Chapter 2 Pony-napped
Quizzical Greystone And The Basements Of Doom
Chapter 2 Pony-napped
At the bottom of the pit was some sort of corridor. Shadowy figures immediately rousted the little ponies to their hooves, but before they were all standing the sun had already disappeared, the pit’s opening had been closed. The ponies were herded up the corridor towards a spot lit with torches.
Once they were gone Quiz stepped out of a shadow. “You are very good.”
“Good?” exclaimed Shadow, emerging from a dark space by the wall opposite Quiz. “You’re amazing! I want to play hide and seek with you!”
Quiz watched the other ponies being hustled away. She wiped her eyes. “It is… painful to hide while my friends are taken away. Yet I believe they would encourage me to do so if they could. Things will not go well for them, but capture would be much worse for me.”
“So, you recognize the kidnappers. You know these guys?”
“Oh, yes, we have met. It is unlikely that I am remembered fondly.”
#
Fluttershy did a quick head count. She had only had time to grab one child and take flight. Derpy had used her wings to push three more out of the clearing. Shady had been the furthest from anypony and had only had the chance to save himself. And that was it. Cheerilee and all the rest of the foals were gone.
“Mom, was that an earthquake?” asked Dinky.
“I don’t think so, Muffin. It was more like a tornado, except it was underground.”
“This was no act of nature,” declared Shady. He was inspecting the clearing. “The sod was torn up until there was nothing left but loose sand. Then it was all packed back together. All of this was done from below. This wasn’t a natural occurrence. This was a deliberate abduction.”
“An abduction by subduction?” asked Derpy. “But only one race can do that.”
“We’re nowhere near their territory,” exclaimed Fluttershy. “And we have a treaty!”
“Well, it happened,” stated Shady. “And they’ll probably soon figure out that they didn’t get everypony. They’ll come looking for us, so we have to get out of here.”
“Alright.” Fluttershy set to work organizing the children. “Everypony stay together. Do you all have a traveling buddy?”
“We can’t go back the way we came,” said Derpy. “Not if we’re being hunted. The path back to Ponyville will be where they look for us.”
Shady nodded. “There’s a little game trail that’ll take us back to town. They shouldn’t find us there.”
“Are you sure you can find it, Shady?” asked Fluttershy, warily.
“Sure,” he answered. “If you will all kindly follow me.”
With that, Shady pushed through the undergrowth at the edge of the path, and began trekking through the wild, unmarked forest. The two mares urged the children after him, and then brought up the rear.
Shady was a bit of a gambler. He knew the trail was in one of two directions, and he thought he would get lucky.
#
Cheerilee was led to the front of the group of ponies and presented to a hulking figure standing in the middle of the corridor. He scowled at her. “You are the teacher?”
“Yes, I am. My name is Cheerilee.”
“I am Chief Bowser.” The diamond dog grinned. His grin was much more frightening than his scowl. “The pretty little teacher pony will remember Bowser’s name, and Bowser has already forgotten her’s.”
“My name is Cheerilee…”
Bowser cut her off with a laugh. It was an unpleasant sound. “It is very cute how the pretty little teacher pony thinks Bowser cares enough to remember that.”
Cheerilee bristled. “I demand that you set us free immediately.”
“Do you now? And here Bowser was about to thank the pretty little teacher pony for offering the services of her little students to help poor Chief Bowser.”
The diamond dogs all laughed.
“What do you want from us?”
“Chief Bowser is in a bind,” said the diamond dog. “He must make a delivery tonight and he has been made very late by meddling pegasi. To return to our delivery schedule Bowser’s diamond dogs will need help hauling our product. The little ponies will do that for us.”
“You want the children to haul carts?! You can’t expect that!”
“Bowser can’t? That is very odd, as that is exactly what Bowser was expecting. Just as the pretty little teacher pony is probably expecting to return her students safely to their parents. She should know that both of us will have our expectations met, or neither of us will.”
Bowser raised his voice to address the foals. “If you like your teacher you will do as you are told. If you disobey you will be punished, and she will be punished three times over.” He leaned close to Cheerilee’s face and gave her his most sympathetic smile. It was the most terrifying expression he had shown her so far. “Bowser hopes the pretty little teacher pony’s students like her a lot.”
“You’ll never get away with this!”
“Bowser just knew the pretty little teacher pony would say that!” Again, all the diamond dogs laughed. “Bowser is disappointed. You ponies are showing no sympathy at all for Bowser, when all Bowser wants is to make his delivery on time. Good customer service is important, after all.”
The diamond dogs laughed again, but it was more of a polite laugh this time as Bowser had lost most of them.
“But it does not matter. Bowser is done asking nicely. But Bowser has one last question. Where is the Quizzical?”
“What?”
“The Quizzical, the worthless pony, where is she? Bowser does not see her. Where is she?”
“Quiz, had a problem with her permission slip. Her parents live far out of town, in Canterlot, we didn’t get the signed paperwork in time. Quiz wasn’t allowed to come with us.”
Cheerilee was a terrible liar (something she considered a virtue) and only got away with this because it was almost true. Quiz only made the field trip because her parents could afford a fast pegasus courier to hand deliver the signed permission slip. Cheerilee was only lying by omitting the single word ‘almost.’
“It really is a lot of silly bureaucratic nonsense, and entirely unfair to poor Quiz. Twilight Sparkle has been able to sign for her on several matters, but the school insisted on their rules…”
“Enough! Bowser does not have the time to pretend not to be bored. But it is a pity. Bowser was looking forward to seeing just how much the worthless pony could be forced to haul.”
“You… you beast!” gasped Cheerilee.
“Thank you,” said Bowser, who got another laugh. “Reader, come here.”
A slim diamond dog hurried over to them. “Yes, Chief Bowser?”
“You are to watch the pretty little teacher pony and see that she behaves.” Bowser turned back to Cheerilee. “This is Reader. We call him Reader because he reads. You might even like him. If the pretty little teacher pony cannot resist speaking she may speak to him.”
The interview over, Bowser stomped over to speak to one of his lieutenants. “Dagget, how many escaped?”
“Two of the bigger ponies and some of the small ones, Chief Bowser. The small ones are hard to count, perhaps three, perhaps five. The two troublesome ones, the flying ponies, are also free.”
Bowser expressed his displeasure by punching Dagget in the nose. “Fix this! Take Alpha and Digger and try to catch them. If you cannot catch them, do not let them get to the pony town. Waste no time, you must meet us when we reach the staging area. Now go!”
Dagget and the others hurried to obey, or at least to get away from Bowser.
“As for the rest of you!” screamed Bowser. “What are you all still doing standing here?! Move!”
#
“We must decide how best to use our freedom to help our friends,” said Quiz. “I suggest we follow them at a discreet distance.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” answered Shadow. “It sounds like the easiest way to get caught. And I’m not a big fan of being underground. I say we find the nearest tunnel to the surface and we book it back to Ponyville.”
Quiz shook her head. “Diamond dog tunnels are confusing. If we do not keep an eye on our friends we will lose them and never find them again. At least one of us must follow them.”
“Well we aren’t going to split up. We stick together.”
“Then let us follow, as I suggested, and hope that those still on the surface can escape and reach Ponyville.”
“Ok, but…” Shadow hesitated. “Can either of the chaperones find their way home?”
“I very much doubt that. Can your father not find the way?”
“Um…. well, you see, that’s a problem.”
#
“Are you sure the trail is this way, Shady?” asked Fluttershy. “I don’t mean to complain, and certainly wouldn’t want to suggest that anything is wrong, but it does seem as if we have been hiking for a very long time.”
“I’m reasonably sure,” said Shady. He stopped and looked up, as if to get his bearings. This was a pointless exercise as he couldn’t possibly see the sun through the canopy. “I just forgot how far it was, is all. Maybe we should have left the clearing heading west instead of north. I think the trail is closer where it wraps around that side. Oh, well.”
Travel wasn’t too terribly difficult, as the canopy was so thick very little light reached the Forest’s floor and the undergrowth was thin in most places. But some surprisingly gnarly brambles had adapted to growing in the dark and these formed impassable barriers. There were also fallen trees, huge rocks, ferns three times a pony’s size, spider webs five times a pony’s size (though, luckily so far no actual spiders), and a host of other obstructions. Travel in a straight line was impossible. The little party only managed to advance a few steps at a time before encountering something else they had to walk around. Fluttershy was certain that every time they turned to go around something they drifted a little further off course.
“You say this trail runs parallel to the path home on the north side?”
“Oh, yes, I’m quite certain of that.”
“And that would have been a right turn out of the clearing?”
Shady had to stop and think about it. “Yes, that’s correct.”
“Um… Shady? You’re pointing to the left.”
“What? Oh… er…” Shady looked at the left hoof he had been gesturing with, and blushed. “Well, if you aren’t confident we’ll find that trail this way we could just hike through the trees. If we keep heading east we’ll eventually run into Ponyville.”
“Actually, I think it’s more to the north-east.”
Shady shrugged, though he spoke defensively, “North, north-east, it hardly matters. Ponyville is a very broad target.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be picky. It wasn’t my place to correct you.” There was a long, uncomfortable pause. “So… which way is north-east?”
“Um…” Shady waved vaguely. “That-a-way.”
Derpy settled to the ground beside them, and pointed. “North-east is that way.”
“How did you know that?” asked Shady.
“While you were talking I flew up above the treetops to see where the sun was.”
“Oh, good. Children, we’re going to go the way Miss Derpy says. Look after your travel buddy just as you have been doing and everything will be fine. We should be home… um… soon… ish.”
“I don’t want to go home, I want to rescue my friends!” cried Pipsqueak. “We need a plan. We should find them and jump them like pirate raiders!”
This raised a cheer from the other children.
“Um… no. We aren’t going to do that.” Fluttershy regarded the little band of ‘raiders.’ Fierce pirates they were not. Pip and Dinky she knew well, the other two hardly at all. Valor Skies, whom everypony called Valory, was from Canterlot. Her family was in Ponyville while her father’s employer had him assigned there for temporary duty. Fluttershy had noticed that Valory was very courteous, very helpful, and had no volume control. The little pegasus never seemed aware of how loudly she was yelling.
Fluttershy knew no more about Angel. The Princesses had sent her from Canterlot to study magic with Twilight Sparkle, even though Angel was only in kindergarten. Twilight had said she was impressed with her new student, and that in turn impressed Fluttershy. There was a great deal of speculation about Angel, most of which Fluttershy considered silly. Angel was just a normal filly with an amazing aptitude for magic.
“Do we have to be pirates?” complained Angel. “I’d rather be a ninja.”
“No!” shouted the other foals.
“Now, children, there are things that are perfectly nice about both pirates and ninjas…Valory! Where did you get that?”
“Isn’t it a beauty, Miss Fluttershy?” Valory held up a miniature bow. She had a tiny arrow knocked and ready. “It isn’t as good as my big bow back home, but it folds so it’s portable and it’ll slip into a saddle bag. The cam and pulleys give it a surprisingly strong pull for such a little bow.”
“And what would Miss Cheerilee say about you carrying a concealed weapon?”
“I know!” shouted Pip. “Let’s rescue Miss Cheerilee and ask her!”
“I didn’t break any rules, Miss Fluttershy! I wouldn’t! I brought my bow for show and tell and I was just taking it home.” Valory paused. “Perhaps I should have left it on Miss Cheerilee’s desk until the end of the day…”
“I think Val has the right idea,” said Pipsqueak. He picked up a curved stick and began swinging it like a cutlass.
“You really should put that down, Pip,” said Fluttershy, stepping back out of his way. “We are not going to arm ourselves.”
“But Miss Fluttershy, this isn’t a weapon,” answered Pip, leaning on his stick. “See, it’s just a walking stick.”
“Children, please, we need to go home,” said Derpy. “Dinky, you’re the oldest, can’t you talk some sense into the others?”
“But, Mom, I agree with them! I want to rescue my friends!”
“Children, we have a mission,” stated Shady, affecting exaggerated seriousness. “We have vital intelligence about our enemy and it is our duty to get safely back to Ponyville with the information.”
This actually quieted the children.
“Also, we are executing important maneuvers. We are ‘Evading Capture.’ As long as we stay on the move we divide the enemy’s forces and waste their time while they hunt us. I can’t say enough about the importance of the work we are doing.”
“Wow,” gasped Dinky. The others nodded.
“That was really good,” Derpy whispered to Shady.
“Um, Shady?” asked Pip. “After we’ve led the ones chasing us deep enough into the Forest can we set up an ambush for them?”
“Yay, ambush!” cried the other foals.
“Oh, dear.”
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I really want to see some diamond dogs get their butt kicked by some foals. Bowser only sent 3 after the group that got away. I think they can pull it off.
“Yay, ambush!”
Very cool stuff!
Small typo spit - split
2044742
Sorry, I probably jumped the gun on it. I just have really bad experiences with...
i.imgur.com/bP3Fj.jpg
Anyway, the color scheme, the instantaneous appeal, the appealing good looks, and the general charm all lead to the conclusion. Greystone shutting him out definitely helped his chances of being a character, though. I'll keep looking.
Bowser, Luna forgives. ONCE.
You had one chance. And you just blew it.
2049380
I have a feeling his almost sue-ish traits are deliberate. Something odd about Shady and Shadow.
Gotta say Shady is smart cookie when it comes to children, despite his lack of navigation skills.
Angel, huh. Suspicious.
2049380 Really guys, you have been with me through a novella, a novel, and a short story, and you're worried that I've suddenly turned the part of my brain that knows how to create characters off? Have a little faith.
Anyway, I've heard that black coats and red manes have gone out of fashion. The new Mary Sues are all anti-Sues in monochrome grey on grey, and with social anxiety disorders...oh, dear.
2050964
I honestly wouldn't know. I got out of that business a long time ago.
Long hours, terrible pay, and the nightmares... man, the nightmares.
Suffice to say I've stopped following the development of the seedier underbelly of FIMfic.
Geez, Bowser just does not learn does he?
2060251 Not for much longer, he won't.
Angel, huh? Is that from some other fic, or something?
Ah Browser, you back and still dumb as a koopa.
Oh I love me some Pip here. Greatness in thy Pirating.
Is Angel from someone else's fic or something?
I'm ALMOST tempted to think that she is Celestia going deep-cover to catch this operation, but that doesn't actually seem likely.
4418962 On a readthrough now, and I actually got the same impression. Seems like something she might do.