goblins gave up, surely? While trying to struggle, one of the goblins kicked the colt in the face. He leapt back in surprise. And yelled out in pain as he hit his head hard against a tree behind him. He felt dizzy. His grip on the goblins became lessened. On hearing his yell, Cadence stopped and turned her head to see what had happened to him, unfortunately, the few moments this took was enough time for the goblins to attack her.

Shining Armor’s sight was becoming clouded by blackness and he realized that that he had knocked himself out. Cadence struggled as hard as she could, but she had so little strength left. Even so, the two goblins holding her down were having a hard time.

‘Cast the spell! Cast the spell!’ the earth goblin muttered through a snarl. Cadence fell asleep instantly. The three goblins hauled her onto their backs and hurried off in the direction of their base.

‘No . . .’ Shining Armor murmured, just before his sight failed him completely, ‘no . . .’

*

Shining Armor groaned and opened his eyes. He suddenly became overwhelmed with the memories of what had happened. How much time had passed? Could she still be saved? Oh, that poor beautiful filly! He felt awful. He had failed her. How could he? He had never felt so terrible, never felt so incredibly guilty.

He looked up at the sky. At least it looked like the longest he could have been out for was a few minutes, but what now? Those goblins had probably taken her somewhere that there were more goblins. He should easily be able to take on three, four, maybe even five, but more? And what if she was still asleep when he got there? He realized there was only one pony who could be a guarantee of success. He teleported.

*

‘Where could she be?’ a very worried Princess Celestia asked, pacing the room.

‘I don’t know,’ the servant replied, ‘all I know for certain is that her bed was unslept in.’

‘I wish I’d never left last night!’ Celestia exclaimed.

Suddenly, a colt appeared in the middle of the room. Celestia and the servant were rather surprised and shocked by the somewhat rude arrival.

‘I’m sorry, Princess Celestia,’ Shining Armor gasped desperately, ‘but this is an emergency. A pale pink filly has been ponynapped by goblins!’ He expected the princess to look shocked but instead, she looked rather ill.

‘Tell me,’ Celestia said faintly and fearfully, ‘was this filly an alicorn?’

‘Well . . . yes . . .’ Shining Armor replied, he hadn’t really realized until now.

‘Where was their most recent destination?’ Celestia asked quickly and anxiously.

‘Just beyond the small river,’ Shining Armor responded.

‘Right,’ said Celestia hurriedly, ‘I’ll meet you there in a moment.’ She teleported and he followed.

‘I tried to save her,’ Shining Armor told her, ‘but I got knocked out. They headed in that direction. Are you okay?’

‘I’ll be okay once my niece is safe,’ answered Celestia, ‘I’m just worried.’ Shining Armor was surprised. That filly was Celestia’s niece? Celestia knelt down on the ground. ‘Get on my back,’ she told him, ‘it’s most likely she’s been taken to some sort of base. We will be able to see it more quickly and get there faster by flight.’

Comments

[alexiszocco]

shining if the princess tells u to mount her u mount her god dammit!!

[Draco Dei]

Why would Celestia take her with him on the first teleport, and especially flying him around? She has no clue what his level of ability is and this is dangerous.