The Blacksmith, The Soldier, The Fool and The Cat

by Cheshire

I give up... Chapter names bore me. (Part 3)

The gryphon walked into a dark room. A flickering lantern swung overhead, harshly lighting a circular section on the floor. Within the light's visible cone, a single chair presented itself, bolted to the floor. A voice came from the darkness. It sounded warped and distorted, as though altered by magic.
"Whirlwind Storm, I presume?" it said. The gryphon nodded slowly, his heart pounding. "Right. Please, sit."
Storm slowly made his way over to the chair, his red eyes glinting as they passed into the light. Upon closer examination the chair was grooved for the back of a gryphon, holes situated in the chair allowing for their wings and solid tails. Most disturbing to Storm, however, were the straps where his legs and head would be.
"Sit, Mr Storm. We must not delay the experiment any further," came the voice again.
"What is this? What are you going to do?" Storm shakily asked.
"Never you mind yet, Mr Storm. Now, SIT!"
Jumping at the sudden order, Storm crawled into the chair, not wishing to anger the mysterious voice. Almost instantly the straps wound around him, holding him in place. A door slid open somewhere in the shadows of the room and a cloaked pony walked into the light. The gryphon would remember every aspect of this mare. The hard lines on her forehead. The darkness in her eyes. The black shade of her coat. The green magical flames as her form changed into the chitinous armour of a changeling.
The gryphon screamed, struggling at his bonds, and everything went to hell.

----

Dizzy awoke, coughing her way out of the blackness that was her unconscious mind. The first thing she noticed was that she was in a cave. The second thing she noticed was the yellow unicorn stallion poking her tail.
"Um... What are you doing there, mister?" she groggily asked.
The stallion squealed softly and backed away as far as he could, which, in this room, was not very far.
"Oh sweet Celestia!" he cried. "Please don't eat me!"
Dizzy pondered whether or not she should eat him. He was awfully noisy after all. She decided against eating the poor stallion, opting instead to snap her talons and cause the stallion's mouth to be suddenly full of peanuts. To her surprise, the stallion almost burst into tears. He quickly chewed and swallowed the legumes before speaking again.
"Oh thank you! I haven't eaten something that good in nearly three days. A bit salty though, you wouldn't happen to have any water would you?" he said, seemingly in one breath.
Dizzy liked this pony. He was funny.
"Sure," she said, snickering under her breath. "Here. A nice glass of water."
She snapped her talons again, causing a glass filled with what appeared to be water to appear. The stallion started to drink it greedily before slowing down with a sour look on his face.
"AUGH!" He spat the liquid out with a sharp frown. "Lemon juice! You gave me LEMON JUICE?"
"Aww! I was just having fun..." Dizzy shot him a look which spoke of deep apologies.
"Gah!" The stallion was thrown for a loop at the draconequus' strange behaviour. "Erm... Well... I do believe that we haven't been properly introduced. My name is Doctor Ersatz Lexicon, though most people call me 'Doc' or 'Doctor Lexicon' if you will."
"Well hey doc, what's up? My name is Dizzy. I'm a draconequus!"
"Er... Yes, I can see that."
"So... Where am I? And on that note, where are my friends?"
"Ah yes, the grey stallion and the gryphon, no?"
"Yeppers, that's them. Although there should be a funny looking cat with them too."
"Hmm, no, I don't think I saw a cat amongst the new prisoners."
"Waitwaitwaitwaitwait. Hold up a minute. Prisoners?" Dizzy, safe to say, was shocked at the revelation of her current predicament.
"Mmhmm. Yep. Prisoners. They also have my 'partner', for lack of a better word," Lexicon stated sarcastically.
Dizzy was shocked to hear that apparently her entire group was being held captive, with the exception of Cheshire. Safe to say she didn't react well.

----

Storm awoke to find himself tied upside-down to a stalactite. He began hyperventilating, memories of experiments performed on him rising to the surface of his mind. Below the hyperventilating gryphon, a few voices could be heard.
"Bird is waking up. Sounds scared. Get it down," one of them said.
Storm felt his bonds being loosened followed by the light rush of wind as his panicked body fell from the ceiling onto the rough ground below.
"Get up bird!" screamed a voice from his left. The gryphon, still in a highly panicked state, raised his forepaw, claws glinting in the low light, and brought it down with the intent of killing everything in sight, then escaping above ground. This, however, was not to happen. A hidden being slammed the butt of a spear into the gryphon's side, effectively silencing him.
"You work mines now. But strange paws make axe hard to hold. You pull cart instead," the voice said. Storm rolled slightly towards the voice in an attempt to see his captor. What he saw didn't surprise him in the least. A dark coated Diamond Dog holding a lightly bloodstained spear growled back at him.
This is going to be a long day...

----

Quickdraw Steele awoke to the sound of wailing. He groggily turned over only to come face to face with a dark, chocolate-brown earth pony.
"You alright there guy?" the earth pony asked.
"Ugh... Did you get the number of the carriage that hit me?" Quickdraw replied.
"Heh, I don't know about any carriage, but those damn mutts sure hit you."
"Mutts?"
"Yep, you're now lying in the glorious home of our lovely captors. The perks include work for 12 hours a day, for no pay, and that's kind of a drag, but at least they leave us alone most of the time. Following the day's activities, we're treated by a gourmet five-star dinner consisting of a slice of bread, a cup of water and a light beating. It's kinda peaceful in here when I think about it."
"Yeah, yeah... Quit the sarcasm kid."
"Sor~ry. I was just trying to lighten the mood. Look, my name's Sky Shadow. I gotta ask, what's with your eyes? I mean, one's blue and one's red... What's the deal?"
Quickdraw lifted a hoof to his red eye, running it along the thick, vertical scar.
"I... A dear friend gave it to me. Leave it at that." he looked away, trying to clear his mind of the memory. "My name's Quickdraw Steele. On another note, who's that crying?"
Sky Shadow gave him an odd look.
"I think that's whoever they threw in with the doc. I heard them talking, but couldn't hear what they said."
Quickdraw listened for the sounds, finding their location, he tried to focus on them.
"I don't wanna be a slave! I'm too pretty for hard labour!" came a feminine voice
He would know that voice anywhere. He surged to his hooves, rushing over to the cell door. He tried to open it, and to his surprise, it swung open with a light creak. Quickdraw stared, dumbstruck, at the door.
"Well, well... What do you know... It was unlocked all along," came Sky's voice from behind him.
"You mean to tell me that in the unknown period of time that you've been here, you not once tried the door?" Quickdraw shot Sky a dirty look.
"Nah, I was pretty happy to just sleep on the floor of the room."
The grey stallion brought a hoof to his face, running it down his muzzle in a futile attempt to rub off the stupid that he thought Sky must have infected him with.
"Alright look," he said. "Here's the plan. We go and release the rest of the prisoners, then we fight our way out. Sound good?"
"Uh, sure... But if you don't mind, I think I'll stick in the back," Sky replied.
"Fine. Lets go"
And with that, they left their cell to free Dizzy, who glomped Quickdraw as soon as the door to her cell swung open. As they walked down the halls, freeing the prisoners, one thought ran through his head...
This is going to be a lo~ng day...

Author's Note:

Whelp that's that. Dayum... Storm be scared. I wonder what that scar is on Steele's face hmm?

In other news, *GASP* NEW COVER ART!!! Yes people, As an apology for the lateness of that last chapter as well as a lack of new HD cover art, I'm releasing chapter 4 early with the new, amazing cover art. Luna really pulled through on this one, so a round of applause for her.

Sky Shadow and Dr Lexicon are the property of 59caddyel, used with their permission. Thanks for the OC's, they're gonna help heaps.

That's all folks.

Note: Anything that seems odd (i.e. Storm's forelegs) are NOT mistakes.They have plot points later, so bear with me.

Comments

[3748996328]

I like the way that you are giving us a little insight into the characters backstory, It makes them seem more fleshed out and gives them motives for how they act. Keep up the great work.

[Cheshire]

2089677 Thanks! Actually, you know, I had absolutely no idea what these guys were like when I started writing this? It feels like they're just telling me their stories and I'm writing them down... Weird... Either way, what do you think of the new cover art?

[3748996328]

2089799 I think its really nice, It really backs up the description of each character very nicely.

[Cheshire]

2093345 Sweet. Cost a pretty penny it did. Let's hope people appreciate it eh?