That Which was Lost

by LadyRFC

Princess Lily

“No really, this is no way to ask for directions,” Discord complained, his voice echoing in the bubble he found himself and his companions in.

The soft glow of the sphere tinted everything on the outside a light orange hue. Rarity gawked at the shade, but was too tired to make any comments besides a weak, “Far too much red.” Sally hung her head, the Swarm guards around her collapsing in exhaustion.

The unicorns outside smirked at them, keeping the stream of magic encasing their foes strong. Slowly they began to walk around them, the forces marching behind heading for the caves.

“But if you insist on asking for directions,” Discord called out over their stomping hooves, “I suppose I must aid you in not losing yourselves in that labyrinth of a cave. Wouldn't want you to get lost and lose precious time, after all.”

The unicorns raised eyebrows, but the marching troops did not even slacken their pace. Discord clicked his tongue in disapproval and crossed his mismatched arms, trying to ignore the sting of not only being ignored, but also of losing.

“Discord,” Rarity looked up at him pitifully, “do you know what spells could break this...” she waved a hoof at the bubble surrounding them, “thing?”

The disconiquus shrugged. “That's Twilight's specialty. I never use spells myself. To dry and sticky.”

“How can it be both dry and sticky?” one of the changlings asked, trying to ignore the depression and fear creeping into his lungs.

“I didn't know spells could be dry or sticky,” another murmured, head resting on its front legs. It looked up at Sally, whose eyes were fixed on the troops nearly at the cave's back entrance.

Discord sniffed, but didn't make any answer. Rarity looked back over her shoulder and watched, her heart dropping to her hooves, as the soldiers began to filter into the caves. She wanted to say something, anything, to ease the tension, but no words came. Instead she let out a squeak as Discord bumped into her.

“Oh, sorry dear. It seems our prospects are shrinking,” he explained with an unusual frown on his face.

She looked around as the changlings began to bump into them as well. The sphere was getting smaller.

Looking out at the unicorns, she saw they had their eyes closed, horns glowing as they encased their shield spell and began to bind it tighter and tighter, shrinking the amount of space it occupied.

“They're going to crush us!” Rarity gasped in horror. She rapidly thought of every spell she could, but unlike Twilight, she had few committed to memory and even less mastered. None of them were anywhere close to teleportation.

“Discord?!” she cried out desperately, moving from hoof to hoof in place as her companions crowded ever closer.

Before the draconiquus could reply, however, some disturbance near the caves caused the unicorns to break their concentration and shoot their eyes back. The shrinking of the bubble stopped abruptly.

Rarity looked back again to see the troops that had been filing into the caves appearing to back out and away from them. Squinting her eyes to see through the orange haze around her, she tried to spot the cause but it was some moments before the troops backed far enough away fro her to clearly see the figure in the cave entrance.

“Princess Lily?”

Sally turned to look behind her, the defeat in her eyes slowly fading, a small smile beginning to touch her lips.

The alicorn princess looked around at the troops and unicorns with a strong authoritative air, her head held high, her chin set, her eyes hard.

“Fall back,” she commanded. Gone was the more timid voice she had back in the cave. The princess who didn't seem to know her own father, the one that wanted to help, but wasn't sure how. This was a pony who fully intended to be listened to. And obeyed.

At first the troops simply stared at her in a mixture of surprise and confusion. While they had indeed known the princess was among the traitors, it was quite another matter to actually see her in the flesh. Especially as she now was commanding them and, as she was technically still their princess, they weren't entirely sure whether or not they should follow her orders.

“Now,” Princess Lily enforced in the calmest, deadliest near whispers the ponies had ever heard.

The troops closest to the princess immediately began to back off, the further soldiers being pushed back by their comrades before they could even make up their own minds about the matter. A ripple of bodies and armor clanked backwards, clearing the space between the alicorn and the unicorn's shield bubble.

Princess Lily looked over her friends' predicament and frowned at their unicorn captors. “Release them,” she ordered, her back straight, her eyes fierce.

But the unicorns were not as simple minded as their army counterparts. They sneered at her and then, to everypony's amazement, turned their backs to her.

The princess blinked in brief shock before her teeth ground together in distaste and her eyes narrowed into slits.

“Release them now or be displaced,” she warned, her voice once again barely above a whisper.

The unicorns did not reply, but one turned towards her and made a very ill planned attack, shooting a blast of energy at the princess' feet.

Lily did not move. The blast burned the grass to the right of her hooves. She blinked at it, turned her glaring eye upon her attacker and immediately her horn lit up a brilliant, shimmering jade green. Her attacker was thrown to the side, bouncing along the ground into a heap. The other unicorns stared after her, shocked at being attacked by the princess.

The alicorn looked at the shield, sniffed and her horn glowed again. Thousands of cracks formed along the curved surface of the bubble, shattering the shield and freeing its occupants in seconds. Rarity and her friends took large gulps of fresh air happily.

Before the unicorns could even think of a retaliation, they became encased in small green bubbles of their own, courtesy of their very own princess.

With a small smile, the alicorn and her freed companions turned their eyes onto the troops.

“Sit!” Lily commanded loudly.

Immediately the entire army sat down on the grass and waited, still and attentive.

A very loud splattering sound erupted in the air, coming from far beyond the caves, causing everypony to jerk their heads towards the sky.

“Now that,” Discord exclaimed, his eyebrows high, a huge grin rippling over his face, “was Twilight. Seems she used a spell that turns grass into sticky goo. Oh, I’m so proud of her! I just knew she could make some wonderful chaos if she only put her mind to it.”

Author's Note:

My apologies for the lateness of this chapter. My evening became full of things I didn't plan on. I shall still have another chapter on the way for later today as well.

Comments

[Kitcat36]

Loved Discord at the end of this chapter XD