A Lampent's Lament in Equestria

by Iridescence T Wind

Chapter 19: Technical Difficulties

"You can never plan the future by the past."
-Edmund Burke

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Meowth found himself frowning in disgust once more, it was the tenth time this week that the lions had served his meal as a small woodland creature, spring was thawing and the bigger game had yet to replenish the healthy fat leaving the smaller creatures more desirable. None the less even a cat could get sick of eating the same things for a long time. Meowth sighed and pushed against the table with his hind legs causing his chair to roll and slowly spin to a table on the opposite side of himself. Unlike the dining table this one was stocked full of improvised technology he had constructed out of the many various parts that the Lion's had provided him with. As he idly worked he tapped the headset back on for a status report on his teams latest activity. Spying on the annoyance that was a Lampent.

[All accounted for boss, Six Adult Equines, two of each primary race to be precise, four fillies, one Zebra, a Manticore, and a Timberwolf.] That was Arbok, the more studious of the two he had assigned to spy duty.

[Um...]Was Wheezing's voice, [Also the Stallion Red Wood and tha' sea serpent and spirit brewing pony.]

Meowth nodded to himself before realizing that they wouldn't be able to see the action, "Good, Combat assessment Arbok?"

[The purple one with the horn is the leader of the six equines it seems. Magical feats tremendous. Should be easy to subdue by using her curiosity against her and putting her to sleep.] Arbok thought to himself for a moment, [the other horned one doesn't have combat experience but based on what I have seen she is a whiner when captured, recommend a gag.]

"What about the others?" Meowth asked, scribbling some notes onto a spare piece of parchment.

[The two Winged Equines are very different. The blue one with the eccentric hair colors boasts her speed and agility. But if we can ground her all of her combat strength should become nonexistent. However for the yellow and pink one there is a fear factor as she can produce a mean look that would scare a Gengar out of its ghostly skin if she stared at it with it. There is also the possibility of her animal friends attacking. Recommend Smoke screen to obstruct sight and toxin until fainting.]

"Go on..." Meowth commanded and the next few hours the only sounds would be Arbok's voice droning on everything he had learned and the scribbling sound of a pen on parchment as Meowth took notes.

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"Are you sure this is safe?" Soul asked for what must of been the thousandth time this morning.

"What could possibly go wrong?" Scootaloo shot back exasperated with the endless repetition of this conversation.

"Well lots of things..." was the quiet voice of Glacier Song, mimicking similar distrust at the prospect ahead.

"We're only trying to get our cutie-marks in Animal Tracking after all." That was Apple bloom, head of the small group of fillies and the floating lamp.

"Field guide." Scootaloo shot out the comment, bringing Sweetie Belle to bare a rather old book they had borrowed from Twilight containing the information about various wild creatures. The crusaders diligently stalked the large paw prints soon bored and rather wanting to see what it was for themselves as Soul and the newest crusader, Glacier Song (who had been forced into tagging along by the sheer enthusiasm the crusaders had given her when they found out she didn't have a cutie-mark. The filly in question was now sitting on top of Soul's frames hat, having wrapped her hooves around the spike that was dead center and hanging onto it rather pleasantly while Soul gave her his version of a 'pony back ride'. The overall effect it gave however was for some reason a bunch of weird "D'awww" sounds from the grown mares in town as the little filly had pointed out in a random direction like a ship captain from atop his hat when asked to choose a direction to wander first by the crusaders.

Soul couldn't help but to chuckle quietly at the memory despite the situation as his advantage of flying made it apparent who they were going to run into. To not the spoil the surprise he gave a clear chirp drawing some interest but no suspicion from the crusaders as he spoke in his native universal language of the non-language beings, [Hey there Rose.]

The young manticore pup got up from her sleeping position, apparently up from a nap in the middle of the Everfree and responding in a small quiet rumble of her own, ['Sup Soul? What are you doing here?]

Soul rolled his eyes bringing out another quiet chirp and a slight gesture to the crusaders who were about to go through the bushes and end up right face to face with Rose, [Helping the Crusaders along with their quest for tracking cutie-marks.]

At this point Applebloom turned her head and stared at Soul, "What's with the chirping?"

"Oh nothing." Soul stated, "Just speaking to a friend."

"A friend?" Scootaloo shot back, attempting to clear a path through the bush ahead of her, "Why there's nopony around here but us four and none of us understand bird.

"you'll see." Soul stated crossing his metal limbs behind his back in a waiter like fashion.

"Whatev-" Scootaloo had cleared the brush out of her way and looked onwards before reeling back at a grinning face of Rose inches away from her, "MANTICORE!" she screamed running past the crusaders eliciting similar screams from the other two girls; oddly enough Song remained quiet and even joined soul in a chuckle as the crusader trio dived into the nearby bushes.

"Relax, it's Rose, a friend of mine, and to be precise she's a Manticore pup."

The crusaders sighed at the same time and Sweetie Belle was the first to speak up, "We were setting ourselves up for that weren't we?"

"As Big Macintosh would say, eeyup." Applebloom mimicked her brothers voice almost perfectly.

Soul rolled his eyes, "Look at it this way, at least it wasn't something with hostile intent."

[Excuse me, I'll be going back to napping.] Rose nodded back to them and curled back up on the spot without waiting for a response from him.

"Lets leave her to her nap," Soul stated bluntly before noticing the disappointed looks of the crusaders and adding, "Want to try something else? How about Cutie-mark crusader dog walkers?"

"Tried it." Scootaloo brought out a hoof waving it dramaticly, "Got dragged through half the town."

"Cutie-mark Crusader..." Soul pondered for a moment before gathering an Idea, "Ice cream tasters."

They perked up at that, "Wouldn't hurt to try that one out!" Sweetie Belle started cheerfully.

"Mhm!" Everypony, including Glacier Song agreed with the prospect of ice-cream, and off they went towards Ponyville for some of the frozen delicious deserts sold at Sugar Cube Corner.

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Meowth had finished writing down everything his spies had told him about Soul and his friends. He had even thought up a plan that would surely beat the annoying floating collector of Souls. Now it was only a matter of time, first he would take care of the current Lion mafia leader and replace him personally to get complete dominate control of the pack, and then the plan would start. Meowth hopped off his chair and began walking towards a corner of the cave, where a large construct the size of a small cottage was covered in a layer of patchwork cloth. The pieces were coming into play. Now it was time to merely finish this project and take over first the mafia then the town and perhaps even the world.

Only then would he be able to continue researching the portal technology to go home and maybe even open a permanent link between the two worlds allowing team rocket to gain control of the entirety of Equestria and its planet for the boss. He could imagine the boss now, happy aboard a throne carried by equines beating the Pokémon trainers everywhere with a literal army of the various creatures that lived here. He already had a few giant secret weapons in reserve in case things accidently went south. Meowth took a few minutes to be in bliss with the image of the boss calling him the best member of team rocket and replacing that annoying Persian that always loomed at the bosses side as a pet.

Soon enough he snapped back to reality and released the rest of his team mates that were stored in their Pokéballs. Giving his comrades an menacing grin he stated, "Time for plan Lion takeover. Everyone on board it's time to take charge."

Comments

[nightmaster0]

Look's like Meowth is finally making his move.