> Gusty the Great book 2- The crusades > by Dianabel > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1: Leaving for adventure > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Very early in the morning as usual, Majesty lit candles for her husband and son. She breathed in a faster pace than usual, staring blankly at Lucky´s personal objects. “Sorry for not talking much today.” she apologized. “It´s just…” she sighed. “Today is an important day because we´re leaving to resume the conquests. After all this time.” she chuckled slightly. “It´s going to be very difficult to step into another battle due to what happened in that fateful day.” she looked away and closed her eyes, whimpering at the memories. “But I must do it so your death is not in vain, my child.” she stroked the toy carefully. “And I also must fulfil the promise I made to my family: I´ll take back what´s ours and nothing will tear it down, no matter what I must sacrifice in the way.” she said as she got up. Majesty looked at her parent´s portrait, most specifically at her father. Her ears dropped and her eyes were those of a foal with longing. “Majesty!” a feminine and tender voice called her. She widened her eyes and perked her ears up in surprise. She turned her head and saw a small filly giggling while running through the corridors, her mother following behind. “Majesty, slow down.” the mare ordered to the filly. “Sorry, mother.” the filly apologized. “But I can´t help it! I´m so full of energy and looking forward to play.” “You´ll play with your dolls later.” “I don´t want to play with the dolls. I want to run around.” “I took you with me for a walk not for a run.” Majesty walked to the door and peeked her head to keep sight of them. “Stop it, you´re going to bump into somepony.” Despite her mother´s warnings, the filly didn´t listen and ended up doing what her mother had predicted. Ashamed, she looked up at the pony she juts bumped her head against, who was none other than her huge and bearded father. “Oh! Sorry father.” “Hm!” the stallion rolled her eyes before he continued his walk. The young Majesty´s stared disillusioned at her father. She looked down with a sigh. “See? I told you you´d bump into somepony.” her mother scolded her as she checked she didn´t have any bumps. “Come on, let´s get you back to your room.” “Why doesn´t father like me?” Majesty her mother. The unicorn mare widened her eyes, shocked by the question. “What?” “Why doesn´t father like me?” Majesty´s mother scoffed. “Wha- Why would you say that?” “I don´t know, he barely smiles or talks to me, or spends time with me. Have I done something to offend him?” “Well, right now you just bumped into him to be fair. But as for other times, he´s just stressed due to Grogar, you know? But don´t worry, I´ll talk to him.” her mother kissed her cheek before she closed the bedroom´s door. As it would happen to any other foal, curiosity got the best of young Majesty, so she opened her bedroom´s door and went to the corridor. Following her parents´ voice, she walked to the door they were behind and eavesdropped their conversation. “I understand that she´s not the kind of child that you wanted. But she´s still your daughter. Show her some love.” her mother said to Majesty´s father. “It´s not that simple, love.” the stallion replied. “Our dynasty is in danger of disappearing and we can´t afford to have a child that can´t inherit the throne.” “I know, but she can still make an heir when she´s old enough.” “But what if she can´t?” “In that case, you´ll have to do an exception.” The stallion scoffed. “Really? You think she would be a suitable ruler?” The mare pressed her lips. “I know that due to our emotional nature we are not suitable rulers. But if we have no option left, I believe we should give her a chance.” “She won´t grow into a strong colt! I am not making her my heir!” “I´m sure we´ll find a solution in case she can´t bring foals to this world but let´s assume she does. She can still have a purpose.” “She´s a filly. A filly! She won´t be of no use to me. So why bother?” Young Majesty gasped hurt at those words. She ran to her room, holding her tears. Majesty looked at the filly with sympathy. “Queen Majesty?” a voice asked. The voice brought Majesty back to the present. “Lancer! I didn´t see you.” “Are you ok?” Lancer asked concerned. “Yes, sorry it´s just I was lighting a candle for my husband and son as always, I remembered something and I lost track of time.” “It´s ok. But I´ll inform you that we are ready to leave.” “Good, tell them I´ll be there in a few minutes.” Lancer raised a hoof in obedience and left. Majesty entered again to the room to pick up her son´s toy. She kissed it and she looked up to the sky. “Well.” she sighed. “This is it. There is not turning back.” She breathed in and out before joining the soldiers. “Do you really have to leave? Again?” Luna asked Gusty. Gusty sighed. “I´m afraid so.” “But you´ll come back, right?” Celestia asked in reply. Gusty stayed silent. The truth was that she didn´t know. There was a high chance that she wouldn’t come back, and this would be the last time she saw her daughters. But saying that would be very hard for her daughters to digest. But lying didn´t feel ok either. Seeing that there was no answer, Celestia sighed frustrated. “Look, you knew this would happen. I don´t want to do this either but I have no choice.” “I know but whenever we are together you have to leave again for a long time!” said Luna. “And worse, this time you might not come back for real.” her eyes filled with tears. “I don´t want to lose you too.” she hugged her. “Me neither nye tikpe dawa. My small moon.” Gusty hugged Luna as she cried. Celestia joined the hug as well, tears also in her face. “And little light. Tang tikpe batti.” she stroked Celestia´s mane. “Will you remember us?” Celestia asked Gusty. “Of course! You´ll be in my head all the time. Why would you question that?” “With all the fighting and everything, I don´t think you´ll have time to think about us. Besides, we cannot communicate because you won´t be able to visit.” “Yeah, that´s a big problem.” Gusty agreed. Glory, who was passing by, overheard the conversation. “You can always write each other letters, you know?” she suggested. “That´s a great idea! But we don´t know how to read or write that much…” “I can help you!” Glory offered. “You would?” “Yeah! We´re going to be away for so long, you and your bonny lassies shouldn´t be deprived of communication.” “But what about us?” Luna enquired. “The unicorns that will take care of you are experts in reading and writing. They can help you with that.” she noticed Clover passing by with Galaxy. “Especially him.” she pointed at him. Clover noticed Glory pointing at him. “Why are you pointing at me?” he asked curiously. “I was telling them that you were the best to teach them to read and write.” “Of course!” he said with great pride. “Wait. Are you calling me a nerd?” Glory held her laughter. “You can also communicate with pictures, you know?” Galaxy suggested. “That´s actually a pretty good idea!” Celestia commented. “Thank you. Fizzy used to draw while telling me stories.” “Of course I did!” Fizzy sprung out of nowhere, scaring Clover. “Where did she come from?” “Don´t question it, just get used to it.” Galaxy adviced him. Fizzy hugged her sister very tightly. Though a bit uncomfortable by it, Galaxy smiled and hugged her sister back. “I´m going to miss you so much! Take care ok?” “You too! Don´t do anything stupid and pay attention to what´s happening, ok?” Galaxy said worried. “Yes sister.” Fizzy gave her a huge kiss. “I love you cosa linda!” “Me too hermana.” Galaxy held the urge to cry. “Fizzy! Fizzy! Where are you?” Buttons looked for her. “Here!” Fizzy raised her hoof so Buttons could see her. Buttons sighed relief. “Thank goodness! I thought you left on your own.” “Why would you think that?” Fizzy asked naively. Both Buttons and Galaxy raised their eyebrows at her. “Ok, you´re right.” Celestia and Luna looked at their mother. Gusty shrugged and started laughing, the fillies joining in her laughter. Meanwhile, Lancer left the building. He stomped his hoof to get everypony´s attention. “Attention everypony!” he called to everypony. “Queen Majesty will join us in brief moments. Is everypony ready?” “Yes sir!” everypony replied as they raised their hooves. Lancer nodded his head. Few moments later, Majesty joined Lancer. She looked at him and nodded. “We´re leaving now.” she annunciated. Everypony followed behind her. Gusty gave Celestia and Luna a tight hug and two big kisses. “Take care. We´ll be fine.” she told them. “I´ll try to stay alive to come back in some months.” Slowly, she let go of their hooves. Like everypony else, they waved hooves at each other as they separated. Clover watched with a proud smile how they left, only to change expression when he noticed Galaxy´s, Celestia´s and Luna´s worried and sad faces. He raised his eyebrow intrigued. Gusty looked sad at the ground. As well as Luna said, she was reunited with her daughters only to be separated once again with a higher risk than last time. Very often she felt guilty for what was happening. She always loved hearing her magaga´s tales and imagined herself living the adventures she told her, breaking free from her boring hard life for a while, sometimes even wishing to live it in the real life. Oh, how naïve she was. Her younger self would have never imagined in a thousand years that she would be facing Grogar as an adult. Noticing her feelings, Buttons put a comforting foreleg around her. “Don´t worry. They´ll be ok.” she reassured her with a smile. “I know they will. But what about us?” “For that I have no answer. But in case we die, which I think it won´t happen even though it´s very likely but let´s stay positive, they´ll be in good hooves.” “Yeah, that´s true. Unless Grogar takes them.” “He won´t take them. He doesn´t even know where they are.” “But what if he eventually knows and I´m not there to protect them?” “Uh…” “He could feed them to his monsters, he could torture them, oh I can´t even imagine what he would be capable of doing to them!” she held her temples. As Gusty spoke, breezes were forming around her. “Ooh!” Buttons exclaimed horrified when she noticed them. “Ok, ok, that´s enough. You´re starting to form wind.” But Gusty didn´t listen to her. “Why did I follow Clover? Why?!” “Gusty!” Buttons raised her voice, this time getting her attention and stopping the breezes. “We´re going to breath in and out, ok?” Imitating Buttons, Gusty breathed slowly, the breezes slowly disappearing. “Feeling better?” “Sort of.” “Good. Now let´s take your mind out of it.” “How?” “Girls.” Fizzy interrupted the conversation. “Do you remember where we´re going now exactly?” she covered her mouth. “And whisper it so Lancer and Majesty don´t hear.” Much for her misfortune, the two unicorns she didn´t want to hear her, heard her. They both sighed frustrated. “Seriously? You´re on the way to war and you don´t know where you´re going?” Lancer angrily asked her. Fizzy looked away. Gusty held her laughter. One important difference between spying and battling against Grogar, was that she wasn´t alone anymore. She didn´t have to hold secrets to protect others, as they were also in the same business who supported her and gave her some liveliness to the situation by comedic situations, mainly her absent-minded Fizzy. “Ok, there are three main cities to reconquer to get Majesty´s kingdom back.” Glory explained to Fizzy in Lancer´s and Majesty´s places. One of them is Trottingham, which is now ruled by Crunch.” “Who´s Crunch?” “Crunch is an enormous dog made of stone. You have to be careful with him, otherwise he´ll petrify you. Gusty, I saw you entered once to Grogar´s reunion, did you see him?” Gusty replayed the image in her mind. She remembered many different creatures, the clearest in her memory were Silenius and Katrina, as they interacted with her. Nonetheless, she remembered a creature that matched Glory´s description. “Yeah, I think I saw him. But I didn´t interact with him.” “Ok. Next one is Coltlogne, which is ruled by Hydia, a troggle that does spells with potions that she concocts in a cauldron.” “That´s an advantage isn´t it? In attack we´ll be faster as she will be busy preparing potions.” Fizzy supposed. “Don´t underestimate her, she´s very fast and powerful. But with a coordination between our actions, we might defeat her. Coming back to subject, the last one is the capital, Canterlot, which is ruled by Grogar.” “Wait? Majesty´s kingdom´s capital is Tambelon´s capital?” Glory and Gusty nodded. “You knew this?” Fizzy asked Gusty. “Yup. She told me while we were waiting for you.” “And what was Majesty´s kingdom name?” Buttons asked curiously. “Maragon.” Majesty answered with pride. “Hm…” the three unicorns said in chorus, intrigued by Glory´s information. “And right now, where are we heading?” Fizzy asked. “Our first stop is Trottingham.” Glory replied. Lancer stared at Glory, he smirked at her. “What?” Glory asked Lancer. “You know? I´m starting to realize that you´re kind like the walking encyclopaedia and mother hen of the soldiers.” “And you´re kind of a tyrant.” Glory clapped back. “But unlike Grogar, I have honour.” “And is Trottingham very far?” “Unfortunately, yes.” Lancer replied. “Oof…” Fizzy, Buttons and Gusty shared anxious looks. “Don´t worry. We´ll tell you when we´re there.” Glory reassured them. “But you´ll need to be patient.” “Don´t worry. I have lots of it!” Fizzy said with pride. “Five minutes, and she´ll start asking if we´re there yet.” Buttons whispered in Gusty´s ear. Gusty held her laughter. Just as she predicted, Fizzy started asking if they were near. “Are we there yet?” “No.” Lancer replied. Fizzy repeated the same questions throughout many days of travel. “Are we there yet?” Fizzy asked in a rainy day. “Not yet.” Glory answered. “Hey, are we there yet?” Fizzy asked in a snowy day. “No…” Glory answered again, a bit frustrated but patient at the same time. “Are we there yet?” “No!” Majesty replied angry. Although Buttons nor Gusty replied, they grew increasingly tired of Fizzy´s persistence in asking. The same could be said for the other soldiers. “Are we there yet?” “Yes.” Lancer replied. “Really?” “NO!” “Are we there yet?” “No!” Glory replied somewhat angry. “Are we there yet?” “No, we´re not!” Majesty replied fast-paced. “Are we there yet?” “NOOOOO!” Majesty, Lancer, Glory, Buttons and Gusty yelled at the same time. “Are we there-” “Fizzy, if you ask one of us are we there yet one more time, I will put you in your final destination.” Lancer warned her. “WILL ANY OF YOU SHUT UP?!” Majesty stomped one of her hooves. “For who knows many days I´ve been putting up with your useless annoying blathering and we still have days of travel ahead of us! So for the love of all the kings and queens, STAY QUIET!” Everypony stared at her scared. Gusty was both scared and surprised, as she thought that the angriest that Majesty had been in her life was when she messed up the spying mission. “This can´t get any worse.” Majesty muttered. Suddenly, out of nowhere, an ophiotaurus crept through some bushes and roared at them. “I´m afraid it can.” Gusty said worried. > Chapter 2: Fighting against an ophiotaurus > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ophiotaurus roared once again before creeping towards Majesty. “Protect the queen!” Lancer ordered the soldiers after it roared. Not a second had passed and the soldiers had already drawn their swords. From the nerves, Gusty accidentally dropped her sword but quickly grabbed it, exhaling in relief. Some of the soldiers formed a protective circle around Majesty. “What on earth is that?” Buttons asked terrified. “An ophiotaurus.” Glory replied equally as scared. “A what?” Fizzy asked confused. “An ophiotaurus. Half snake, half bull. Part of Grogar´s great bestiary.” Gusty turned her head to the creature, checking it from top to bottom. “Makes sense.” she thought aloud, knowing that Grogar´s monsters were usually made of various creatures, even though she didn´t see all of them. “Is it poisonous?” “Judging from the fangs and eyes… Pretty likely.” The ophiotaurus´ ear twitched when it heard the unicorns´ conversation. It turned its head and widened its eyes when it spotted Gusty. It frowned and turned left to go for Gusty instead, leaving everypony confused. “What the? Where is it going?” Lancer raised his eyebrow. “Um… Is it me or is it coming for us instead?” Fizzy asked As everypony else, Gusty was estranged by that sudden change of target but when she remembered that this creature was one of Grogar´s many creations, she understood everything. “It´s not coming for all of us. It´s coming for me!” she exclaimed horrified. The creature lowered its head to attack Gusty. The unicorn quickly conjured up a force field which, stopped it just when it was about to reach her. While after months of practicing she had already mastered that spell, this was the first time she used it against an enemy, let alone a huge, heavy and strong creature. So, it wasn´t surprising that her force field would start to shake and break in a matter of seconds after the ophiotaurus´ few attempts to break it. She fell to the ground and yelled scared when she saw the ophiotaurus´ head approaching, however Glory, Buttons and Fizzy joined forces and created a force field together. Gusty got up as fast as she could to add her magic to the force field. Meanwhile, the unicorns closer to Majesty observed the scene. “Of course. Grogar must have sent his creatures for Gusty.” Majesty deduced. “Wow. Is he really that scared of her that he sends his monsters to kill her instead of you?” Lancer asked shocked. “It appears.” Lancer looked intrigued at Gusty while raising an eyebrow. “And that´s why we need her alive.” Majesty said as she plucked a sword. In response, the soldiers copied her. The unicorns ran to the ophiotaurus to aid Gusty and her friends, who were struggling to keep the force field. “Why don´t you pick at somepony of your own size and leave us alone?!” Fizzy yelled at the creature, taking a pause everytime it hit their forcefield. “Ugh, I don´t think I can hold on for much longer…” Buttons panted in exhaustion. After the creature hit the force field once again, Buttons fainted from exhaustion. “Ay! Buttons!” Fizzy exclaimed. In reaction to her friend´s faint, she accidentally stopped using her horn. Glory and Gusty stared at her surprised, the latter glaring at her. “Uh oh.” Fizzy muttered when she realized her mistake. Her little mishap allowed the ophiotaurus to finally break the force field. The three standing unicorns fell to the ground, being completely vulnerable to the monster´s attack. Luckily, it didn´t have time to attack, as a sword landed on its tail. The unicorns turned their heads right and saw Majesty smirk. “Wow. Now that´s a great aim.” Gusty commented. “Charge!” the queen yelled. After her scream, she and her soldiers ran to the creature while yelling. They surrounded it and started to attack either by magic or by the sword. At the same time, Buttons opened her eyes. “Hm… What happened?” she said as she massaged her temple. “You ok!” Fizzy hugged Buttons. “Our force field broke but Majesty threw a sword from a long distance and landed on the creature´s tail!” “Wow.” Buttons said in awe. “Yes, but it´s not enough to defeat it.” Glory warned her. “Grogar´s monsters are known for having quite a stamina.” Some unicorns flying away due to being hit by the ophiotaurus´ tail despite being hurt proved Glory´s point. They both clenched their teeth and closed their eyes when the unicorns landed. “Yeah, I can see that.” Gusty said in response. “Keep fighting!” Majesty yelled to the other soldiers, ignoring Gusty´s question in the process. “Fight until the creature yields!” Though confused and shocked about Majesty´s demand, Gusty decided to focus on attacking the creature to weaken it. The unicorns tried to immobilize the ophiotaurus by creating magical bonds, but the task was almost imposible, as it tried biting them several times. Noticing this, Glory talked to Lancer. “I think we should cut its fangs. Otherwise, some of us will end up poisoned.” “On it!” Lancer raised his hoof to his forehead. “But I will need this from you.” he said as he took Glory´s shield. Then, he whistled with his hoof to call the ophiotaurus´ attention. “Hey you snake!” The ophiotaurus turned its head to Lancer and Glory, only to be hit on the face with a rock that he threw, angering it in result. “Put behind me!” he ordered Glory. Angrily, the ophiotaurus showed its teeth and charged against them. Lancer quickly put both shields in front of them. When the ophitaurus was close enough, its teeth surpassed the shields, making Lancer and Glory jump backwards. “Now!” Lancer told Glory. She took her sword and cut the ophiotaurus´ fangs. “My queen! We just cut the creature´s fangs! We won´t have to worry about being poisoned anymore.” Glory told Majesty. “Nicely done, Glory.” Majesty congratulated her and Lancer. “Yeah, well done!” Gusty added. However, she would soon realize that victory wasn´t theirs yet. Glory and Lancer might have taken its fangs away but its snake behaviour still prevailed, as the ophiotaurus enrolled her tail around her and other soldiers and levitated them from the ground. She started zapping at its face, though with great difficulty due to being squished so hard. “A little help here…” she asked for help. “I think it´s very hungry.” “Or maybe he just needs some water.” Fizzy said cockily as she opened her bottle. However, her attitude changed when she couldn´t pick up any water. She shook the bottle downwards to see if it was truly empty. Indeed, not a single drop of water fell. “Where did all the water go?” “Um… to your tummy?” Buttons raised an eyebrow. “We went to pick up water this morning and you finished all in a few minutes.” “Then what am I supposed to do?” “Use your sword and shield like we´ve been learning all these months?” “Yeah, that´s a good plan. Or… I could borrow some canteens!” Fizzy opened Buttons´ canteen, making her complain. “Hey, that´s mine!” Despite the complaints, Fizzy didn´t listen. She opened the canteens and picked up the water inside to slap the creature, making it fall to the ground, releasing Gusty in the process. “You ok?” Buttons asked as she aided her to get up. “Yeah.” Gusty replied as she gasped for some air. Fizzy bonded the ophiotaurus against the ground with water. “Ha!” she laughed victoriously. “What are you going to do now?” Unfortunately, since it was made of water, the creature surpassed the bondage. “Maybe you shouldn´t use water to tie your enemy next time.” Buttons said to Fizzy. “Agreed.” Fizzy said in response. Then, the ophitaurus picked them up as it did with Gusty before. The unicorn gasped and zapped at the creature to release them, but it was too fast and dodged all of her attacks, which was the same problem that all the unicorns had. Slowly, less and less unicorns were standing. Either they were injured or enrolled in the ophioturus´ tail. While observing Gusty, Lancer noticed something very curious, which made him raise his eyebrow confused. “Why don´t you use your wind?!” he called out to her. Gusty bit her lip. “I don´t think I can pull it off…” “You can´t pull it off?!” Lancer replied angrily. “You´re supposed to be Wind Warrior, are you not?! You threw Grogar against the wall for goodness´ sake!” “Yeah, but one thing is Grogar and another is an ophiotaurus!” “I think Grogar is far worse!” “Yeah, but he´s not that big! I don´t think that I have that much strength to push it away! It´s like I asked you to levitate it!” “I think she makes a good point…” Glory agreed with Gusty. “But when you get very nervous, your magic gets all freaky. Shouldn´t be that enough to move the ophiotaurus?” The word `freaky´ made Gusty very upset, as it was a word the foals used when they described her magic. “You want wind magic? Fine, I´ll give you wind magic!” She threw a wind against Lancer, pushing him against a tree. “Hey!” he complained. He lit his horn to fight back but luckily, Majesty stood between them. “ENOUGH!” she yelled. “Both of you! We´re at the brink of being eaten by an ophiotaurus and the last thing we need is you two arguing like brats! What we need to do now is to get rid of that creature.” “But how? It´s too agitated to stop it!” Glory asked worried. “Agitated…” Gusty muttered. She gasped. “That´s it!” she said with a smile. “Well, Lancer, the moment has finally come. I´m going to use my magic.” “But you said that-” “I know I said that before, but now I´ve come up with an idea. Just this: when I say now, you hold the creature against the ground, alright?” The other unicorns shared confused looks, but they nodded. Gusty closed her eyes and lit her horn to conjure up winds. Every unicorn widened their eyes in expectation of something truly powerful and magical. However, Gusty´s winds didn´t turn stronger. Instead, they were soft and rhythmic. They understood what Gusty planned to do when the wind started playing a peaceful melody. “Snake charming? Seriously?” Lancer thought aloud. “More like ophiotaurus charming.” Fizzy added while trying to hold her laughter. Glory nudged them and pointed at the ophiotaurus, to show them that it was falling asleep. The ophiotaurus´ ears perked up. As the music progressed, the ophiotaurus´ muscles untensed, releasing all the soldiers it had on its tail. The ones on the ground picked them up with magic. The ophiotaurus yawned, closed its eyes and slowly enrolled its body and laid its head on it to sleep. Once she made sure that it was completely asleep, she stopped playing music. “How did you do that?” Glory asked her. “Well… When I was little and got so nervous that my wind went out of control, magaga suggested that I played a melody to see if I felt better. And it always made me feel more relaxed and also served me as a reminder that not everything I do is a failure. So I figured that if it helped me maybe, it could help the ophiotaurus too. And apparently it did.” she smiled at the sleeping ophiotaurus. “So does that mean that we can go now?” Buttons asked Majesty. “Not yet. I think we should kill it first.” “But it´s already unconscious. We can go now.” Gusty replicated. “Yes, but we don´t know if it will come for you again when it wakes up.” “Yeah, I guess that´s true.” “Want to do the honours?” “Oh! I thought you were going to do it.” “Well, I wouldn´t want to steal your first slay, Wind Warrior.” “Oh. Right.” Gusty walked to the creature. She inhaled and exhaled. She elevated the sword to tear the ohiotaurus´ flesh. But before she could lower the sword, the ophiotaurus disappeared for a second and was replaced instead by a troggle wielding a sword in front of a scared pegasus. A pegasus she knew very well. In the background, a female voice full of pain begged for mercy. “NO PLEASE NO!” When that image came to her mind Gusty paralyzed. Luckily it stopped before the worst part came. But the image played over, and over again in her mind. This caused Gusty to conceal from the real world, where the other unicorns stared at her estranged. “What´s taking her so long?” some soldiers whispered to themselves. “Gusty! Why did you stop?” Majesty called her. But Gusty did not answer. She was still focused on that image in her mind. So much, that she didn´t keep track of her breath, and most importantly her wind. “Uh oh…” Fizzy mumbled when she noticed the breezes. “Gusty, sweetie… It´s a bit windy here…” Buttons told her. “Gusty! Answer me!” Majesty insisted. As always, the winds slowly turned stronger and stronger to the point that the ponies floated around her. The ophiotaurus awakened, but luckily did no harm, as the tornado Gusty formed scared it, making it creep away. Not so far away from them, a whole appeared on the ground, and out of it, there were three dogs. “Do you see anything?” one of them asked. “Nope, nothing!” another of them replied. “Ugh, this is pointless!” the third one yelled frustrated. “We´ve been days looking over the outskirts and we haven´t seen any sign of Majesty and her soldiers!” “Don´t forget the one!” the second dog reminded him. “Which one?” “You know, the one! The one´s that´s so important because I don´t remember the reason.” “You mean the one who has wind?” “Yes! What was her name?” “The Wind Saviour!” “You idiots!” the first one kicked their heads with his fists. “Her name is the Wind Warrior, and she is of interest because Crunch wants her so he can give her to Grogar!” “Aaah…” the second and third dog said in chorus. “And do you remember how she looks like?” the second one asked. “Of course! She was uh…” “You don´t remember, don´t you?” the dog raised her eyebrow. “Of course I do! It´s just I have so many things to do that sometimes it´s difficult to remember, but I do remember!” “Yeah right.” As the two dogs were arguing, the third one saw something in the distance that caught his attention. “Hey, what´s that?” he pointed at the horizon. The two dogs frowned to get a better view. The second took a spyglass. “Looks like a tornado. But it´s not coming towards us. And it looks like there are ponies around!” she turned her head to her friends as she smirked. “You know what this means, right?” the first dog asked. The three dogs giggled maliciously. “Looks like our search has finally born its fruits. Cavall, spread the news.” “Yes, Gaueko.” Cavall lifted his paw. The three dogs immersed underground again. “Gusty! Stop! You´re pushing us around!” Majesty commanded. “Oh, I think I´m gonna be sick!” Buttons covered her mouth. “I´d hold your hair back but I´ll have to hold mine first!” Fizzy replied. “She can´t hear us!” Glory said. “No, but I know how we can make her notice us.” Lancer said before lighting her horn. “Lancer, what are you doing?!” Glory said scared. “Payback.” he replied. Lancer zapped at Gusty, which made her come back to reality. After her horn stopped glowing, the winds stopped abruptly, making everypony fall. Gusty panted heavily. “What happened?” Majesty asked her. Gusty shook her head. “I couldn´t… I couldn´t. I was reliving it all over again.” “What were you reliving all over?” “My husband´s death…” Majesty closed her eyes as she exhaled. “Look, I understand that-” Lancer said. “No, you don´t understand!” Gusty yelled at him. “You weren´t there when it happened!” her eyes filled with tears. “I saw it with my own eyes, not you! Ever since I got here you´ve only been disdaining me for something I had no control over, so don´t you ever tell me that you understand!” Lancer had seen Gusty sad and nervous. But this was the first time he saw her angry. He saw her as a mare with repressed rage and pain. He bit his lip in regret. “You know what? I think we had had enough for the day.” Glory said to break the tension. “I think we should camp in the forest and continue tomorrow. Maybe you could go to look for some water, Gusty. Maybe it helps to clear your mind.” Gusty nodded. Fizzy patted her back before the two left with the rest. Behind them, the same three dogs that had seen them before poked their heads out of a hole. They giggled evilly as they observed them. > Chapter 3: Making ammends > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Gusty… I am-” Lancer began doing a hissing sound when trying to pronounce the word `sorry´ but couldn´t bring himself. He growled in frustration. “I can´t do this! I have done no wrong. I just did what I had to do.” he paced around as he spoke. “And if she doesn´t like it well, bad for her! This is war, there´s no space for being soft.” “Is everything alright?” a known voice asked. Lancer´s ears perked up. He turned around and saw Glory giving him an estranged look as she held some wood. He blushed embarrassed. “How much of that did you hear?” he asked as he tried to avoid eye contact with “Enough to know that ye´re rehearsing to apologize to Gusty.” Glory replied. “Majesty forced me to!” Lancer quickly replied. “Yeah… I don´t quite buy that. She told me that ye asked her if ye could get off yer duties to apologize to Gusty.” Lancer sighed. Glory left the wood aside and sat beside Lancer. “Hen Lancer. There´s nothing wrong with wanting to apologize.” “I don´t want to apologize! But for some reason I feel guilty.” He groaned as he covered his face with his hooves. “Why do I feel that? I am general! Generals must be all tough and demanding in order to protect our kind! If we come across as cold, that´s their problem!” he crossed his forelegs. “Ye were doing your job, it´s true. But generals are impartial, they don´t treat some ponies worse than others. And, let´s be honest: this time ye haven´t been quite impartial.” “I´ve also been tough with other recruits!” “But ye never disrespected them. Ye disrespected Gusty.” “Well, it´s not like I insulted her.” “No, but ye were very passive-aggressive. Saying that her being here was just unjust and that she was just lucky, dismissing her feelings, second-guessing her, ye´ve been basically looking for any excuse to justify that she shouldn´t be here.” Lancer opened his mouth to replicate but seeing he had no arguments against Glory, he begrudgingly stayed quiet. “What do you have against her?” Lancer sighed. “It´s what I always say. The only reason Majesty let her join the army was because according to her she´s the hero of a prophecy.” “And have ye ever wondered why Majesty let ye in the army?” “Because she saw I had talent for that.” “How would ye feel if I constantly told ye that Majesty was wrong?” “It´s not the same! I did have talent and she didn´t.” “Maybe she has talents for other things needed in war. Lucena must have saw something in her.” “Or maybe it was just delusion.” “Because she makes mistakes and has more difficulties in some things than others? Because if I remember right, ye weren´t the best in training.” Lancer blushed. “I did mistakes, that´s true. But not bad as hers!” Glory raised her eyebrow. Lancer looked away. “Ok. Maybe they were.” “Besides, not everything about her is bad. Have you seen her using her wind magic? It´s impressive how she used it during her training. And ye can´t deny it.” “I´ll admit that her magic being dangerous can play in our advantage if she knows how to control it. But she´s impulsive, doesn´t know how to control her emotions and brings trouble! Do I need to remind you that the whole elaborated spying scheme failed because of her? You could have been killed!” “Yeah, that´s true. But think this was bound to happen honestly. I mean, Majesty told spies not to talk to anypony until I came to them but sometimes, I can´t because I don´t have the chance. Back there, this was something that worried me. I feared that the lack of communication could result in somepony making a mistake. And that pony happened to be Gusty. Of course I got angry at first, but I don´t resent her for that because it could have been anypony. It could have happened to me even!” “I… didn´t think it like that.” Lancer said in response. “And if we look at the positive outcomes, Majesty finally admitted mares in the army. Back in the castle, ironically, I felt lonely. I had the spies, but our relationship was very formal. The only thing we talked about was what we heard and making plans. I didn´t have ye.” “Yeah.” Lancer chuckled. “I also missed having you around. Things are not the same without you, you know?” Glory smiled. “Gusty might not be the best warrior material, but maybe it is a matter of waiting.” “But do you really believe that she´ll magically save us all? Be honest. Neither Majesty nor Gusty is around so you´re safe to say what you truly think.” “I do believe that Grogar can be defeated. But I´m also realistic. I ken it won´t happen immediately. I understand that everypony is impatient on getting rid of Grogar, but ye have to work hard and take time to make miracles happen. Despite making many mistakes, Gusty keeps on trying and fighting. I believe that´s having a warrior spirit. And ye´re the one who knows best about having a warrior spirit.” Glory put a hoof on his shoulder. Lancer looked at his own reflection in Glory´s eyes and saw a young colt who looked like him full of scars and bands but still motivated to fight. He sighed “I guess that could be true.” “If ye feel more comfortable, I can go with you.” Glory offered. “I know ye´re not the best with feelings so I could give you some advice.” Lancer smiled at her. “And…” Fizzy moved some water from the river to a bucket. “Ten! That should be enough for everypony. And this little will be for me.” she put water on her canteen. “Want some Buttons?” “Yes.” “Gusty?” Gusty didn´t answer. She had her eyes closed her eyes while exhaling and inhaled air from her nose. Her eyebrows twitched from time to time, or her breath was irregular. Buttons and Fizzy looked at each other. Buttons moved her hoof to encourage Fizzy to do something fun. “Hey, Gusty! Do you want me to show a cool and funny water move? I call it… The octopus form!” Fizzy made an octopus and moved it as she danced with her forelegs. She inflated her cheeks to make a funny face. However, her attempt ended in failure. Gusty didn´t smile nor seemed interested in her mannerisms. Seeing it didn´t work, Fizzy undid the octopus, wetting herself and Buttons in the process. Fizzy smiled as an apology to Buttons. “I guess we´ll have to do this my own way.” Buttons said after shaking her body to dry herself. Without realizing it, she splashed Fizzy. “Gusty, ma chérie.” Buttons said as she approached to her. ·We noticed that you´ve been uh… Actually, we´re not sure of what you´ve doing.” Buttons sat beside her. Fizzy sat next to Buttons. “But you seem to be struggling so do you want to talk about it?” Again, no response from Gusty. She seemed to be very focused on what she was doing that she lost track of her surroundings. “Gusty? Do you hear us?” Buttons put a hoof on her shoulder. “AH!” Gusty yelped when she noticed Buttons´s hoof. She turned around and noticed Buttons and Fizzy. She sighed in relief. “Oh, it´s just you.” “What were you doing?” Fizzy asked Gusty. “Papa and mama taught me to take a moment for myself in a peaceful place and focus on my breathing when I felt very nervous. Whenever I get the chance, I take this advice. And it usually works somewhat. But this time…” she puffed. “It´s been difficult.” “About that… Are you feeling better?” Buttons asked. Gusty shook her head as she puffed. “Not really.” she covered her face with her hooves. “I thought the memories had stopped popping back.” “You mean this isn´t the first time that happened?” Fizzy asked surprised. “Months later after that happened, I started having many nightmares replaying the whole scene in my mind. I was always hypervigilant that nothing happened to Celestia and Luna, thinking that the same could happen to them. Those days were very rough for the three of us. After some months, I got better and had less nightmares. And it always was the same, the memories stopped right at-” Gusty couldn´t bring herself to finish. “I´m sorry, I don´t want to talk about it.” “It´s ok. We can imagine when it stops. You don´t need to say it.” Fizzy thought on ways to cheer her up. She noticed the phoenix necklace she always wore. “This might not be related to what we´re talking about but I must say I noticed that you´re always wearing that necklace.” Gusty looked down. She smiled at it nostalgically while holding it with her hoof. “How could I not? It was a gift he gave to me.” “Your husband made it?” Gusty nodded. “I still remember the day he gave it to me. We were having a stroll when our master wasn´t around and he said `Hey Gusts, I have a present for you!´ and he gave me this. Afterwards, he confessed that he liked me very much and he wanted to be more than friends.” “And did you like him back?” “Ever since I saw him.” “And how did you meet?” Fizzy asked excitedly. Gusty was about to answer but somepony interrupted their conversation. “Gusty.” a masculine voice said. They turned around and saw Lancer and Glory. “Well, well. Looks like mr jerk has come here.” Fizzy stood up. “Fizzy!” Buttons yelled at her. “Stop it!” However, Fizzy continued talking. “What have you come here to do? Are going to call her useless for breaking down in front of everypony when you were expecting to slay a creature like a knight in shining armour?” Buttons put her hoof on her forehead. Gusty blushed in embarrassment as Fizzy spoke. “Don´t worry, Fizzy. He´s not going to do that.” Glory reassured Fizzy. “But I think it´s better if Lancer explains himself.” she said as she gave Lancer a little push. The stallion gulped. He looked at Glory. “Go on.” Glory whispered to him. Lancer turned his head to Gusty. He forced a smile. “Gusty? Heeey!” Gusty, Fizzy and Buttons widened their eyes surprised. Although not in a good way. “I know we´ve had our issues, but I… he struggled to talk. “Want to start over!” The three unicorns looked at each other and then stared at Lancer. “So what do you say? Truce?” he offered his hoof to Gusty. Fizzy took some water with her magic ready to slap Lancer. “It´s ok. I can handle it.” Gusty stopped her. She got up and walked towards Lancer. “Truce?” she said calmly yet angry at the same time. From the moment you saw me, you´ve never wanted to see my face. But now you want me to behave like nothing happened. And you expect me to do so as if nothing happened. HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!” Lancer widened his eyes at Gusty´s sudden reaction. He looked at Glory, who encouraged him to continue. “Gusty. I didn´t mean to say that. All I want is to clear things between us.” Gusty pushed him away with a soft gust of wind. “Get out.” “Come on, I´m trying to apologize!” Glory nudged him. “Ouch! I mean… why won´t you accept my apology?” he faked a smile, making Glory shake her head with a hoof on her forehead. “If you truly wanted to apologize, you wouldn´t faking smiles or your behaviour.” “That´s true.” Glory agreed. “Are you with me or with her?” Lancer asked her upset. “You want me to forgive you? Then show me you recognize your mistakes and regret them!” Lancer frowned. “Go on. Start over.” Gusty ordered. Lancer exhaled air from his nose. “I… Am… Sorry.” “That´s a start.” Glory smiled, but it quickly vanished after what Lancer said. “That you´re making this harder than it needs to be!” “Time out!” Gusty exclaimed as she ignited her horn. “What?” Lancer asked confused as a small tornado surrounded him, making him float away. Gusty turned her back on him and sat down with her forelegs crossed and eyes closed. “Wait! Fine, I apologize! I didn´t mean to hurt your feelings.” “Time out?” Buttons asked Gusty. “Whenever Celestia and Luna misbehaved, I did this.” she replied quickly. “But don´t you get it?” Lancer continued. “This is not about you. It´s about our safety and future and not your feelings! I can´t be calm if our lives are at the hooves of a selfish and incompetent mare!” Gusty gasped at the word `selfish´. “Selfish?!” Gusty yelled full of rage. “You can call me incompetent dumb, or whatever but never selfish!” she got up and walked toward Lancer. “Don´t you think I know the weight I´m carrying right now?! Even before I met Majesty, I´ve been feeling the pressure of holding lives! I had to raise two fillies on my own and had my back flogged countless times to feed them. And now I´ve accepted to go into a war to save you all! You have no idea what that pressure feels like!” Lancer scoffed. “I have no idea what that pressure feels like?! You really think that?! I am a general, all those soldiers´ lives lie on my hooves! As well as Queen Majesty´s. That´s a pressure bigger than the lives of two fillies.” “Well, now I have the pressure of the lives of soldiers, my daughters, Queen Majesty´s future, and the future of pony kind! That´s much bigger, you genius!” “Oh, how humble.” “That´s what the prophecy says, not me!” Getting tired of Gusty and Lancer arguing, Glory sighed as she rolled her eyes. “I´m going to tell Majesty we´ll be late for dinner. Anypony wants to come?” she asked Buttons and Fizzy. “And miss this?” Fizzy asked, invested on the argument. She clicked her tongue. “No, thanks.” “How about ye Buttons?” “Tch tch.” Buttons shook her hoof to quiet Glory. “I want to hear what they´re saying.” Glory blinked. “Yer aff yer heids.” she muttered under her breath as she left. Majesty walked around the camp to make sur everything´s alright. Some soldiers came to her. “My queen. We checked around and we have seen no dangerous monster around.” the leader communicated. “Perfect. How about our enemies? Have you seen any of Grogar´s or his allies´soldiers?” “Not that we know of. But we can look harder.” “It´s ok, gentlecolts.” Majesty held her hoof high. “You may take a break for today. We´ll have dinner soon.” “Thank you, your highness.” the soldiers bowed to her. After they left, Glory approached her. “Ah Glory! How is the apologizing thing going for Lancer?” “As well as ye can imagine.” “They are fighting, aren´t they?” “Aye.” Glory nodded. Majesty groaned. “I gave Lancer some advice to apologize, but he loses his patience very easily. And Gusty is equally stubborn as Lancer.” “Of course she is.” Majesty mumbled frustrated. “So if we are late for dinner ye´ll know why. I´ll try to intervene even though that´s pretty much mission impossible.” “Don´t worry Glory, but don´t get too late. We´ve been attacked by a monster before and it certainly won´t be the last. And it´s likely that he has already talked to his allies. We must be very careful, especially Crunch, since we are in his territories. Possibly Katrina´s as well. If you have to drag them here, don´t doubt it.” As Majesty was talking, several shadows popped up from the ground. The only thing that could be seen were their shining eyes and widened smiles. “Hope not to get to that but understood.” Glory replied. Something in the horizon got her attention. She saw something getting back to the ground. She took out her sword. “Behind me!” she told Majesty. “What is it?” “I saw something.” “Draw out your swords!” Majesty ordered every soldier as she did. “We may be attacked in a few moments.” Suddenly, a paw popped up from the ground and pulled down a soldier. “Help!” she cried. Some seconds later another soldier pulled down. And another, and another. Majesty and Glory understood what they were confronting once a head popped up near Majesty. “Hello your Majesty.” it said. Before he could drag Majesty, Glory zapped at him. “Diamond dogs!” she exclaimed. “It´s an ambush!” Majesty yelled. “Warn the others!” “I´m not leaving ye here!” “Don´t worry I´m not alone. Be as quick as you can!” Glory nodded. She ignited her horn and disappeared in a flash. After noticing, Gaueko growled. “One of them has disappeared!” the black dog told his minions. “She could be the Wind Warrior. Search everywhere!” he ordered all the diamond dogs. Afterwards, some dogs stopped fighting the unicorns and went underground instead. *** “Can´t you just listen to what I´m saying for a second?” Gusty asked frustrated. “I´m trying to make you understand how I feel! Why don´t you listen?” “Because we are in the middle of a war! I never talk about my feelings because soldiers can´t see their general turning soft and getting killed for showing weakness!” Immediately, Lancer covered his mouth. Fizzy and Buttons left out a dramatic sigh. Gusty widened her eyes. “I knew it!” Fizzy exclaimed. Gusty stopped the tornado and gently let Lancer on the ground. “Is that true?” she asked “You think showing feelings is weakness?” Lancer began to sweat. “I…” Finding no words to say, he covered his face in embarrassment. Gusty sat next to him. “I know you didn´t mean to say that, but I´m thank you anyway for telling me. I like this, you know? You telling me how you feel. It makes me feel like you consider me part of the team.” Lancer said no word. Gusty sighed. “Look, I also find difficult talking about my feelings sometimes. When I first met Fizzy and Buttons I couldn´t talk to them about what was going on but that only made things worse. Slowly, I opened up to them and I promised to say how I felt. As difficult as it seems to us, it truly makes things easier.” Lancer shook his head. “You don´t understand.” he made eye contact with Gusty. “You don´t have a rank as high as I do. Many unicorns count on me. Majesty counts on me. They can´t see me falling down because it wrecks their spirit. And an enemy can take advantage of you.” “I understand what you say. It must be very hard.” she put her hoof on her shoulder. After hearing Gusty´s words and feeling her comforting hoof on his shoulder, he somehow started to feel better. He stared at her curiously. “But I´m not talking about telling everypony or your enemies how you feel.” she continued.” “Just your closest ones, like Glory! Or ponies you have conflicts with, like me. We are a team and if we want it to work, we need to tell each other everything. Ok?” she offered her hooves to Lancer. “Ok fine.” he put his hooves on hers. “But I also believe that you need to control your emotions. I feel like it blinds your judgement and leads you to take impulsive choices.” “Yeah…” Gusty put her hoof behind her neck. “I apologize for that.” “I´m also sorry for having treated you like that.” “I accept your apology.” They smiled at each other. “So we call it a truce?” Lancer asked. “Truce.” Gusty replied. Fizzy used Buttons´ tail to dry her tears. “Ah, I love when things get solved.” Upset, Buttons took her tail away from Fizzy. “Now let´s go back to Majesty before she worries about us.” Gusty said. Lancer looked around estranged. “Where is Glory?” Then, out of nowhere, the unicorn appeared in a flash. “I need ye to stop fighting and come immediately!” she exclaimed in panic. “What´s wrong?” Gusty asked her. “An ambush! We need ye immediately!” “Ambush?” Buttons asked shocked. “By whom?” “Ye´ll see when ye get there. We need to go noo, before they-” Suddenly, something grabbed Fizzy and dragged down a whole. She yelped. “No!” she told the dog as she tried to take its foreleg around her. “Fizzy!” Gusty exclaimed worried. “Help me! Help me!” Fizzy reached her hoof to Gusty. “Come on!” Gusty tried to take her hoof. “Get away!” a dog said to Gusty as he took her. Glory and Lancer were captured as well. The four unicorns struggled to break free without their magic, as the dogs blocked it with rings around their horns. Fortunately, there was still a unicorn that needed to be capture. Buttons zapped one at the head of the diamond dog that held Gusty, making it lose conscience. Afterwards she gave out a war cry as she jumped.The diamond dogs and the unicorns stared at her in shock. “That was close.” she said. “Why you little-” a dog said as she took her bow to shoot an arrow at her. Buttons jumped away to dodge the arrow. Fizzy yelled horrified as she saw the arrow coming at her, but Buttons broke it in half. Buttons jumped on every diamond dog that came near and zapped the ones that had her friends. When they were free, they took the rings off their horns. Gusty made a wind to make herself and her friends float so the diamonds dogs couldn´t reach them. “Should we help her?” Glory asked concerned. “Nah, I think she has it under control.” Fizzy replied. Two dogs jumped from both sides to get her. Buttons froze them as she jumped. She took a moment to fix her mane before hitting them both with her rear legs. In a few seconds, she defeated the two remaining dogs. “Come on, what are you waiting for?” she asked at her shocked friends. “Majesty need us!” she ran away. They stared at her as they landed. “Wow.” Lancer said. “Oh no…” Lancer´s ears dropped in horror. It was completely empty. Everypony had been captured, including Majesty, which they could tell by her fallen crown. Glory sat down and picked it with her hooves. “We got too late.” she lamented. “What do we do now?” Buttons asked. Unknown to them, there was a shadow watching them. Just when it was about to move, it accidentally stepped over a branch, making Gusty´s ear twitch. The shadow froze as it noticed Gusty slowly turning her head to see eye to eye. “There´s one of them!” she pointed at the shadow. Everypony turned their heads to the shadow, making it run away. “Hey!” Gusty yelled as she ran after the shadow. “It´s getting away!” Lancer said as he followed Gusty. “But if it was a diamond dog why isn´t it underground?” Glory wondered. “Maybe it´s not a diamond dog but it could be anything else. And dangerous.” Buttons said. “Like one Grogar´s monsters or a bounty hunter!” Fizzy suggested. “Who knows, the only to find out is following it!” Fizzy joined the chase before Buttons and Glory. Lancer tried to zap it but failed at all his attempts. “My attacks can´t reach it, it´s too far!” he exclaimed. “Any ideas?” Gusty turned to Fizzy, Buttons and Glory. Fizzy looked at her shield. “Want to join forces?” she asked Gusty as she showed her the shield. The unicorn nodded. Fizzy threw it like frisbee and Gusty pushed it with a gust of wind towards the shadow. After hearing a sound of metal, Gusty and Fizzy high hooved. “Alright, alright.” Gusty said as she approached the shadow. Let´s see how you look like you-” Nopony expected what they saw next. What they were chasing was not a diamond dog or a dangerous creature. They gasped when they saw what the shadow looked like. “Unicorn?!” they asked in chorus. > Chapter 4: Discovering secrets > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gusty lowered the cloak to see the unicorn´s face better. His fur was grey and his mane dark blue. Though not very big, he had a bushy beard. “How could we have confused a unicorn with those things?!” Gusty yelled angry at herself before covering her face with her hooves. “I have no idea.” Fizzy replied. “What were those things anyway?” she asked Glory. “Diamond dogs. They are Crunch´s servants. I knew it was not a diamond dog because otherwise he would have gone underground.” Glory said. “But a unicorn was the last creature to come to my mind.” Gusty gently shook him to see if he could wake him. Seeing no response, she looked worried at Fizzy. “Is he…” Fizzy asked Gusty. “I´m not so sure. But he doesn´t respond.” “Let´s not jump into conclusions.” said Glory. “First, we need to check if he´s breathing. Leave it to my hooves.” she stretched her forelegs. She opened the unconscious unicorn´s mouth holding his forehead and chin and got her ear closer. “Oh geeze… Maybe we shouldn´t have used the shield, Fizzy.” she said. “Well… It could have been far worse. We could have used a sword!” Fizzy laughed nervously. “Besides, I´m pretty sure he survived that. Right?” she asked insecure. Glory shushed them both. After some seconds, she moved her head away. “Good news, he´s breathing.” Gusty and Fizzy sighed in relief. “And when will he wake up?” asked Fizzy. “Depends on how hard the blow was.” Glory replied after she checked if the unicorn´s pupil reacted to the light from her horn. “In my opinion, he´ll be up in less than one day. He might have amnesia for a day and difficulties to pay attention, I believe his head will be a bit cloudy. It´s possible that he has balance or walking problems as well.” “Wow, how do you know all that?” “Before I was a spy, I used to be one of the army´s nurses.” Glory smiled. “In that case, we´ll have to nurse him when he wakes up.” Gusty said. “I don´t know…” Lancer shook his head. “Maybe this is a good thing. We still don´t know why he was watching us. Who knows, maybe he could have hurt us or who knows, maybe he works for Grogar or one of his allies!” “Why would a unicorn work for Grogar or his allies?” Fizzy asked confused. “I don´t know, some ponies must be brainwashed, or maybe Grogar threatened to hurt his family? Look, I´m just trying to make you two feel better! Why do you have to make it so difficult?!” Fizzy raised her hooves on defence whereas Gusty rolled her eyes while shaking her head. “I don´t see that possibility too far-fetched.” Buttons agreed with Lancer. “If he´s innocent, why did he run away?” “That´s actually a good question…” Fizzy thought aloud. “Thank you!” Lancer exclaimed. “One thing´s for sure, he´s not with the diamond dogs.” Gusty assumed. “Otherwise, he would have attacked us with them.” “Maybe not the diamond dogs, but he might be with Katrina.” Lancer said in response to Gusty´s theory. “Her territories are around Trottingham after all.” “He could be a spy.” Glory supported Lancer´s opinion. “But if I was a tyrant desperate to capture my enemy, I would have sent soldiers as well. "Who´s to say he´s alone?” Fizzy asked. “Maybe his plan was for us to follow him and lead us to Katrina´s soldiers.” “Hm… To me it seemed like he didn´t want us to see him. I didn´t see his face but I could tell he was frozen in fear.” “But what if the reason he ran away was to warn the other soldiers?” Buttons asked. “He would have been yelling if that was the case, wouldn´t he?” Gusty raised her eyebrow. “So you´re saying we should trust him?” Lancer asked. “Not really. You make good points, but I also see some inconsistences so I´ll give him the benefit of a doubt. Nonetheless, I still think we need to take precautions.” “What Majesty would do is tie him up and interrogate him.” Glory replied. “I suggest we did the same.” Everypony nodded their heads. Gusty picked him with her forelegs “Do any of you have rope?” Buttons asked. Glory looked on her bag. “I´m afraid not.” she lamented. “Me neither.” Lancer clicked his tongue “Nope. And after the ophiotaurus, I learned I can´t use water.” Fizzy put her hoof on her chest. “So, I can´t help you.” As they were talking, her ear perked up when she heard groans. She gasped when she saw him frowning. “He´s waking up!” Immediately, everypony turned their heads to the unicorn. Slowly, he opened his blue eyes. He grunted as his blurry vision turned into a vivid image of Gusty staring him. He gasped slightly when his eyes met Gusty´s. “Who are you?” he asked confused. “A spirit of light? Am I dead?” Gusty widened her eyes. Fizzy and Buttons held their laughter. Glory blinked surprised and turned her head to Gusty to see ger reaction. “Seriously?” Lancer thought aloud as he raised his eyebrow. Gusty laughed nervously. “Nope. I am just regular unicorn. Just like you.” Once he listened to Gusty´s words, he quickly recovered conscience. He blushed in embarrassment. “Oh!” he cleared his throat. “Glad to know.” he looked around to avoid eye contact with Gusty. “What is this place?” “You are at the Sherhoof forest.” Glory replied. Carefully, the unicorn moved his head from right to left to take notice of Glory, Buttons, Lancer and Fizzy. “Yeah… I think this is the same spot I saw before something hit me in the head and everything turned black.” he massaged his temple. “I don´t remember what I was doing.” “You were looking at us. And you ran away when I saw you.” Gusty explained. “Do you remember now?” The unicorn raised his eyebrows as he gasped slightly. “Aaah, you´re the ones who weren´t captured by the diamond dogs! And then you exclaimed `there´s one of them!´ and you chased me until I lost conscience. I suppose you must have thrown something at my head.” “A shield to be precise!” Fizzy showed him her shield. “Mine and Gusty´s doing.” Buttons gasped. She covered her mouth with her hoof. “Fizzy, don´t tell him our names! We don´t know if we can trust him.” “You just told him my name.” Buttons blinked. “Dang it.” she frowned. “Wait, wait.” Gusty raised her hoof to quiet them. “You mean you saw everything?” she asked the unicorn. He nodded. “I was just picking up some fruits for tea when suddenly I heard screams. That´s when I saw your camping and ponies fighting the diamond dogs. But they all failed. And then I saw you.” “Did you see a pony with a crown?” “I saw a mare with something shiny on her head, but I´m not sure if it was a crown.” “Did you see if they killed her?” Lancer asked worried. The unicorn shook his head. “No, I only saw her being dragged down but she seemed conscious.” “Oh, thank goodness.” Glory put her hoof on her chest. “So, that thing on her head was really a crown?” “Yes, it was.” “But only monarchs wear crowns and right now, Grogar is the only ruler here.” he widened his eyes. “Unless….” he turned to Gusty. “You don´t have the crown by any chance, do you?” “Yes.” Gusty took out the crown of her bag and showed it to the unicorn. Glory and Lancer gasped horrified. Fizzy and Buttons simply widened their eyes, surprised that Gusty would do such thing. “What are you doing?!” Lancer asked scared. “That´s Majesty´s crown! You can´t show it just like that!” Glory gently reprimanded her. “Trust me guys. I know what I´m doing.” Gusty reassured them. Glory and Lancer shared worried looks. Gusty looked intrigued at the unicorn as he examined the crown. “This design… It looks like the one from the kingdom of Maragon!” The unicorns gasped surprised. “He knows about Maragon.” Lancer said to Glory. “But how? I thought we were the only ones who knew.” said Buttons. “I mean, none of us knew about the kingdom until we joined.” “You know about Maragon?” Gusty asked him. “It was the kingdom of unicorns before Grogar came. However, if I understood history well, Grogar dethroned the royal family and killed them all, establishing the capital of Tambelon in Maragon´s capital.” “The kingdom is history. But not everypony in the royal family died. There were some survivors. And they have been fighting to restore it. That mare with the crown you saw is Majesty. She´s the last descendant of the royal family. And we´re helping her.” “So… You´re warriors?” “Aha.” Gusty nodded. The unicorn sighed in relief. “For a moment I thought you were bandits.” Fizzy scoffed. “Why would you think we were bandits?” “To be honest, you followed me and hit me with a shield.” he said angry. Fizzy and Gusty scratched the backs of their heads. “Yeah… We apologize for that.” “And also because the diamond dogs were capturing you and all the camping. But now that we clarified this misunderstanding, I know you are no harm. And I´ve learnt something that means a lot to me.” he smiled sadly. “I´ve been lacking hope of things getting better lately but discovering that there are unicorns fighting against Grogar gives me some.” Those words resonated in Gusty´s head. She may have heard time and time again that she was in something extraordinary ever since she joined Majesty´s rebellion, but this was the first time she heard it from a stranger. That phrase took a whole different meaning after knowing she was helping a pony in need. “I´m glad it does.” Gusty smiled tenderly at him. “And those words mean a lot to us as well.” The unicorn didn´t expect Gusty smiling t him, so he felt his heart pounding a little faster. “I… I´m glad they do.” “I´m sorry to interrupt the conversation, but we need to get going.” Lancer intervened nervous. “We have to save our leader after all, otherwise we´re doomed.” “And it will be all our fault!” Glory chuckled nervously. Fizzy and Buttons bit their lip. “Yeah, you´re right.” Gusty agreed with Lancer and Glory. “Well, it was nice meeting you. But now we must resume our journey. She laid her hoof on his shoulder, making him freeze in surprise. “Hope we meet again one day.” “Wait! I want-” Since they were busy talking, they didn´t notice the clouds covering the whole sky until a thunder roared. Afterwards, it started to rain. “Seriously?!” Lancer yelled. “It´s ok.” Gusty said to calm everypony down. “We can take refuge in the camping.” “You realized it´s destroyed, don´t you?” Buttons pointed out. Gusty checked the surroundings to find that Buttons as right. The tents were either torn apart or down. “Huh. I didn´t notice.” “You didn´t notice. Really?” “It´s ok. I can offer you refuge.” the unicorn offered. Everypony, except Fizzy who was distracted playing with the rain, turned their heads to him. “You would?” Glory asked. “Yeah! Besides, I need to show you something. I think it would be of your aid.” They looked at each other, unsure to trust him. However, they needed a refuge too. They nodded. “Ok. Take us there.” Gusty told him. “Right this way.” the unicorn led them. They waited until there was some distance between him and them to talk. “Are we sure this is a good idea?” Lancer asked everypony. “Not really but what other choice do we have?” Buttons replied. “Don´t worry.” Gusty reassured them. “I don´t think that he will harm us, but we´ll have to be aware of our surroundings and be ready for anything. And try to act normal, ok?” Glory shrugged. “If that´s the only way…” “Fizzy?” Gusty asked. “Huh, did you call me?” she asked. They stared at her upset. “What? I was experimenting with my magic! And with a good reason. Look!” She pointed at her creation, which enabled her not to get wetter by the rain. “Huh. That´s actually a good idea.” Lancer commented. “Are you coming?” the unicorn called them. “Yes, we were just waiting for her.” Gusty replied. The unicorn sneezed. “Don´t worry.” he sniffed. “Take your time.” he smiled. Gusty stared at the unicorn with worry and sympathy. “What´s your name?” “Starswirl.” “Starswirl, you can come under this…” Gusty stared at Fizzy´s creation, wondering how to call it. “`watery umbrella´.” she smiled a bit embarrassed. Starswirl chuckled. “Thank you.” Underground, there were ponies pulling carts full of gems or digging, accompanied by foredogs and collector diamond dog. “Faster!” the foredogs yelled as they lashed the ponies´ backs. Most of the ponies were unicorns but there were exceptions. Such as a yellow earth pony with two long pink braids with hanging colourful decorations. “I think there are some here.” she said before she took the shovel to dig.. When she was done, the foredog pointed at the hole so the collectors identified the gems. “So?” the foredog asked after some time. “Jade.” one of the guards poked his head, leaving the many jade stones he carried in his forelegs. “Again.” The foredog groaned. “Isn´t there another gem that you can´t find?!” she yelled at the earth pony. “Before I came here, I never searched for gems in my life.” the earth pony replied calmly. “However, my father collected jade stones, that´s why I know how to find them. Where are came from, they were more valid than gold. So no, I don´t know how to find other gems.” “Then why on earth would Katrina offer you to us?!” she yelled frustrated. “Crunch won´t do a meeting with her unless she offers him a slave. But don´t worry, it´s just for one day.” “But we don´t want to dig only jades for a whole day!” one of the collectors said. “Look on the bright side.” the earth pony smiled. “Jades have a beautiful color. They can make beautiful accessories. Besides, it can treat caries.” “We don´t need treatment for caries!” the other collector showed his deteriorated teeth. “Our teeth are totally fine.” “Yeah, I can see that.” “Out of my way! Out of my way!” Gaueko yelled. Every pony and diamond dog stepped aside. They stared at the enchained unicorns. Despite having been captured, Majesty held her head tight and walked dignified. However, whenever she saw a unicorn staring at her, she felt shame she tried not to show. The diamond dogs whereas the earth pony stared curiously. “It can´t be! Is that Majesty?” one of the diamond guards around the earth pony asked. “Welcome back to your kingdom!” Gaueko said to Majesty. Majesty frowned at the dog, hurt by that comment. She held her head high. Gaueko and his minions laughed at her. “Her kingdom?” the earth pony said confused. “I thought it was Crunch´s.” “Nah, nothing important.” the foredog flapped her paw. “Majesty´s just a unicorn who believes that she will free unicorns by overthrowing Grogar reconquering the cities, including this one.” “She intends to overthrow Grogar and Crunch?” “Why are you that surprised? From what I´ve heard earth ponies are trying to overthrow Katrina.” “Yes, but one thing is overthrowing Katrina, and another is overthrowing Grogar. But now that I think of it, if Grogar was overthrown, what would happen to Katrina?” “Nothing. Only unicorns would be saved. Majesty only cares about the unicorns, not about earth ponies like you. If Katrina does not intervene, then she´ll still keep her kingdom and have you enslaved.” “But she´ll have to intervene one way or another. Majesty will have to confront all the allies in order to get to Grogar, right?” The foredog shrugged. “Don´t get your hopes up. Crunch will probably bring Majesty to Grogar before that ever happens.” The earth pony raised an eyebrow. “That sounds like you care about me.” The dog raised her ears. “No, I don´t! I´m just pointing out the reality to crush your dreams. Because that´s what we do! Right guys?” The two collectors barked in agreement. Suddenly, a group of injured diamond dogs arrived, receiving lots of stares. “Gaueko! Gaueko!” one of them yelled. “Where is Gaueko?” The foredog and the diggers ran to them. “He´s on his way to the throne room to talk to Crunch. What is it?” the foredog explained. “I need to talk to him. We didn´t get five of Majesty´s soldiers. One of them could be the Wind Warrior!” The foredog gasped dramatically. “We need to get to him quickly!” The diamond dogs ran away. The earth pony was left alone, with the cart attached to her back. She sighed. “I guess I´ll have to keep finding jades. Now I´ll never know how the story ends.” “Which story?” a feminine voice asked. The earth pony gasped and turned around to find Katrina. “Master... I didn´t know you were finished with your reunion with Crunch.” “Oh Posey…” she started caressing her mane. “You know dogs and cats are natural enemies, so I try to spend the least time around that violent stoned dog. But now I might want to stay a little longer before coming back home after hearing what you said. So dearie, I know that you are exhausted from collecting gems but I need you to do me a last favour…” she smirked. Posey´s ears dropped. “Crunch! Crunch!” Gaueko yelled as he opened the gates letting his workmates, Cavall and Gwyllgi enter. “Guess what?” “WHAT DO YOU WANT? DON´T YOU SEE I´M BUSY?!” Crunch asked upset. The three diamond dogs widened their eyes afraid. Gaueko clapped his paws together. “We interrupt because we bring news.” “What news? They´d better be good because I´m not in the best mood.” “You´re never in a good mood.” Gwyllgi mumbled. “What did you say?!” “Nothing!” she faked a smile. “Is it because of Katrina, sir?” Cavall asked. Crunch grunted. “I hate that cat…” he massaged his temple. “We made a deal to help each other catch Majesty and her warriors but I bet in the minute she sees a chance, she´ll betray me and take them all for herself!” he stomped his paw. Gwyllgi and Cavall took a step backwards. “Actually, this has to do with the news we´re bringing. We captured Majesty and all her warriors!” Crunch´s ears perked up. “You did?” he asked surprised. Gaueko nodded with pride. “Including the Wind Warrior?” “Including the Wind Warrior.” “Bring them to me!” “Right away!” Gaueko and Cavall opened the gates. The guards entered Majesty and the captured unicorns. “Well, well.” Crunch said as he went downstairs to walk to Majesty. “Looks like luck is not on your side anymore, your Majesty.” he chuckled. Majesty frowned determined. “We shall see Crunch. Because your soldiers haven´t caught us all.” Crunch, Gaueko, Gwyllgi and Cavall widened their eyes. “What?!” Crunch asked angry. “Your soldier forgot the most important soldier.” Majesty smirked. “One that could change everything.” “We caught the Wind Warrior, right?” Gaueko whispered to his comrades. “We took everypony in the camp. One of them must be her!” Gwyllgi replied. “Don´t believe me?” Majesty asked Crunch. “Go on! Check among all of us and compare it to the picture Grogar gave you.” Crunch took a quick glance of all the captured unicorns and then looked at the wanted poster. He groaned as he clenched his teeth in fury. “Oh no…” Cavall mumbled while hugging his comrades in fear. “You liars!” he yelled the three diamond dogs. “You told me you captured all of them!” “We did, sir.” Gaueko said in defence of himself and his workmates. “We captured all of them!” “Then how come she is not here!” Crunch pointed at the picture of Gusty. “Aaaah, so that´s how she looked like!” Gwyllgi thought aloud. She covered her mouth. Gaueko and Cavall stared at her angrily. “YOU DIDN´T EVEN REMEMBER HOW SHE LOOKED LIKE?!” “They didn´t remember, I did!” Gaueko said. “No you didn´t.” Cavall told him. “But there was no unicorn that looked like that in the camp sir!” Gwyllgi replicated. “If she was, we would have captured her!” “Yeah.” Cavall agreed. “We captured all of them super quickly. None of us were injured in the process!” Just after he said that an injured door passed through the corridor. “Gaueko?” he asked for his name. The three diamond dogs froze when they saw the injured dogs. They covered their mouths when they realized that they had forgotten a small detail. “The unicorn that ran away…” Gaueko murmured. “They were the ones that followed her. I completely forgot about them.” When the injured dog realized he was in front of the throne room, he stared at Crunch in shock. He tried to run away but Crunch stopped him. “YOU AND WHOEVER IS WITH YOU! COME HERE!” The injured dog had no choice but to obey. With the help of the foredog and her two collectors, they all entered to the throne room. Once the gates were closed and the corridor was empty, Posey, who was hiding behind a wall, ran to the gates and spied through the whole the two gates left. “What happened?” Crunch asked clenching his teeth. “There was a unicorn that ran away, and we followed her. There were five remaining but then one unicorn attacked us.” the injured dog explained. “She was incredibly fast! By the time we prepared for the attack, she already punched us!” another of the injured dogs added. “Did she use wind?” “No but I think I saw one levitating herself and her friends.” Crunch scowled at Gaueko, Gwyllgi and Cavall. They laughed nervously. “You are a trio of idiots!” he said to the three diamond dogs. He turned to the injured diamond dogs “And you are weaklings! Being defeated by a unicorn just like that. Look at you! You can barely move.” he stood up from the throne. “Which means that you are no longer of use to me.” Every dog in the room gasped. Even the unicorns were terrified for the diamond dogs. Posey gasped softly. Crunch walked towards them. “No!” the foredog put herself between Crunch and the injured dogs. She spread her forelegs to protect them. “Please, sir. They have risked their lives to accomplish their mission.” “Out of my way Sarama!” Crunch pushed her away. Sarama watched in fear as Crunch approached the injured dogs. Once he was in front of them, he closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were full of a white light. Slowly, the injured dogs turned to stone, much to all the witnesses´ horror, even though they covered their e. Once they were completely petrified, Crunch crashed the statues to pieces. He turned to Gaueko, Gwyllgi and Cavall. “If you do not wish to have the same fate, bring me the wind warrior before Katrina finds her!” he ordered them. The three diamond dogs gulped as they nodded. “Right away sir!” Gaueko replied. The three dogs ran away. Posey hid before the diamond dogs opened the gates. Once she made sure she was unseen, she left the castle to meet with Katrina, who awaited inside a carriage. “So?” Katrina asked Posey. “Apparently, Crunch has captured Majesty and her warriors.” “And?” Posey doubted before continuing. “But they didn´t capture all the warriors. The Wind Warrior is still free.” A smile drew in Katrina´s lips. “Interesting… Looks like I´m going to get the bigger lot.” She chuckled evilly. > Chapter 5: A lesson on magic > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There was almost no conversation between Starswirl and the soldiers during the trip to his place. Instead, there was a quiet tension between them. He noticed how hypervigilant they were of their surroundings. Lancer and Glory were preparing to draw their sword from time to time, and Buttons and Fizzy threw him threatening looks, the latter being less dissimulated about it. Buttons nudged her when she made a `I´m watching you´ gesture exaggeratedly. The only one who didn´t seem to be mistrusting was Gusty, though Starswirl could tell she was a bit nervous as well. “Your friends seem…. uncomfortable.” he whispered at her. Gusty pressed her lips. “Well… Bear in mind that we´ve just been attacked. And you appearing out of nowhere after spying us is suspicious to be honest.” “Then why did you decide to come with me?” Starswirl raised his eyebrow confused. “We don´t have much of a choice, do we?” Gusty looked up to point the rain. “So… How is the situation going for you?” Starswirl asked after a brief silence between them. “Is Grogar winning or…” he put his hoof on his chin. “Hmm… Majesty, was the name?” Gusty nodded. “As I was told when I entered the rebellion, it´s a pretty matched chess game. Majesty has conquered some towns, but Grogar puts up a huge fight that complicates eveything. From what I´ve heard, reconquering one city took her years. Now, she only has three cities left.” “I suppose one of them is Trottingham. Otherwise, you wouldn´t be around here. And the other one is Canterlot, now Tambelon´s capital.” “Correct.” “And which is the other one?” “Coltlogne.” “Oh ok.” “How do you know so much about Maragon if you had no relation to the rebellion?” “Elder knowledge.” Starswirl smiled nostalgically. Gusty blinked. “You don´t seem that old to me…” “No no!” he laughed. “I don´t mean it like that. I mean my elders´ knowledge.” “And how did your elders know?” “You are not the only ones doing things behind Grogar´s backs…” he winked an eye. “I see…” Gusty said intrigued. “I told you my name, but you haven´t told me yours. So what´s your name?” “Gusty.” “Gusty… Beautiful name.” he widened his eyes when he realized what he just said. “I mean! I like it.” And what is it like being in battle?” “What?” “You´re soldiers. You´ve been in battles.” “I actually haven´t been in one.” Starswirl widened his eyes in surprise. “I´m a very new addition, you know? And I´m not the only one. See those two mares?” she pointed at Fizzy and Buttons. “They joined at the same time I did.” “And how did you end up here?” “It´s a very very long story.” Gusty giggled nervously. Finally, between the trees, a cottage could be seen. “We´re here.” he informed to all the unicorns. “Wait!” Lancer stopped him before Starswirl could take another step. He nodded at Gusty. She conjured a wind to float herself and her friends to the cottage´s door. “Whoah!” Starswirl exclaimed surprised. “Didn´t know you had wind magic.” He held to Gusty to get his balance back. He blushed when she turned her head to him. “Are you ok?” she asked concerned. “Yeah, yeah!” he replied, trying to conceal his nerves. “It´s just I don´t want to fly away in the tornado.” “Yeah right…” Buttons raised her eyebrows playfully. “Don´t worry. This might be a tornado but it´s small enough not to shake us up.” she reassured him. “So, this is your own way of doing a self-levitation spell.” Starswirl stopped holding Gusty. “Yup!” Gusty closed her eyes in pride but opened them when she processed Starswirl´s message completely. “Wait, there´s a spell for that?” “You have no idea… But why levitating and not walking?” “Diamond dogs won´t be able to catch us that quickly if we are on air. Besides, they won´t know we´re there as they won´t feel our steps underground.” Glory explained. “That´s a wise idea. We shouldn´t discard the possibility that they might be under my garden.” “Open the door.” Lancer ordered Starswirl once they were in front of the door. As Starswirl carried on Lancer´s order, everypony took out their swords or ignited their horns, getting ready to fight. “Yyya!” everypony yelled once the door was completely open. However, to their surprise, there was no army waiting for them inside the cottage. Instead, there was just a table and chairs in front of a stove and a fireplace. Starswirl gasped when he noticed the cauldron in the fireplace. “Oh, I forgot I was making porridge!” he exclaimed. He was going to run but quickly remembered that he was being held by Gusty. “Could you put me down please?” he asked her politely. Slowly, Gusty landed herself and everypony. Seeing that Starswirl was too distracted checking the porridge, they saw a great chance to investigate the house. Lancer pointed to the left and made a gesture to Glory to come with him. Then, he pointed at Fizzy and Buttons to the right. Lastly, he pointed at Starswirl while looking at Gusty. Everypony nodded quietly. They walked away as quietly as possible. Meanwhile, Gusty sat down in one of the kitchen´s chairs, fidgeting her hooves as she looked around. The cottage was like everpony else´s home. Old, a bit dusty and without much light. But what Gusty felt different in this cottage was the silence. Gusty had always lived with somepony. Firstly, her family. Then, she lived with her master, her husband and shortly with her daughters. Lastly, she and her daughters shared a home with Ms Prickly. As a result, she was used to having some noise in her house, especially since she gave birth to Celestia and Luna. As annoying as it could be at times, it also relieved her having somepony around. The silence in Starswirl´s cottage overwhelmed her. She wondered how he could deal with much of it. “Oh it´s not burnt thank goodness.” Starswirl sighed in relief. “Hey, do you want tea?” he asked everypony. Starswirl´s voice made Gusty come back to reality. “Huh? Oh yeah, please.” she replied. “I usually have it with milk. Any special requirements in your tea?” “Nope. Well actually, could you add salt and butter to mine?” “I´m afraid I don´t have them…” “That´s ok. I like tea both ways.” “Salty tea, that´s a curious request…” “That´s how we had it back home.” “Oh ok. Where are you from?” “The Himarelayas. I was born there but with my family moved to Tambelon´s capital due to famine.” “Wow, that´s pretty far away. And when did you come here?” “When I was a filly.” As they talked, Gusty checked on Lancer and Glory. The two of them shook their heads, saying that they didn´t find anything. Gusty invited them to come with her hoof, but Lancer shook his head and pointed at his eyes and then at Gusty, telling her that they´ll check one more time. Then, Gusty turned to Buttons and Fizzy. Buttons shrugged. She implored Gusty to keep talking to Starswirl. “What about you? Have you always been living here?” Gusty asked Starswirl. “No. I was born Trottingham, and I lived my whole childhood there. But for safety reasons I moved to this cottage in the forest some years ago.” “Safety reasons?” “Like I said before, you´re not the only one who does things behind the emperor´s back.” Gusty raised her eyebrow curiously. Those words indicated that he was not going to give them to Grogar, as he himself might have been part of another rebellion. She couldn´t help but wonder how many rebellions there were that she hadn´t heard of. As she and Starswirl were talking, Buttons and Fizzy kept searching in Starswirl´s bedroom. Seeing that their search was being fruitless, Buttons sighed. “Maybe we are being a bit paranoid.” she told Fizzy. “We haven´t found anything on this guy.” “You suggest that we stop now?” she asked Buttons. “Unless you want to keep searching…” Fizzy looked up while she thought on what to answer. “Nah, I´m good.” However, just when they were about to join Gusty and Starswirl, Fizzy realized that she didn´t look under the rug. After making sure that Starswirl wasn´t looking, she slowly moved the rug away with her hoof. She gasped softly when she saw a hatch. “Tch! Tch! Buttons!” she called her friend. Buttons turned around. “Look!” Fizzy whispered as she pointed at the hatch. Buttons gasped. She walked to the hatch. “Do you think they could be down there?” she asked Fizzy. “There´s one way to find out….” Fizzy picked the hatch´s ring to open the door but Buttons stopped her. “Wait. Let me handle this. I don´t want you to cause any mess.” “Well that´s a great way to show that you trust your best friend.” Fizzy crossed her forelegs. Buttons rolled her eyes. She picked the ring and pushed as hard as she could, as it was stuck. Suddenly, she managed to open the hatch´s door in a blow, making a noise loud enough for everypony to hear. Buttons covered her mouth. “Way to avoid messing things up.” “Shut up Fizzy.” Everypony turned their heads around. Gusty and Glory had terrified faces, whereas Starswirl was confused. Lancer threw them a death glare. Fizzy and Buttons laughed nervously. “It was her.” Fizzy pointed at Buttons. “You traitor!” Starswirl sighed. “I see you discovered the hatch… I wanted to give you food and tea first but seeing you mistrust me that much I guess I´ll have to rearrange things…” he said somewhat upset. “Come.” Everypony followed Starswirl to the hatch´s door. “Be careful with the stairs.” he said before going downstairs. “Ignite your horns everypony. Last one closes the door.” After doing as told, they started going downstairs one by one, Fizzy being last. Like Buttons, she struggled to move the door, closing it in a blow. “Gah!” she yelped after the blow. She looked ahead to see if anypony heard her yelp, but they didn´t seem to have heard. Either that, or they didn´t mind. Then, she tried to get away from the door as possible. After some stairs, they finally felt flat ground. They couldn´t tell where they were exactly, as there was not a single light in the room. Once he made sure every guest had arrived, Starswirl lit a chandelier, finally giving vision to the mysterious room they just entered. Everypony was left open-mouthed. Underneath of what seem to be a normal cottage was a small library and study. There were tall bookshelves full of books, piles of books on the floor as well as boxes of rolls. There was a table full of chemistry materials such as flasks, beakers, test tubes, inter alia. There were also posters hanging from the wall featuring sketches or notes. In the middle, near the chemistry material, there was a cauldron. “What is this place?” Glory asked amazed. “My small study.” Starswirl replied with pride. They paced around as they investigated. “This is amazing.” Gusty said in admiration. Starswirl smiled and looked away shyly when he heard Gusty. “All these books you see are books of magic. They include spells, history of magic, potion-making, and many more.” he continued explaining. Gusty picked one of the books and glanced through its pages. She was not the best reader in the world, but she could understand the content thanks to the usage of pictures. “What about this?” Fizzy pointed at the chemistry materials. “This is chemistry material. I usually make potions there. Hooves off.” he said upset while hitting gently Fizzy´s hoof, who was trying to touch the material. “Potions? But why would we need potions if we can already do magic?” Buttons asked Starswirl. “Well, the potions I mainly study are medicinal. You never know when you might need them.” “Back when I was a nurse, sometimes I used potions to lower fever or pain.” Glory added. “Do you know what kind of potion Katrina has?” Gusty asked Starswirl. “One to grant power.” “Black magic, that´s for sure.” Lancer commented. “Black magic?” Fizzy asked curiously. “There are many types of magic. Black magic is the one used to harm or control others. Or one that grants too much power.” “Grogar must be a black magic expert then.” Gusty assumed. “Wow, that´s a genius assumption.” Lancer said sarcastically. “Hey, unlike you and Glory, we knew absolutely nothing of magic.” Gusty replied back in self-defence. “We´re still discovering the amazing world of magic, I beg your pardon.” Lancer clicked his tongue. “Touché.” “Grogar is basically the master of black magic.” Starswirl explained. “Of course there was black magic before him, but nopony had ever studied it as closely and as much as Grogar did. Nor they became as powerful.” “And what other types of magic are there?” Lancer asked curiously. “It´s not as simple as white and black magic. Every unicorn can do the same spells but at the same time we have a unique talent that others don´t have. It depends on our cutie marks. But I´d categorize Gusty´s magic as elemental magic, the type of magic derived of nature´s elements such as water, earth, fire and in her case, wind.” Fizzy gasped excited. “Does that mean I have elemental magic too?!” “She can control water.” Gusty explained to Starswirl. The unicorn nodded. “That´s so cool!” “And what´s yours?” Glory asked him. “I… still haven´t figured it out. I guess some of us find out sooner and others later in life. Though I´d love to know.” “Me too…” Glory muttered under her breath. “What about prophecy magic? Does that exist?” Gusty asked. “You mean divination?” “Yes, but also casting a prophecy.” “Well, in order to cast a prophecy, you need to look into the future first, which is all what divination is about.” “So if somepony with divination magic says something will happen, does that truly mean it will happen?” “Not necessarily. I usually compare soothsayers to doctors. If you have an unhealthy habit the doctor will tell you that you´ll get sick if you keep on with that habit. The soothsayer is similar in that aspect. They will tell you you´ll get fortune or misfortune should you go down a path.” “I see…” “And what are these notes?” Buttons pointed at them. Starswirl chuckled nervously. “I like experimenting. So sometimes I combine spells to create new ones.” “You can do that?!” Lancer asked shocked. “Of course! How else do you think our ancestors learned to do magic? I bet sometimes some of you experiment unconsciously.” “Does playing with water and wind count?” Fizzy asked curiously. “To me that sounds like testing your magic.” “HA! In your face Lancer. Who´s the expert in magic now, huh? Gusty and I were ahead of all of you all along.” She put her foreleg around Gusty. Lancer rolled his eyes. “How did Majesty not tell us about this?” Glory thought aloud. “Even royals have limited knowledge of magic, especially after having been under Grogar´s reign. In order to obtain a wide knowledge about magic you need a very detailed study. And royals don´t have the time for that. That´s why I wanted you to come. To explain everything I knew so it could aid in your quest. Or at least I hope it does.” “It does Starswirl.” Gusty smiled tenderly at him. “Thank you so much.” Starswirl blushed. “Um… You´re welcome.” “I can´t help but wonder though, where did you get all this stuff? And how do you know so much about-” Suddenly, they heard knocks on the door. “Were you expecting somepony?” Fizzy asked scared. Starswirl shook his head. Again, the door was knocked, this time stronger than before. “We know somepony is here! This is the Trottingham Guard so if you don´t want any trouble you´d better open the door RIGHT NOW!” Gaueko yelled. Everypony gasped panicked. “What do we do now?” Buttons asked. “Stay here.” Starswirl ordered them. “I´ll deal with them.” “But what if they attack?” Gusty asked worried. “Will you be able to defend yourself?” “It doesn´t happen what happens to me. Right now, you and your friends are what matter. You are our kind´s only hope.” Gusty was going to replicate but Glory held her shoulder and shook her head. Gusty caught the message and sighed defeated. “Ok. Be careful.” “Didn´t you hear me?! OPEN THE DOOR!” Gaueko yelled once again. “Turn off the lights and don´t do any noise.” Starswirl instructed them before closing the hatch´s door. Once it was closed, Gusty lit her horn to go upstairs. She stopped once she was close enough to the door. The other unicorns followed her. Once they were near her, she unlit her horn. “I´m going to count to three. If you don´t open the door in that time, I´ll tear the door down! ONE! TWO!” Before he could reach three, Starswirl opened the door already. “Finally!” Gaueko exclaimed. He sighed. “Long live Crunch!” he smiled fakely. “Allow me to introduce myself, I´m Gaueko, this is Gwyllgi and this little guy here is Cavall. We are the three captains of the Trottingham Guard. May we come in?” Starswirl nodded. “Thank you so much. Long live Crunch.” Gaueko said as he entered. “Long live Crunch.” Starswirl said in response. “Long live Crunch.” Gwyllgi repeated. “Long live Crunch.” Starswirl replied. “Long live Crunch!” Cavall exclaimed excitedly. “Long live Crunch.” Starswirl said, tired of having to repeat that sentence. Once the three dogs were inside, Starswirl closed the door. “So… What brings you here captains?” he asked as they inspected his house. “Nothing, you know, just a routine inspection.” Gaueko replied. Starswirl bit his lip. “May I ask why?” “I am afraid we can´t tell you that. All I can say is that there are five fugitives in the run. You know, bandits.” “I see…” “And we want to make sure that they aren´t hiding inside anypony´s house. Hope you don´t mind, although if you are not hiding something from us then there´s nothing to worry about, right?” “Right.” Gaueko noticed the porridge and tea. “Ah, dinnertime I suppose.” “Yeah…” “Could I have a cup of tea?” “Sure…” As he prepared the tea for Gaueko, Starswirl observed Gwyllgi and Cavall, hoping that they would not find the hatch. “Careful or it will spill.” Gaueko´s voice redirected his attention to the tea. “Here you have your tea, mr Gaueko.” “Why, thank you. You can sit in front of me.” Starswirl did as told. He fidgeted his hooves. “Do you like your tea, sir?” “Exquisite. You seem somewhat nervous, mr…” “Herbs. Mr Herbs.” Starswirl lied. “May I ask why?” “Well… I just want to satisfy you with my tea.” He felt his heart stop when he noticed Gwyllgi near the rug. The unicorns were as well, their heart pounding faster each time they heard the diamond dogs´ steps. Cavall looked under the bed and saw nothing. He and Gwyllgi nodded. “We haven´t found anything sir.” Cavall said “Good. I think it´s time that we leave.” Gaueko said as he got up. Starswirl exhaled air from his nose in relief. However, it wouldn´t last long, as Gwyllgi noticed the rug. “What a beautiful rug you have there, mr Herbs!” she said said with a smirk. Starswirl widened his eyes. “Definitely.” he laughed nervously. “Can we see it more closely?” Cavall asked cunning. “Of course…” Gusty gasped softly. She was going to use her magic but Buttons stopped her and suggested using hooves instead. Together, they held the door´s ring. Gwyllgi and Cavall dragged the rug away picked up the rug, making the hatch´s door visible. “Well, mr Herbs. It seems like you have some secret door!” Gaueko exclaimed. “I wonder what´s down there. A hideout? Let´s find out.” Starswirk bit his hoof nervous as Cavall picked the ring to open the door. However, it was going to be more difficult than he thought. He pushed as hard as he could, but still he wasn´t able to open the door, as the ponies were pushing the door towards themselves. Gwyllgi scoffed. “What´s taking you so long?” she asked upset. “I can´t.” he grunted. “I think it´s stuck.” “Give me that!” she pushed Cavall aside. Gwyllgi tried to open the door but was uncapable as well. “What the-” “Are you two seriously that weak?!” Gaueko asked impatiently. “Well, you try it!” Gwyllgi clapped back. “Fine!” Gaueko gave up in the first try. “Ok, we´re gonna have to do this the hard way.” He hit the hatch until it broke in half. Before he could do anything, Gusty threw him against the wall with a gust of wind. “Let´s go!” Gusty exclaimed to everypony. Gwyllgi and Cavall gasped. “There she is!” Gwyllgi pointed at Gusty “Get her!” Cavall exclaimed. “Oh you are in so much trouble…” Gaueko said maliciously before howling. Glory stopped running after she heard Gaueko howling. “Oh no.” she mumbled. “What?” Gusty asked. She understood Glory´s terror when she saw dozens of dogs popping from the ground. “Uh oh…” > Chapter 6: Whac-A-Dog > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The dogs had a smug face as the ponies they walked backwards, unsure of what to do. They were surrounded outside and inside Starswirl´s house. “What are you going to do now?” Gaueko asked him as he and his companions giggled victoriously. Fizzy took a glance of Starswirl´s teapot. “Would you like some tea?” she asked innocently as she took the teapot. The three diamond dogs burst out laughing. “Seriously?” Gwyllgi asked as she wiped her tear. “You seriously think that you´ll dispose of us with a tea party?” “Hilarious!” Cavall exclaimed in laughter. “I´ll take that you´d like some. Though you´re going to need ice because it´s HOT!” Fizzy took all the tea and used it to hit the three dogs at the same time against the wall. Afterwards, she spilt the tea on them, giving herself and her friends the chance to run to a window at the back of the house. The three dogs yelled in pain. “Wow! You weren´t kidding when you said that she could manipulate water.” Starswirl said to Gusty. “Who´s laughing now, chuchos de mie-” Fizzy bragged. “Come on.” Buttons took her hoof so she could catch up with them. “It burns! It burns! IT BURNS!” Cavall cried. “Stupid pony!” Gwyllgi wiped her face. Gaueko growled in fury as a rabid dog. “You know what? I wanted to bring that darn pony alive to Crunch. But now I want to bring her DEAD!” He took his arch and an arrow. He pointed it towards Gusty, who was the last one to go through the window. She gasped surprised. “Watch out!” Lancer took her hooves and pushed her down. The bow landed in front of the ponies. Gusty sighed. “Thank you.” she said to Lancer. “You´ll thank me later.” he replied. “Right now, what we need to do is get away from here as fast as we can. It won´t be long until a diamond dog ca-” Everypony yelped alarmed when a paw got Lancer´s leg and dragged him down. Glory and Gusty grabbed his hooves. Fizzy and Glory held them to protect them from being dragged down. Buttons kicked the diamond dog´s head. The dog whimpered and let Lancer go. With Glory´s and Gusty´s help, he got out of the hole. “Get us from the ground! Quick!” Glory ordered Gusty. “Right away!” the unicorn nodded. As she lifted them and herself from the ground, Gaueko threw more arrows to them. Glory and Lancer took out their shields. Gaueko signed Gwyllgi and Cavall to the left and to the right respectively. They threw bows. “Ay ay ay!” Fizzy exclaimed panicked as she and Buttons took out her shields. To make matters worse, there were dogs that jumped to get them. Seeing they were very overwhelmed, Starswirl summoned a magical forcefield so they could think more clearly. “We can´t only defend ourselves!” Glory pointed out. “We need to attack!” “But how?” Buttons asked. “If we take the shield out, even if it´s for one moment, we´ll end up with a bow on our heads!” Fizzy pointed out. “Well, we trained for something all these months, didn´t we?” Lancer said sarcastically. “It´s true, but none of us are as skillful with the sword as you are mister!” As Glory and Buttons talked, Gusty assessed the situation. She looked at the diamond dogs and then at the Gaueko, Gwyllgi and Cavall. Lastly, she looked at Fizzy, Buttons, Lancer and Glory. She noticed each of them, had a talent. Fizzy´s was controlling the water, Buttons was physical self-defence, Lancer was an expert in the battlefield, and Glory knew everything about every creature. Maybe all of those talents could serve “I think I know how.” she said. Everypony turned her head to her. “You think?” Fizzy asked shocked. Gusty nodded. “So, our only chance of survival is listening to Gusty.” Lancer thought aloud. “Oh dear…” “I know I´m not the best strategist, but if you listen to my idea, maybe you can give me suggestions to improve and concoct a plan together. Does that sound good?” Everypony looked at Lancer. He sighed. “Fine. What´s your plan?” Gusty smirked as she raised her eyebrow. Meanwhile, Cavall tried to destroy Starswirl´s forcefield by throwing arrows at it, his attempts failing every time. However, the diamond dog stubbornly kept trying. “Grr!” Gwyllgi growled frustrated. “Will you stop it? You´re going to waste all of your arrows!” “That´s because you´re not helping me!” Cavall clapped back. “Maybe if we worked together…” “You idiot! Don´t you realize that even if we did, it´d still not break?! Do you seriously think that three arrows will destroy that thing?!” “Well, do you have a better idea?” As they argued, Gaueko didn´t take his eye out of the forcefield. Suddenly, he noticed it lowering. “Guys! Guys!” he shook his paw to quiet them. “It´s coming down.” Gwyllgi and Cavall turned around. As soon as they noticed the forcefield lowering, they prepared their arches and arrows. “You fools…” Gaueko said to the unicorns, even though they couldn´t hear him. “Coming back to the ground is a stupid idea that will cost you your lives…” Gaueko prepared to shoot an arrow, waiting anxiously for the forcefield to break. However, when it happened, it went faster than he imagined. In just a blink, the forcefield broke, four of the unicorns disappeared and one of them reappeared in front of him, most specifically Lancer. “Heeeey…” Lancer greeted him with a cunning smirk before kicking him to the ground and starting a sword duel against him. Buttons reappeared in front of Gwyllgi. Before the dog could react, the unicorn kicked her head. “Oh, you´re so going to regret that…” Gwyllgi threatened Buttons as she took her sword out. Buttons kicked her to the ground and took her sword as well, combining kicks and blows with sword movements. Lastly, Glory reappeared in front of Cavall. She knew that despite his small size, the dog was known for being extremely agile. Before you could attack, he attacked you already. So, Glory decided to play the same way. She disappeared and reappeared as fast as Cavall moved, attacking when he least expected it. Gusty and Fizzy were back to back, frowning at the diamond dogs in both sides. “You ready?” Gusty asked Fizzy with a smirk as she passed her canteen to her. Fizzy giggled as she opened both her canteen and Gusty´s. “Oh yeah.” Gusty inhaled and exhaled. “I can do this.” she muttered to herself. After closing her eyes, she ignited her horn. She got on two legs and when she put them on the ground, she created a wind that sent them flying away. “Did it work?” she said while opening her eye slowly. “Check it yourself.” Fizzy replied with a playful smirk. Gusty smiled when she saw the results of her idea. The diamond dogs were groaning in pain, massaging his backs. Then, she looked at Fizzy, who smiled back at her until she noticed some dogs coming towards them. She them with water and hit them against the ground. Gusty levitated herself and Fizzy before some dog underground could captured them. “Hold on!” she said to Fizzy as she held her hoof. She created a tornado. The diamond dogs tried to run away as fast as they could or dug to take cover. Others held on to what they cold such as grass or rocks. Though they were abundant, Gusty´s tornado managed to get some dogs. She made the tornado go faster to make them feel dizzier. Then she sent them away one by one. Some of the dogs landed over others and others against Starswirl´s house´s walls. One of them landed Starswirl. The unicorn teleported himself to the side to avoid the dog crashing against him. “What a mare!” he said fascinated. “Oh, that gives me an idea!” Fizzy exclaimed excited. Fizzy captured a dog and rolled it towards other dogs. They fell backwards as if they were bowls. “Strike!” she exclaimed before high hoofing Gusty. Despite feeling exhausted by the battle, the more Gusty fought, the better she felt. She had never felt so much freedom to experiment with her magic until now, let alone seeing the domain she could get if she let the wind flow. Words couldn´t describe the euphoria she felt whenever a new idea came into her mind, which was racing in possibilities. Despite fighting Cavall, Glory was able to take at times glimpses of how Gusty and Fizzy battled, which was pure chaos. She observed that they were so focused on coming up with ideas, that they didn´t realize that a diamond dog shot an arrow on fire towards them. “Girls, behind ye!” she warned them. The two unicorns turned around. Gusty´s first instinct was to send the arrow away and Fizzy´s was to extinguish the fire. So, the two sent wind and water to the arrow at the same time respectively. The water extinguished the fire, and the wind cooled the water, leaving a frozen arrow as a result. Both the unicorns and diamond dog observed the arrow intrigued. Gusty and Fizzy shared glances and then looked at the diamond dog. “Uh oh…” the dog muttered under her breath. She tried to run away but was trapped by Gusty and Fizzy in less than a second. The same would happen to the dogs around. “Glory, look!” Fizzy shook her hoof energetically like a filly that wanted to show something to her parents. Glory sighed in relief and smiled. Despite thinking that they were disorganized in their battling style, she had never seen that much passion in soldiers, probably because they were fighting in their own way. Majesty was too erratic in her teaching, thinking everypony´s fighting style should be the same, though she couldn´t blame her, as she didn´t have the same knowledge of magic Stasrwirl had. Glory also liked to stick with what she knew, but after seeing Gusty and Fizzy, she realized that maybe being more flexible with those whose fighting styles couldn´t fit Majesty´s could be useful. Besides, it was rare seeing somepony smile in the battlefield. Normally, Lancer described soldiers´ faces in battles as full of despair and exhaustion, and most importantly, hopelessness. Seeing Gusty and Fizzy smiling truly raised her spirit, most importantly, it brought her hope. And the reason why they were smiling was Gusty. Surprised, Gaueko turned his head to Gusty, who smirked smugly. He clenched his teeth while growling frustrated. “Everypony step aside!” Gusty said to Lancer, Buttons and Glory. Knowing what she was about to do, Gaueko looked around in panic, hoping there was something that could help him. He noticed Starswirl standing in the side, watching how the unicorns fought, which gave him an idea. Lancer noticed how he looked at Starswirl with a mischievous smile. “Don´t you dare!” he yelled at him. Gaueko made Lancer lose his balance. He ran to Starswirl and put the sword around his neck. The poor unicorn didn´t have the chance to defend himself, since Gaueko put a ring around his horn. “STOP FIGHTING!” After his yell, both the diamond dogs and the unicorns stopped fighting. The latter gasped horrified, especially Gusty, due the resemblance of that scene to that fateful day she became a widow. Her eaction peaked Gaueko´s interest. “Whoah, whoah. Easy.” Glory tried to calm him down. “You´d better do what I say or I´ll slit his throat! Understood?” The unicorns unlit their horns and lifted their hooves as a sign of surrender, the first and the quickest being Gusty, making Gaueko smirk. Seeing she was starting to hyperventilate, Fizzy held her hoof to remind her that she wasn´t alone. “Good. I want the Wind Warrior to come to me.” “Wind Warrior?” Starswirl thought aloud, confused about that name. Slowly, Gusty landed herself and Fizzy. “Let go.” she told her. “Please.” Fizzy nodded her head. As everypony else, she observed terrified how Gusty walked to Gaueko. The scared unicorn breathed in and out slowly to prevent a panic attack. “What do you want?” Gusty asked the diamond dog once she was right in front of him. “I want you to throw your sword or any weapon you have to defend yourself.” Gusty undrew her sword and dropped it, as well as her shield. “Good, now stay very still.” he smirked as he walked towards her, making sure everypony could see his sword. Everypony gasped. They tried to run to her but were held back by the diamond dogs. “Gusty!” Buttons called her name. “Don´t do it!” Lancer begged her. “Save yourself!” Glory asked her. “Don´t worry! I´ll help you.” Fizzy grunted as she struggled to free herself. “Let me go, you rascal!” she yelled at her captor. “If you try to fight, he´ll pay the consequences.” Gaueko pointed his eyes at Gwyllgi, who was preparing to shoot Starswirl. Gusty looked at Starswirl. From that fateful day, Gusty promised herself if something similar happened again, she´d do anything to save that pony, even if that meant death. However, she knew she was too needed as to die. Her daughters needed their mother. Her friends and Majesty trusted her to defeat Grogar. The fate of unicorns like Starswirl depended on her. She had to take charge in another way of the situation. She held her necklace and frowned at Gaueko. “Shoot on the count of three.” Gaeko ordered Gwyllgi. “One… Two…” “Don´t sacrifice for me.” Starswirl begged her. “Please.” Gusty shook her head. “Don´t worry. I won´t.” She ignited her horn and hit Gaueko´s left eye before he could reach three. Everypony and diamond dog widened their eyes or gasped in shock. Gwyllgi dropped her bow and arrow. Cavall was mouth agape. Gaueko dropped his sword and released Starswirl to cover his eye in pain. The unicorn ran away from him an took the ring out of his horn. Though he couldn´t see his face, he knew Gusty had make a scratch in his eye due to seeing some blood in his fingers after touching his wound. He chuckled menacingly as he turned around to confront Gusty. “Oh, you´re so going to pay that.” he threatened her before he growled. He jumped over her and put a ring around her horn. Afterwards, he scratched her neck, untying her husband´s necklace. Starswirl gasped horrified. “Gusty!” Fizzy exclaimed as she kept fighting the diamond dog that restrained her. He laughed maniacally as she saw Gusty trying to free herself from his grasp. “You shouldn´t have angered me. Otherwise, I would have brought you to Crunch alive.” he said as he took his shield and raised it to hit her head. Gusty closed her eyes. Starswirl gasped and scowled. “NO!” he exclaimed. Without realizing it, he blasted Gaueko and threw him away from Gusty, leaving every witness in shock once again. “Huh?” Gusty opened her eyes confused. Gaueko´s groan perked her ears up. By turning her head to the left she saw the diamond dog laying on the ground. She widened her eyes and turned to the right, where Starswirl covered his mouth with his hooves, astonished by what he just did. “Did you just see what I saw?” Glory asked Lancer. “Uh huh.” was all Lancer could articulate. “What did you do?” Gusty asked Starswirl. “I… I don´t know.” he replied as puzzled as Gusty was. “It just… came out of me.” “Who…” Gaueko grunted as he got up. “DID THIS?” he walked to Buttons, Lancer, Glory and Fizzy. “Which one of you magic freaks did this?!” “I hate to advocate for them, but they didn´t do this, sir.” the diamond dog holding Lancer said. “They all have rings in their horns.” he pointed at Lancer´s horns and then at Lancer´s and Glory´s. “See?” “Even this one, who´s putting up a fight, didn´t do it!” said the diamond do holding Fizzy. “Then that means…” Gaueko thought aloud. Starswirl froze when his gaze met Gaueko´s. “Well, well, well.” he clapped his paws together. “It seems like you can fight after all, mr Herbs! But from what I saw before, it seems like you haven´t got enough experience...” He started to walk towards Starswirl, inviting Gwyllgi and Cavall to follow him. The unicorn walked backwards to get away from them, but he was rounded. “So, let me and my companions teach you, shall we?” Gaueko continued as he and his companions prepared their fists and weapons. Fortunately, before they could lay a paw on Starswirl, Gusty took the ring out of his horn and pushed them away with a gust of wind. “I´ll distract them, you free the others!” Gusty told Starswirl. Despite being a bit insecure if he was able to attack again, he nodded. All he had to figure out which spells were the most adequate for battle and use them. He transported himself behind the diamond dogs that were holding Gusty´s friends captive and struck their tails. The dogs whimpered as they accidentally released the unicorns. He ascended himself and blasted all the dogs he could to give Fizzy, Buttons, Lancer and Glory time to free themselves of those anti-magic rings. As Gaueko stated, Starswirl didn´t have much experience fighting so he was very anxious. “Ok, ok!” he panted. “Somehow, I am surviving.” However, he didn´t noticed a diamond dog pointing his bow at him behind his back. He yelped when heard an arrow releasing. “Where is it coming from, where is it coming from?!” he turned his head from the left to the right. He felt something around his body that pulled him down, which avoided the arrow hurting him. Once he was on the ground, he checked that what pulled him down was Fizzy´s water. “You´re welcome!” Fizzy smiled at him. “Fizzy, I need you!” Gusty called her. “Right! On the count to three?” “Yes!” “Ok. One. Two. Three!” At three, they threw water and wind at the same time, trapping Gaeuko, Gwyllgi and Cavall in a block of ice. “Let´s go!” Gusty said to everypony. Fizzy raspberried at the three diamond dogs before running away. “Wait!” Gwyllgi shouted. “You can´t go! This isn´t over yet! Grr! I hate unicorns.” “How long do you think we´ll be here?” a diamond dog asked her friend. “The sun seems to be beating down today so hopefully, we won´t be very long. Nonetheless, it will take time.” the friend answered. “Guys, you realize that we failed our mission?” another diamond dog pointed out scared. The diamond dogs bit their lips. Cavall gasped. “It is true! What are we going to do now, Gaueko?” Cavall asked his superior fearful. “Crunch is going to kill us!” To his and Gwyllgi´s surprise, Gaueko wasn´t yelling at them. Instead, he was grinning at something. “Not yet.” he replied. “You!” he called an injured dog next to him. “Sir?” “You see a shiny, amber-coloured thing there?” The dog narrowed his eyes and raised his paw at the level of his forehead to get a better view, despite aching terribly. Despite the amount of grass, he was able to see a small sparkle. “I think so.” “Bring it to me.” The diamond dog nodded. Slowly, he managed to get up. Limping, he took the object and brought it to Gaueko. He chuckled when he saw the phoenix feather on a rope. “There it is.” “What is that?” Gwyllgi raised her eyebrow confused. “That, Gwyllgi, is the Wind Warrior´s necklace. I noticed how she held it when I threatened her friend.” “And what do you plan to do with it?” Cavall asked. “Keep track of her with it, of course!” Gwyllgi and Cavall looked at each other. “And how exactly?” Gwyllgi asked. “By scent, you idiots! We are dogs, remember?” “Aaah!” Gwyllgi and Cavall said in unison. “Pfft, that´s super obvious, I never doubted that!” Gwyllgi lied. “I just wanted to make sure you had the same idea as I.” “Same here!” Cavall exclaimed. Gaueko narrowed his eyes at them. “Yeah right.” “You want me to smell it, sir?” the diamond dog holding the necklace asked. Gaueko nodded. The diamond dog closed his eyes and sniffed carefully. He grunted as he knelt carefully and sniffed the ground as well. “You perceive her smell?” Gaeuko asked. The diamond go opened his eyes once he was finished sniffing. He turned his head back and nodded with a triumphant smile. “I got you mare.” Gaueko mumbled. > Chapter 7: A team > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The unicorns ran in the depths of the forest, getting away from the diamond dogs as much as possible, taking advantage of the fact that they were trapped. After running for a long time, they laid on their backs on a circle, panting in a mixture of exhaustion and panic. “Did we lose them?” Gusty asked. “We must have!” Lancer deduced. “We´ve been running for like half an hour!” “I think it is safe to deduce we did.” Glory opined. “And even if we weren´t far enough, most of the diamond dogs are either injured or stuck in ice, which means they will need time to recover. So, at least for noo, we´re free from danger.” “Does that mean that we can stop? Please tell me so because I´m feeling super dizzy.” Fizzy massaged her temples. “I think so.” Glory replied. “Ah, thank you.” Fizzy covered her mouth and turned to the right. “Wow. If Fizzy of all ponies, is feeling dizzy, then that means we really did a sprint!” Buttons commented, making everypony smile. “Yeah. And survived an army of diamond dogs.” Gusty added. “Not only that. We actually defeated them.” Glory pointed out. The unicorns widened their eyes in realization. “Yeah. We did.” Gusty said in shock after processing Lancer´s words. “Th-that was real, right? It was not a dream.” Buttons asked to reassure herself. “Well, there must be a reason I ran so much to the point of feeling like this, isn´t there?” Fizzy said. “So me attacking the captain and soldiers really did happen?” Starswirl covered his face. “Oh dear…” “And what´s more surprising… We did this without Majesty.” said Lancer. “You never fought in a battle without Majesty?” Gusty asked him. “I did, but Majesty´s the one that does all the planning and leads us. Without her, all of us feel kind of lost.” “Especially the ones who are new at military, such as me.” Glory commented. “And even when I was a spy, she guided us.” “Wish I could say the same.” Gusty muttered under her breath, somewhat resentful of her due to her experience in Grogar´s castle. “Wait. You two were spying at Grogar? In his castle?!” Starswirl asked shocked. “It´s a very long story.” Gusty smiled nervously. “So, fighting without her guidance was kind of a frightening experience.” Glory continued. “Yet here you are standing with us alive.” “Unless all of us are dead and we don´t know it.” said Lancer. “We are alive. You guys did it. Without Majesty. And you will do so if the case ever comes again.” “Maybe this was pure luck.” Glory fidgeted with her hooves. “What guarantees us the next time will be ok?” “There´s a chance that it won´t be ok but there´s also a chance it could be. Who says it won´t be ok again?” Lancer and Glory shared worried looks. “No offense, but I think you two depend too much on her.” Fizzy said to them. “How could we not?! We owe her our lives!” Lancer answered upset. “I know that. I´m not saying what you do is wrong, but what if for some reason Majesty is unable to guide you for some time again? What will you do then?” “I… didn´t think about that.” Glory replied. “Ok, you´re right, fine. But I believe is better having Majesty around.” “I agree with that.” “To be honest, I kind of felt relieved she wasn´t around.” Buttons confessed a bit ashamed. “What?!” Lancer and Glory asked in unison somewhat upset. “It´s just I am not as good with a sword as you are Lancer. And I sometimes feel like she somewhat disdains me for that. As if she thinks I´m going to die soon or something.” “You dying?!” Gusty scoffed. “Buttons, you literally defeated a group of diamond dogs with only your moves!” “But that´s not what she taught us…” “Well, she didn´t teach me to fight with water and yet I fight with it all the time. And Gusty always fights with her wind as well. Maybe you could prove her wrong by doing what you did today.” Fizzy winked an eye. “Maybe.” she turned to Lancer and Glory. “How do you think she would react?” “She´s very methodical, but if she sees it works, I believe she´ll accept it.” Glory replied. “As Fizzy said, if she and Gusty can fight their way, why can´t you?” Buttons smiles. “I can see why she likes you two. You are amazing fighting!” “Years of experience!” Lancer said proudly. “I do have a close relationship with Majesty, but I still have to improve my fighting.” “Seriously?” Lancer turned to Glory. “Did you see how you were fighting Cavall?! How were you so fast?” “It´s just a matter of knowing your enemy´s pattern.” “And how did you know it?” “Long talks with Majesty.” “I´m sorry to interrupt, but does any of you have water?” Fizzy asked. “I spent all of mine fighting the diamond dogs.” “Of course, chérie.” Buttons passed hers to her. “You deserve it after holding our back.” she patted Fizzy´s shoulder. She widened her eyes when she observed how fast Fizzy was dirnking “Slowly.” she lowered her canteen. “Otherwise, your tummy will hurt.” Fizzy sighed after drinking. “Sorry.” Fizzy apologized. “I never had the chance to tell you this but the way you manipulate the water is amazing!” Glory told her. “You really think that?” Fizzy asked excited. “Even though I got the impression you wouldn´t make it through one second in battle, you certainly showed me otherwise today.” Lancer admitted. After listening to him, Fizzy´s dizziness went away, allowing her to spring to Lancer and hug him. Gusty, Buttons and Glory held their laughter. “I knew that deep down you liked me!” Fizzy exclaimed excited. “What? No! I don´t like you.” he replied as he struggled to undo her hug. “Yes, you do!” “Ok, I am starting to tolerate you, but if you don´t let me go right now, I might change my mind.” “Ok. Ok.” Fizzy raised her hooves calmly. Seeing she was making him grumpy, she kept on smirking teasingly. “It was amazing fighting alongside you Fizzy.” Gusty said as she and the rest incorporated to sit down. “Who knew that we could do so much by combining our magic?” “Same here! But it´s mostly thanks to you. If it wasn´t for your plan, this wouldn´t have been possible.” “Oh, don´t say that.” she stroked her own mane nervously. “Any of you could have come up with that.” “Well, apparently none of us did.” Buttons said in reply. “You still have a lot to improve in your planning, but you did great.” Lancer said. “At least you´re not Fizzy.” “Hey!” Fizzy complained. Gusty giggled. “And Starswirl.” she turned to him. “Thanks for saving my life.” “Huh?” the unicorn said in response, as he was too focused on his thoughts. “I said thank you for saving my life. It was very brave of you to do that, considering that you´ve never fought before.” Gusty smiled honestly. Starswirl blinked surprised. He felt his heart pounding faster, which caused him to take some time to answer. “Oh.” he scoffed nervous. “I- It´s the least I could do. You risked your life for me as well. I had to return the favour somehow.” he returned the smile to Gusty. “I´m sorry for the interruption guys, but it´s getting dark.” Lancer looked at the sky so everypony did the same. “I suggest we gather some food and make a fire.” “Yeah, maybe we should.” Gusty smiled nervous. “Wohoo! Dinner time together!” Fizzy jumped excited. “We always have dinner together, Fizzy.” Buttons told her. “But I love having dinner with all of you, no matter how many times!” she replicated. Buttons shook her head as she rolled her eyes playfully. “Ah finally we eat something.” Fizzy sat down next to Buttons. “I´ve been starving all day!” “If we hadn´t been attacked, we would have had more food at the camping, but I think this will be enough to survive the night.” Glory said as she served everypony some berries. “Speaking of that, does anypony know how to go to Trottingham from here?” Gusty asked. “Well, I haven´t been this far in the forest but I know Trottingam is that way,” Starswirl pointed at the left. “and Catnada the other way.” he pointed at the north. “Catnada?” “That´s Katrina´s domains, in other words, the previous earth pony kingdom.” Glory explained. “If Katrina gets involved, will we have to go there?” Buttons asked her. “I don’t think it will be necessary. Katrina will send her soldiers to Trottingham for help. Plus, I´m pretty sure earth ponies won´t take kindly that we step into their territories, let alone, fight in them.” “And it´s further than Trottingham.” Starswirl added. “Either way, I wouldn´t mind paying a visit.” Fizzy gave her opinion after eating some berries. “I love seeing new places, even if the inhabitants aren´t unicorns.” “Yeah? Let´s see if you still think that once you interact with the earth ponies.” Lancer said in reply. “And what is Trottingham like?” Gusty asked Starswirl. “Like every empire´s city. There´s not much of difference except in its sight.” “Yeah, of course. We are talking about Tambelon, after all.” Gusty said sarcastically, making Starswirl chuckle. “You´ve been in Trottingham?” Buttons asked surprised. “I´m actually from there.” “Really?” Starswirl nodded. “I was born and lived there for some time. But then I had to run away and take refuge in the forest.” “For owing books about magic, am I right?” Lancer deduced. “Which makes me wonder, how on earth did you get those?” “Let´s just say Majesty´s rebellion wasn´t the only one that existed.” Everypony widened their eyes. “You were part of a rebellion?!” Fizzy asked dramatically. “Kind of, yes. But it wasn´t like yours that intended to dethrone Grogar. This was more of a fight for knowledge. To discover what we were capable of. Like in every other kingdom, Maragon´s scholars were clerics, since they were the ones tasked with studying magic to teach everypony how to use it correctly so that they took good care of the spirits and followed their teachings. Grogar attacked many monasteries to wipe those books from everypony´s memory. However, the clerics made a deal with him: they would teach him everything they knew about magic in exchange of keeping their books and lives.” “But what could Grogar not have known about magic by then?” “He already knew a lot, that´s true. But he didn´t know about pony magic. Knowing everything about your enemy, whether their strengths and weaknesses, their family or anything, always gives you an upper hoof.” Those words struck Gusty´s mind. She told Grogar about her family. What could he do to them? Despite her thoughts, she still payed attention to Starswirl. “But clerics were not willing to sacrifice their knowledge to Grogar. They always had copies of the books, so even if they had to give all their books to Grogar, they´d still have all the information they needed to keep on studying and teaching it.” “And since clerics live isolated, he wouldn´t realize anything was going on.” Gusty concluded. “Not really. Grogar was always smart enough to send guards to check there was no `illegal´ activity in there.” Starswirl made an air quote. “However, clerics kept their secret very well-hidden.” “And what did they do to cover it up?” Buttons ate some berries. “They pretended to do what everypony did. Farming, blacksmithing…” “So, I guess your family was part of that clergy, am I right?” Lancer presumed. “No. Clerics seldom had children. They were so dedicated to the study of magic that they didn´t dedicate time to forming a family, even though, there´s not a rule anywhere that forbids it, then again it depends on the head of the monastery. However, that didn´t mean that they couldn´t adopt orphans to form them.” “Wait. Ye´re an orphan?” Glory asked him. “Hmm.” Starswirl nodded. “My parents were very sick, and if you couldn´t find anypony to take care of your children, you could write a scroll to the monastery and asked them if they could, so that´s what they did with me. I was lucky, because not everypony could afford to do that.” “I see. At what age?” “I think I was nine years old. What about you? I presume you asked me this because you are too.” “Younger, six years old, I believe.” “And what happened to them? How did you end up alone in the forest?” Gusty asked fearful, already guessing the end of the story. Starswirl looked down. “There are two ways a rebellion can end: either you are the winner, or you are loser. You take all you wanted, or you lose it all. Some are lucky and prevail while other don´t. My case was one of the unlucky ones.” he sighed sadly at the same time he shook his head. “Unfortunately, Grogar caught us out off guard and discovered our disobedience. And as punishment, he burnt our home. The survivors of the fire were captured and executed.” “So… You were the only one to live.” Said Gusty. Starswirl closed his eyes in pain. “And how were not caught?” Lancer asked in disbelief. “Because it took me longer to get out of the castle. I was trapped at the library but managed to get out. By that time, I watched how Grogar´s soldiers took them away. The worst thing is that I didn´t do anything.” his eyes filled with tears. “I just ran away and hid. Like a coward.” he whimpered. Everypony showed sympathy in their faces as Starswirl told his story. They stayed silent, trying to process all that they heard, another reason being not knowing what to say. Gusty felt every word he said. Starswirl looked at her. “So, when I saw you were about to be attacked, I couldn´t stay still, not like before. I had to do something. But then you had to risk yourself to defend me.” Gusty frowned. She got up and ran to hug him. Everypony was left astonished by her reaction, especially Starswirl, whose cheeks turned redder each second it passed. “It´s ok. It wasn´t your fault.” she softly said to him. “Um… Thank you, I guess.” he tried to return the hug but could barely move from the surprise. “No, I mean it.” Gusty put her hooves on his shoulders. “I´ve gone through something similar and I know the pain and guilt than brings.” “And how did you stop feeling like that?” “I didn´t. I never did. However, there were ponies who needed me, so I helped them. It might never go away fully but it will minimize if you do what they would have liked you to do. And you´re doing so already. That´s a first step.” Starswirl gave her a small smile. “Wow. How is it the only ones that don´t have a sad backstory?” Fizzy asked Buttons. “If you look backwards, neither your life nor mine was a walk of roses. However, we did have each other.” she held her hoof. “I guess that´s what made it easier.” “I´ve been wondering, how long have you known each other?” Gusty walked back to her seat. “In one of her shows, actually.” Buttons replied. “Shows?” Lancer raised an eyebrow. “My family were musical entertainers. And we travelled from Puerto Caballo to Tambelon´s capital! We all sang songs, played music and did tricks.” “I suppose yours involved water.” Glory grinned playfully. “Por supuesto!Wanna see me do one?” Fizzy took air. She closed her eyes and held her breath to make bubbles in Buttons´ canteen. “Fizzy!” Buttons scolded her. “Sorry.” Fizzy shrugged. “Had to do a demonstration. Besides, who doesn´t like bubbles?” Buttons rolled her eyes. “Anyway, my family used to watch her shows faithfully.” she continued explaining. “She was the one who gave us the most money!” Fizzy hugged her. “She always thanked me for that. Slowly, we began to know each other and became the best of friends. Especially when both of us were captured as slaves.” “That´s how you ended in Grogar´s castle.” Gusty finished the sentence. “Exactly.” “I´m sorry, but I think I never got to know your names.” Starswirl said to everypony. “Except you, Gusty.” “I am Fizzy.” “I am Buttons.” “You´re from Prance, right? I say it because of the accent.” “Oui.” “I am Glory, the other orphan.” Glory chuckled. “I´m from Trotland.” “And finally, I´m Lancer. My birthplace? Same as Majesty´s.” “The monastery?!” Gusty and Buttons asked in unison. “You have Majesty´s age? I didn´t think you were that old.” Fizzy scratched her head. “Hey, Majesty´s a mature unicorn but she´s not that old. And neither I am. I´m almost two decades younger than her, for your information. My family formed part of the nobility that served Majesty´s family, and they were residing with her parents.” he shook her. “You idiot.” “Call me everything you want, but previously, you gave me proof that you tolerated me.” Lancer groaned, making everypony laughed. “You know what? I enjoyed knowing more of you.” Gusty told everypony once she was done laughing. “It´s a great way to strengthen our bonds as a team.” Everypony stared at Gusty. “A team?” Lancer asked. “Yeah, we are a team, aren´t we? Because I believe we make a good one.” “Aye, it´s true.” Glory said in realization. “We make a good team!” Buttons and Fizzy nodded in agreement. “Well, it´s not that bad working with you.” Lancer admitted. Though Starswirl happy for the unicorns, another part of him was sad, causing him to give them a bittersweet smile. Gusty noticed that detail. But just when she was about to ask him about what was troubling him, Fizzy yawned. “I´d love to keep talking with you guys, but I´m feeling a bit sleepy, aren´t you?” “Aye. I think it´s time we slept.” Glory agreed with Fizzy. “Besides, tomorrow we have a long journey ahead of us.” “Yeah, of course.” said Gusty, before taking a worried glance at Starswirl. Of all the ponies, Gusty was the only one awake. She couldn´t stop replaying in her mind the stressful events that had happened earlier. Especially the part were Gaueko held a sword at Starswirl´s throat, which would lead to flashbacks of her husband. Gusty touched her neck to hold her necklace, only to realize that she wasn´t wearing it. She gasped horrified. “Min.” she muttered. “No, no, it can´t be.” Feeling that she was hyperventilating, she got up and walked away to a distance safe enough for everypony in case she couldn´t control her anxiety, and thus her magic. “Min, min, min.” she kept repeating to herself. Naturally, a slight wind started to form. The wind caressed Starswirl´s cheek, waking him up. He gasped softy when she noticed the wind around Gusty. He got up and walked to her, struggling to advance though the wind. “Hey, are you ok?” “Huh?” the wind stopped abruptly. Gusty turned back. “Oh. Well… Not really. I lost my necklace. Gaueko must have untied it when he scratched my neck.” “You think he has it?” “Likely. I know this will sound stupid, since I´m pretty sure he´ll use it to track us down, I hope he does. Because that means that I might have a chance to take it back.” she sighed. “That necklace is not just a necklace. A very special pony gave it to me.” “Who was that pony?” “My husband.” “Oh!” Starswirl said somewhat disappointed. “Uh… You have a husband?” “Used to.” “What happened to him?” “He was murdered.” Starswirl widened his eyes. “Oh… I am so sorry.” he said shocked and concerned. “No wonder why you said those words to me before. And probably why you were so frightened when Gaueko trapped me. When did that happen?” “Three years ago.” “And how have you been doing ever since?” “Well, in the beginning was hard but like I said, some ponies needed me, and that kind of serves me as a escape.” “Is that why you became the Wind Warrior?” Gusty turned his head to him. “I noticed Gaueko called you that. Though it estranged me, since you told me that you joined Majesty recently. “Oh!” Gusty chuckled. “Well, that´s connected to the reason I joined Majesty but not the main reason. It was for somepony else.” Starswirl widened his eyes. “You have foals?” Gusty nodded. “Two beautiful fillies. I was fired from my previous job so one of Majesty´s unicorns found me and took me to her, that´s when she offered me food and money in exchange of spying on Grogar´s castle.” “You mentioned it earlier, yes.” “Unfortunately, I got caught by him, but we managed to run away. Majesty was super willing to kick me out, but then she discovered that I was part of a prophecy that said that a wind warrior would defeat Grogar.” “Really?” “Yup.” “Well, that must have been a lot to digest.” “Definitely. But you know what? When you said to me that we brought you hope, it made me feel needed. My husband always loved to help others, so I guess he must be proud that I´m helping other ponies.” “Yeah. Who knows, maybe they are feeling the same today.” “How did you deal with it? You were on your own for so many years! I could have never done it if I was alone.” “Well… You get used to it.” “And don´t you feel lonely?” Starswirl clicked his tongue. “Sometimes.” Gusty looked at the sleeping unicorns and then at Starswirl. She smiled. “You know, when I said to everypony that we make a good team, I was talking about all of us.” “Yeah, I know.” Starswirl said relaxed at first, though his attitude changed when he understood what Gusty meant. “Wait. You mean me too?” Gusty nodded. “You want me to be part of your team?” he put his hooves on his chest. “I do.” “But. I have no training. How do you expect me to go in a battle? You saw what happened today, how panicked I was, I-” Starswirl talked in a fast pace. “Sure, you need polishing. But you proved to us today what you are capable of. Besides, an expert in magic would come in handy.” “You are saying it because you don´t want me to be alone. It´s ok, I´m fine, really. I´ll only slow you down. Besides, it´s not only up to you.” Starswirl pointed at the others. “But if you don´t come with us, what will you do?” Starswirl couldn´t find an answer to that question. The diamond dogs knew where he lived, so it would be unwise to come back. “I´ll… I´ll figure out.” Gusty exhaled air from her nose. “It´s ok, take all the time you need. But remember to sleep too!” she winked an eye. Starswirl chuckled nervously. “I´m going back to sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day.” she said as she and Starswirl went back to where they were sleeping. “Whatever I choose, I wish you the best. And I´m pretty sure that you´ll take back your necklace.” Gusty smiled tenderly. “Good night.” “Good night.” Gusty fell asleep faster than Starswirl. The stallion took some time to think Gusty´s offer. Once he made up his mind, he slept peacefully, like everypony else. However, that didn´t mean they were free form danger. Some hours later, Fizzy woke up abruptly after she heard a deep, loud roar, as if a beast was just next to her. She panted while she checked around. “Maybe it was just a dream.” she thought aloud, since she didn´t see anything. However, she heard the roar again. She looked at the bushes to see if they were moving, but it was too dark to see a thing. After gulping, she ignited her horn and approached the bushes. After getting a close view, she saw nothing. She walked around and still found nothing. “I don´t see a beast anywhere, why is it so loud?” she asked frustrated while spinning around. Gradually, the roar turned softer, and softer, to the point of almost being inaudible. Fizzy sighed relieved. “It´s away now.” Poor Fizzy couldn´t be more mistaken. After taking some steps back she noticed something furry. Slowly, she looked up, finding a pair of narrowing, glowing amber eyes with narrow pupils staring at her. She roared at her. “Miércoles.” Fizzy mumbled. Her yell awakened everypony. “Fizzy?” Buttons asked half-asleep. Everypony gasped horrified when they realized she had disappeared. “Oh no.” Gusty said horrified. > Chapter 8: A paranormal encounter > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Buttons got up in a second and ran around while calling Fizzy. “Fizzy?! Fizzy?! Where are you?!” she panickily sprang from place to place. “Did she seriously disappear while we were sleeping?!” Lancer yelled angry. Gusty gasped when she saw some hoofsteps. “Look!” she yelled as she pointed at the trail. “Oh dear! Oh dear!” Buttons exclaimed as she ran behind Gusty. The ponies went through the same bushes as Fizzy. When the fire couldn´t illuminate their path anymore, Gusty conjured up some light. They carefully observed their surroundings and had their weapons prepared as they followed her trail. The forest was dark, with not a soul around. The only sound that they could hear were their voices calling for their lost friend, an owl hooting or a wolf howling. “Ooh… What if an animal hunted her? What if she was captured by diamond dogs? Or what if one of Grogar´s beasts caught her?” Buttons bit her hoof. “Maybe it´s not that bad.” Lancer said to reassure her after he pressed his lips. “Maybe she discovered something and she cried from the surprise. I think what you need to do is to calm down a little so we-” “DON´T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!” Buttons grabbed his cheeks. “Fizzy is like a sister to me! How would you feel if your sibling got lost and I told you to calm down?! Huh?” “I´m just saying that you should calm down so in case we have to fight you are in conditions to fight…” Lancer finished. “HOW CAN I BE CALM?!” “Ok, maybe ye need to be a little far from each other until ye no longer feel the urge to kill him…” Glory pushed Buttons and Lancer away. “Agreed.” Lancer took a few hoofsteps back. “Geeze, I think I prefer Gusty being anxious.” he muttered. Noticing that she was hyperventilating, Gusty walked backwards to her side. “Light the way, Starswirl.” she ordered him. The unicorn nodded. “Oh my, I can´t breathe.” Buttons held her chest. “That´s because you´re anxious Buttons.” Gusty explained her as she offered her a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “That happens to me often. It´s a very ugly sensation but you can make it go away.” “How?!” Gusty took air and exhaled it through her mouth slowly. Buttons took example and did the same. Little by little, she recovered her breath and didn´t feel a lack of air anymore. “Feeling better?” Gusty asked her. “Somewhat. I am still very nervous but at least I can breathe now. How do you deal with it every day?” “Well, it´s not every day.” Buttons raised her eyebrow. “Ok, maybe every day.” she smiled nervously. “However, now it´s not all the time. Some months after my husband´s death, every little thing made me remember that moment. No matter where I was, I always felt very anxious.” “Must have been very hard.” “It was. Especially because I couldn´t use my wind magic and that made it worse. When I got back home, I had to go to the basement because I exploded when I arrived home everytime. It was perfect because I would never get in trouble, since there was not a single object in there to break. And,” Gusty hesitated before continuing. “it was a good way to ensure my daughters weren´t around.” “Were you afraid that you would hurt them if they were around?” “Not only that. Imagine seeing the pony that is supposed to protect you breaking down. As a mother, you are supposed to make your children see that everything will be ok. No child should see their mother like that.” Buttons exhaled air from her nose. This time, she was the one to offer a comforting hoof. “You were and still are in a very difficult situation. Honestly, if I found myself in your shoes, I would be feeling far worse.” Gusty gave out a small chuckle. “No, no, I´m serious. Did you just see me? I would just start with coming up with the worst scenarios and whine non-stop! I can´t blame you for breaking down. The one to blame is Grogar and Grogar alone. He´s the one that makes this world difficult for families! But that will change once this is all over.” “You think so?” “Not really. But a part of me does.” Gusty smiled tenderly at Buttons. “But now let´s focus on finding Fizzy.” Buttons sighed. “I´m very very worried.” “I am too. Fizzy was the first one to be friendly to me back in the castle. Not only that, but she was also the first one to be kind to me in a long time. I wouldn´t forgive myself if something happened to her.” “If you wouldn´t forgive yourself if something happened to Fizzy, imagine me! That would be my downfall, really.” “Um… I don´t want to interrupt you but I don´t see any more hoofprints.” Starswirl said to them. “WHAT?!” Buttons asked shocked. She and Gusty ran to Starswirl. He was right, there were no more hoofprints! However, it was very strange. The hoofprints didn´t lead to a cave or a river, nor there were prints from other animals, especially carnivorous ones. Instead, Fizzy´s hoofprints stopped abruptly. Though, there were hoofprints on top of others from the end of the trail to where Gusty and Buttons were standing. “Eeeh… Hello? Can somepony explain this?” Lancer asked confused. “It seems that she got to this point and then walked backwards.” Starswirl deduced. He shook his head. “This is very strange, it´s like she vanished afterwards.” “Maybe she teleported?” Gusty suggested. “No, we would have heard or seen a flash if she did.” Glory replied. “Maybe a giant eagle took her!” Buttons put her hoofs on her cheeks. “Does that exist, Glory?” “There are rocs, which are giant predatory birds. But they are not on this zone. Also, I´m pretty sure we would have seen a giant bird flying.” “Then maybe the ophiotaurus from before?” “There would be tracks of it, if that was the case.” “THEN WHAT ON EARTH COULD HAVE HAPPENED?!” Buttons shouted full-throated while pulling her mane. Her shout was so strong that everypony had to cover their ears. When she realized what she had done, she covered her mouth. “I know you´re worried, and for a good reason, but quiet down, will you?” Lancer told her gently. “We could attract wolves or something.” “Sorry.” she apologized. Suddenly, they felt a chill wind running on their spines. Lancer sighed frustrated. “What is it now, Gusty?” “What do you mean?” “You are panicking about something. I felt a wind.” “Um… That wasn´t me…” Gusty denied. “Look, I know that I haven´t dealt with your feelings accordingly to the past but-” “No, no. I am worried about Fizzy, but I´m not panicking.” “I am the one that´s panicking.” Buttons laid her hoof on her chest. “You are right, you are not hyperventilating. But if it wasn´t you, then who-” Afterwards, they heard a loud roar. The ponies formed a defensive circle. “There´s a predator near!” Glory exclaimed quietly. “It could be a manticore.” Starswirl widened his eyes. “That´s no manticore…” Everypony turned their heads to him. What they saw next froze their blood. Not so far away, there was a figure approaching. They couldn´t tell what it was due to the darkness, but they knew it was no common creature. This creature was shining, meaning it could be a spirit. Before it could notice them, Starswirl cast a disappearing spell. Ironically, the nearer the creature was, the quieter its roar became. The unicorns shivered in fear when they saw the creature´s face. In its dark coat, there were spots as bright as the stars. Its eyes were perhaps the most terrifying feature. From those shiny feline eyes, there were permanent tears running down its cheeks. The expression it bore was full of anger. However, that was not what scared the unicorns the most. Buttons covered her mouth in shock when she saw what the feline creature had on her mouth. It was Fizzy! She looked unconscious, as if she was sleeping, and thankfully there wasn´t any blood on her body, which meant that the creature didn´t devour her. The creature approached her head to sniff, causing the ponies to hug as tight as they could. Fortunately, it turned around and ran away, fading away in the meadow of the forest. Once it wasn´t around, the unicorns stopped holding their breaths as Starswirl undid the disappearing spell. “What on earth was that?” Lancer couldn´t stop shivering. “I think it was a spirit.” Glory held her chest. “But not of the good ones that´s for sure.” “So you´re saying we had a paranormal encounter?” Gusty asked Glory. “Very likely.” Glory answered. “She had Fizzy! She had Fizzy in her mouth!” Buttons hyperventilated. Noting it, Gusty patted her shoulder. “I had hoped that I´d never see her again.” Starswirl laid his head on his hoof. “You saw her before?!” everypony exclaimed at the same time. Starswirl nodded. “Hm. On a day looking for supplies.” “Why is it that whenever you go for supplies something happens?” Lancer asked frustrated. “I know, right?” Starswirl chuckled. “And what do you know about that spirit?” Buttons ran to him. “How many times have you seen her? Does she eat ponies? Do you think Fizzy is in great danger?” “Ok, ok. One question at a time.” he told her, feeling a bit overwhelmed by her constant questions. “Firstly, I don´t know much about her since I only saw her once. But from my experience, if her roar is quiet, it means she´s near, whereas if it´s far, it´s louder. As for eating ponies, she´s a spirit. Spirits don´t need food to survive, so don´t worry about Fizzy being eaten. And the last question… I can´t tell, sorry.” he lamented. Buttons sighed worried. Glory patted her back. “What happened the day you found her?” Gusty asked Starswirl. “On that day, I noticed some earth ponies hiding. I offered my help, but they were too scared already to think clearly, that and the fact that it was the first time they ever saw an unicorn. Suddenly, I heard a small roar. From that sound I knew there was a predator around, but I didn´t imagine she was right behind us. And she wasn´t just any predator, she was a spirit. I tried to defend myself and the earth ponies, but against a spirit, there´s little that you can do. The earth ponies stopped moving and fell to the ground. Anyway, once they were not moving, she took them away, carrying them on her mouth.” “Just like she was doing with Fizzy….” Glory thought aloud. “Do you know where she lives?” Buttons asked him. “Unfortunately, I can´t answer that question. However, I noticed that she was following the path to Bridlengton that time. And she did this time as well” “Are you suggesting that the spirit brings Katrina ponies?” Gusty supposed. “It could be…” “But how on earth did Katrina manage to have a spirit working for her?” Lancer asked estranged. “I don´t know if black magic can deal with the spiritual world, but there could be a possibility Katrina corrupted that spirit with black magic. However, I imagine that must be almost unachievable. This is a higher power we´re talking about. One mistake and you die. Then again, I´m no expert at dark magic because I haven´t studied it.” “And what do you think the spirits does to the ponies? Does she…” Buttons took a pause, not wanting to verbalize that possibility. “kill them?” “I don´t know…” Starswirl shook his head. “But I guess Katrina sent the spirit to capture us so she could deliver us to Grogar. And he probably wants to see Gusty die or kill her himself.” Gusty shivered. “As for us… He might want to make an example of us too.” Starswirl continued. “So what you´re saying is that Fizzy´s not dead?” said Buttons. Starswirl clenched his teeth. “There is a chance for both.” “Then what are we waiting for? Let´s go!” “Let´s go where?” Lancer asked her. “To Bridlengton.” “Whoah, whoah.” Lancer blocked her way. “You want to go to an earth pony city alone?!” “If that means saving my friend, then I´ll gladly do so.” “But in doing so you´re risking your life! Earth ponies don´t like unicorns. It is not a good idea!” “Well, I´ve been risking my life from the moment I befriended Gusty.” Gusty bit her lip. “Don´t worry. I wouldn´t have it any other way.” Buttons winked an eye at her, making smile shyly. She turned to Lancer. “If none of you want to accompany me, I´ll go alone.” “You can´t go alone! It is one of the rules of the army: never separate from the group! We stick together.” “Then if we stick together, we need to rescue Fizzy. I can´t leave her at Katrina´s mercy. Besides, you see how efficient she is in battle! Why would you want to leave her behind?” “Who said I want to leave her behind?” “Well, you don´t want me to go to Bridlengton.” “I don´t want you to go alone.” Buttons widened her eyes. “Wait. So you want to go to rescue Fizzy?” “Obviously!” Gusty replied. “We are all we have, we can´t leave each other alone.” Glory added. “No, no, I knew you two would be in the ride.” Buttons told them. “But Lancer?” she turned to him. “Well, d´uh! She might be very annoying, but she´s amazing in the battlefield. I never thought I´d say this but she makes things easier. We can´t keep going on without her.” Buttons hugged Lancer tightly. “Thank you! Thank you!” “No need to thank me.” Lancer tried to free himself for her hug. “But we can´t go to Bridlengton just like that.” Glory looked at her armour. “We´ll need disguises.” “But where do we do get them from? Do we steal them from the first cottage we see only for those ponies to report us and complicate things more?” Lancer said. As they were talking, Gusty noticed some rocks, which gave her an idea. “Maybe we don´t need to.” The unicorns stared at Gusty. “Look, we have plenty of material here.” she pointed at the rocks. After looking at the rocks, the unicorns started to wonder if Gusty was crazy. “You´re not seriously thinking that we can make disguises with rocks, are you?” Buttons asked confused. “Of course we can! Don´t you remember what we learned at training?” After mentioning the training, all the unicorns, except Starswirl, understood what she meant. “Aaah…” they said in unison. “I´m sorry, but I don´t quite understand what you mean.” Starswirl said ashamed. “Yes, you do. You must have studied that spell!” Starswirl widened his eyes. “Of course, turning objects into other objects. That´s genius!” “Oh, it´s nothing.” Gusty blushed flattered. Every time they had interacted, Starswirl was the one to blush. And this time, Gusty was the one to blush. Starswirl felt butterflies in his stomach when he saw her cheeks turning red. She was adorable when she did that. He stared dreamily at her. “Hello…” Lancer waved his hoof in front of Starswirl. “We have a soldier to save. We can´t lose time.” “Oh!” Starswirl snapped off his thoughts. “Yeah, sorry.” Each pony picked up the quantity of rocks they felt they´d need. They turned the rocks into dresses, shirts and cloaks. They put them over their armours. “Oh, we´re going to be so hot in this…” Buttons wiped the sweat off her forehead. “Yeah, but it´s either that or getting caught. You choose.” Lancer told her. “There´s still one problem though.” Glory said after she put on her cloak. “The cloaks don´t cover our horns.” “I can fix that!” Starswirl suggested. After he ignited his horn, the unicorns´ horns were no more. Afraid of having lost them, they started to touch their foreheads. Starswirl chuckled. “Don´t worry, they are still there. It´s just an invisibility spell but instead of covering the whole body, it just covers the horn.” he explained. “That´s a great idea!” Gusty commented. Whenever Gusty complimented him, Starswirl would feel great joy inside. He smiled. “There´s a catch though.” his smile vanished. “You cannot use your magic. If you do, the spell will be broken.” “Well, it´s not like we are going to use our horns anyway.” Lancer shrugged. “I mean if we did, we would pretty much give away that we are unicorns.” “So, are we ready to go?” Gusty asked everypony. “I think so.” Glory replied. “Me too.” Lancer answered. Starswirl nodded. “Then, let´s not waste more time!” Buttons exclaimed. “Fizzy, I´m coming for you!” Determined, Buttons ran into adventure, leaving everypony staring at her. “Um… It´s the other way.” Starswirl corrected her with a nervous smile. Buttons slowed down abruptly. “Oh right! Sorry…” she apologized before quickly changing direction. Even though she sprinted, Glory caught her on time before she was far enough not to catch up with her. “Why don´t we let Starswirl take the lead in this one?” she suggested. “Since he´s the one that knows the path.” “Very well. But you better be quick!” she told Starswirl. She glared at Starswirl as he took the lead. He looked a bit worried at Gusty. The mare just smiled, shrugged and laughed it off, making him laugh as well. > Chapter 9: The weeping roar > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Aaah…” Fizzy groaned as she opened her eyes slowly. “Where am I?” Her answer came once her vision cleared. She found herself in a dark and quiet room. The walls were made of an ugly-grey stone. At her right, there were black bars, which made her realize where she was. She gasped horrified. “Oh no. No, no, no, no.” she said to herself in denial as she touched her bars. She tried to run to the left, but something made her trip. She realized that her hoof was chained. She snarled. Scared, she walked backwards until she touched the wall, taking a glance of her surroundings in hopes of finding somepony familiar. “Buttons? Gusty? Glory? Lancer?” she asked scared. “Where are you?” Unfortunately, none of them replied to her. Her breath started to accelerate. Fizzy was not the type of pony that got easily scared, but she was not immune to fear. Cells terrified her. They were such small spaces, there´s barely light in them, you hear the heart-wrenching screams of tortured prisoners begging for mercy. But mostly, it was the loneliness that terrified her the most. Throughout her life, she was always accompanied, whether it was her family or Buttons. She never experienced what it was like being alone until she came to Grogar´s castle. Fizzy got distracted very easily or had problems doing chores, added to her upbeat and free-spirited attitude, which caused her to be punished in a dungeon. And those moments were terrifying because nopony was around her. After Gusty´s incident, she had hoped to never be in a dungeon again. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the door opening. Fizzy widened her eyes when she saw a cat-lady dressed in smart red garbs, with purple fur at both top and bottom and the end of the sleeves. Next to her, there was another brown cat dressed in a dark green shirt and wearing a pointy hat. Fizzy softly sighed in relief, as she was expecting Grogar. Nonetheless, this cat lady didn´t seem to be much better though. The cat smiled at her as she approached the bars. “Well, well.” she said. “Look who we have-” The smugness faded away once she checked the unicorn in detail, giving Fizzy the sensation that she was not the unicorn she was expecting. “You´re not the Wind Warrior!” she spat angry. She turned to the other cat and grabbed him by the shirt. “You told me that we had the Wind Warrior!” “No…” the cat answered shyly, trying to hide his blush. “I said that we had one of the Wind Warrior´s soldiers.” he rectified. “Oh.” Katrina replied, surprised at her mistake. “But that was not for I asked for! I asked for the Wind Warrior, not one of her pathetic little soldiers!” “Says the one who´s yelling at her henchcat instead of admitting her mistake…” Fizzy muttered under her breath. Katrina´s ear twitched. “What did you say?” she asked Fizzy. “Nothing!” Fizzy answered innocently. “That stupid jaguar… Thanks to her, Crunch´s soldiers might take the Wind Warrior first!” Katrina said as she let go of her henchcat´s shirt, making him fall on his back. As soon as she heard the word `jaguar´, Fizzy remembered what had happened. She had found an enormous and glowing feline creature. She got so scared that she lost conscience. This jaguar must have brought her to this dungeon to the cat lady. Speaking of which, she seemed to be working for Grogar, since she wanted to bring Gusty to Grogar herself so bad. She immediately knew who she was when she noticed the potion hanging from her neck, which made her recall the conversation they had with Starswirl about black magic. “You´re Katrina!” she exclaimed as she pointed at the potion. The two cats turned their heads to her. Katrina smiled. “Aah… So you know about me. Of course, Majesty must have told you.” Katrina moved her mane smugly. “Well, you might not be as valuable as your little friend, but you could still be a good asset to get to her. So tell me.” she cornered Fizzy against the wall. Where is she?” “Ha! What makes you think that I will speak to a meanie who wants to hurt my friend and impede our chance to get freedom, huh?” Fizzy clicked her tongue. “You´re the villain. You are the one supposed to know this.” “Oh don´t worry. I was counting on that.” Katrina snapped her fingers. “Which one you want me to use mam?” the cat asked to Katrina as he took out various torture tools. Fizzy´s ears dropped in both fear and surprise. “Spear, lash, cat´s paw, a breast ripper, a mask, an axe, or-” “Whatever you want!” Katrina replied impatient. “I choose a spear!” the cat picked it up from the floor. “Ay ay ay.” Fizzy whispered. She gulped as the cat walked to her. “Ok, ok!” Fizzy exclaimed. “I´ll speak. I´ll speak.” “Aw, I wanted to use it so bad!” the cat complained. Katrina rolled her eyes. “I´ll ask again. Where is she?” she asked threateningly to Fizzy. “Uh…” Fizzy whimpered as she fidgeted with her hooves. “Well… I don´t know where she´s not.” Katrina blinked, both confused and surprised by the answer. “You´re telling me you don´t know where the Wind Warrior is?” “It wouldn´t be accurate to assume that I couldn´t exactly not say that it is or isn´t almost partially incorrect.” “So you do know where she is!” “On the contrary! I´m possibly more or less not definitely rejecting the idea that in no way was any amount of uncertainty that I undeniably…” The more Fizzy spoke, the more confused the cats got, which made Katrina more impatient. “Stop it!” she ordered in hopes of shutting her up, but the unicorn kept on speaking. “…do or do not know where she shouldn´t probably be, if that indeed wasn´t where she isn´t. Even if she wasn´t at where I knew where she was, that´d mean I´d really have to know where she wasn´t.” Katrina smacked her forehead. Frustrated, her henchcat covered his ears. Furious, she walked to a wall and scratched it with her claws to make her stop talking. Fizzy covered her ears with aversion. She gave our a nervous chuckle. “Rep! Rip her apart!” Katrina ordered him. “With pleasure!” Fizzy gasped terrified. Luckily, before the spear could reach her, a soft voice started singing a melancholic melody, puzzling the unicorn and the two cats. “I hear you every night at the castle, weeping roar Even in my sleep I hear you I hear you every night at the castle, weeping roar Even in my sleep I hear you…” “Wow. And I thought I sang beautifully.” Fizzy thought to herself. Unlike Fizzy, the two cats didn´t listen with pleasure. Instead, they complained. “Seriously?!” said Katrina as she lifted her paws to the air. She got up and exited Fizzy´s cell. “A mournful painful cry you give me, weeping roar It feels like your soul fle. A mournful painful cry you give me, weeping roar It feels like your soul flew.” However, it stopped singing abruptly and whimpered instead. When Katrina came back, she was grabbing an earth pony by her foreleg, much to Fizzy´s surprise. “Posey! Whatever are you doing here? Aren´t you supposed to be doing your duties?!” Katrina asked her angrily. “Well, I wanted to tell you something but seeing that you were super busy, I wanted to wait. And in the meantime, I sang.” Posey smiled apologetic. Fizzy stared at the earth pony. This was the first time she had ever seen an earth pony. She wasn´t much different from unicorns, except for the fact that she didn´t have a horn on her forehead. Nonetheless, it was one of the prettiest mares she had ever seen. Her long decorated pink braids, her green eyes, the brown coloured spot in her muzzle, her colourful dress… She looked away when she felt the earth pony´s gaze upon her. “What is it that you have to tell me?” Katrina asked her impatiently. “The guards require your presence. They need to tell you something.” Posey replied. Katrina growled. Rep simply complained. “Aw, I wanted to show off my abilities to Katrina.” he blushed when he realized what he just said. “I mean, wanted to do my job.” “You and I are not over.” Katrina put her claw on Fizzy´s nose. “Come on, Rep.” “Yes, mam.” he said pleased, almost as if he was lovestruck. “Gee. Looks like some creature has an awful taste.” Fizzy said once she was sure that Katrina and Rep were out of sight. “I know right?” Posey replied. “GAH!” Fizzy jumped backwards when she noted that Posey was still there. “Didn´t you go away?” “Nope I didn´t.” Posey smiled back. “From what I´ve heard, you are part of the unicorn rebellion, right?” “Um… Why do you want to know that?” Fizzy gasped excited as she widened her eyes. “Oh! I know, you are part of the revolution of earth ponies!” Panicked, Posey shushed her. “The walls have ears. Katrina is a cat, and cats have excellent hearing. Not to mention, cats are known for being sneaky. Not to mention,” she grabbed Fizzy´s foreleg and tilted her head. “the guards can hear us.” “But I don´t see any guards…” “They are not here, but like I said, the walls have ears. Even if I´m in another room, I can hear everything. And they can too…” Fizzy looked from side to side. Usually, she was the one to be called eccentric, and she couldn´t blame the ponies around her, since she always had her head on the clouds or arrived at random conclusions. But this mare… This mare was a whole new level of being eccentric. “Oops.” Fizzy chuckled apologetic. “Sorry.” “How do you know about the earth pony rebellion?” “Oh, Gusty told everypony in front of Grogar.” she shook her hoof. “What? What? Who´s Gusty? And did she do that?” Posey asked shocked. “Gusty is the Wind Warrior. Have you heard about that?” “Yeah, I heard everything from Katrina. Is it true, is she really going to defeat Grogar?” “That´s what the prophecy says…” “So, if you defeat Grogar, that means, earth ponies will be free as well, right?” Posey asked hopeful. “Well… I suppose so because sooner or later we would have to go through Katrina. And that moment might be sooner than we thought, considering that I´ve been ponynapped, but I´m not so sure if my friends will rescue me or Majesty first.” “Who´s Majesty?” “Our leader.” “But I thought the Wind Warrior was your leader…” “Honestly… I have felt more lead by Gusty than by Majesty, but the second is the queen, so basically, she is our leader. What about you, who´s the leader in your rebellion?” Just when Posey was about to answer, they heard mournful sobs and cries. But it was not a normal crying. It was an echoing, almost phantasmagorical crying roar. Overwhelmed with fear, Fizzy pressed her body against the wall. Posey was right, you could hear everything through those walls. Speaking of her, on contrary to Fizzy, Posey was surprisingly calm. “What is that?” Fizzy asked panicked. “The weeping roar.” “The weeping roar?” Posey nodded. “It´s always the same. Every night at the castle, at approximately this time of the night, you can hear those bone-chilling ghostly cries. At first, I thought I was the only one that heard them, since every time I told Katrina she called me crazy. But after talking to other slaves, I realized that there was indeed a voice crying.” “Does that mean there are ghosts in this castle?” Fizzy started to shiver in fear. “Is that voice from one of the miserable souls of prisoners who died here?” “I have no idea. But during my time in the castle, I discovered that it calms down when you sing to it.” “Oh, so that´s why you were singing!” Fizzy widened her eyes. “Wait. You sing to a ghost?” Posey giggled at Fizzy´s disbelief. “I know it sounds crazy, but it truly works. Watch.” Posey told her. Calmly, she closed her eyes and placed her hoof on her chest. “I hear you every night at the castle, weeping roar. Even in my sleep I hear you. I hear you every night at the castle, weeping roar. Even in my sleep I hear you… A mournful painful cry you give me, weeping roar, It feels like your soul flew A mournful painful cry you give me, weeping roar It feels like your soul flew” Fizzy widened her eyes in disbelief. Posey´s soft voice did truly influence the mysterious cries. The more she sang, the softer the sobs became. “I´m with you weeping roar, weeping roar, weeping roar in this lonely night. I´m with you weeping roar, weeping roar, weeping roar in this lonely night. No matter how dark it is now, weeping roar, I will be your bright light. No matter how dark it is now, weeping roar, I will be your bright light.” After hearing the lyrics, Fizzy understood the mysterious voice stopped crying. It was comforting, reassuring her that she wasn´t alone. Nevertheless, from what Posey told her, this happened every time. What could have happened to that ghost for her to cry every night? “I don´t know what´s troubling you weeping roar That makes you cry in so much pain I don´t know what´s troubling you weeping roar That makes you cry in so much pain I wish you could give me an answer weeping roar So I could free you from that chain I wish you could give me an answer weeping roar So I could free you from that chain I´m with you weeping roar, weeping roar, weeping roar Your sadness can stop I´m with you weeping roar, weeping roar, weeping roar Your sadness can stop I will cover you with my shawl weeping roar Because I can feel that you´re cold I will cover you with my shawl weeping roar Because I can feel that you´re cold” Once Posey finished her song, the ghostly cries were heard no more. Fizzy sighed in relief. “How can you be so calm when this happens?” she asked Posey shocked as she held her chest. “The first time is scary, but if you´ve been living here since you were a filly, you get used to it.” “You´ve been serving Katrina since you were a filly? Oh my…” “Yeah. I would have honestly preferred to have drowned in that river.” “What?” “On my last day home, I climbed a tree near the river at night like I used to. It wasn´t wise in the slightest, considering the number of dangerous creatures that live in the rainforest´s trees, but it felt so peaceful there, away from everypony´s affairs. Unfortunately, I would soon realize the consequences when I noticed a snake going up that tree. In efforts of walking away, the branch I was on broke and I fell to the river. And just when I was losing conscience, I felt something pick me up. I couldn´t tell who, though, the only thing I could see was a blurred bright light, nor I couldn´t hear a thing, as my ears were full of water. Must have been somepony in a boat, I don´t know. And when I opened my eyes, I was in a completely different place: the castle!” Posey expanded her forelegs. Fizzy blinked surprised. “You´re kind of a strange pony.” “Says the one who has a horn in her forehead!” Posey said playfully. Fizzy looked up at her horn. “I guess if you are used to living without one, it sure can seem strange.” she touched her horn. The two mares shared a laugh. Who would have thought? A unicorn and an earth pony sharing and enjoying a peculiar but interesting chat. Like every other unicorn, Fizzy had been told that the two species didn´t seem eye to eye, so they didn´t interact much. In fact, if it wasn´t for Grogar, they would have never interacted at all! Yet right now, an earth pony was standing in front of her, offering her a smile and treating her as an equal. Posey might be odd but Fizzy was odd too. They might have not interacted much but Fizzy could tell that she could learn many things from this special pony. Unfortunately, reality hit back when they heard Katrina´s voice. “Posey! Posey! Where are you?!” she called her. Posey gasped horrified. “I have to go.” she told Fizzy. “What? Can´t you tell me how to escape at least?” “I would, but right now I can´t. Both of us will get in trouble if I don´t tend her now. But don´t worry,” she held her hooves. “I´ll find a way to help you, I promise.” “POSEY!” Katrina yelled once again. “I´m coming!” Posey replied to Katrina. She turned back to Fizzy. “I must go.” “Wait!” Fizzy stretched her hoof. “What´s your name?” “My name´s Posey, and yours?” “Fizzy.” “Ok, Fizzy. I´ll see you again soon.” Posey winked an eye on her. In just a few seconds, she ran upstairs, leaving Fizzy alone once again. Or maybe not completely alone, since there seemed to be a weeping ghost on the dungeons, which ironically made her feel more uneasy than being completely on her own. She didn´t know if this mysterious entity was either a soul in torment, or a soul that came back for revenge. She hugged her knees scared. “Weeping roar, if you can hear me, please don´t hurt me. I´m not here to cause any harm on you.” she begged scared. She looked at her dungeon´s window. “Oh guys, I don´t care if you go to Majesty first, but at least be quick. Without you, I´m as terrified as a little filly.” Unknown to Fizzy, beneath her, there was a chained ghost-like jaguar hearing her words. She lowered her head in lament, tears silently and constantly running down her face. > Chapter 10: A dangerous lunch > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Buttons fidgeted with her hooves nervously while looking at the night sky, wondering why the sun didn´t come out yet. Despite being so confident and insistent on rescuing Fizzy, she realized that neither she nor her companions had enough energy to walk through the night anymore. So, she had no choice but to accept Glory´s advice and sleep. But right now, sleep was such an impossible task for her. Her mind couldn´t stop racing on Fizzy. Was she ok? Was she hurt? Or worse, was she dead? How could she sleep without an answer to those questions? Then, she remembered what Gusty did when tracking down Fizzy´s hoofprint trail. How she felt somewhat better after taking some time to breathe slowly. Maybe it could work again. So, she closed her eyes, laid her hooves on her chest and started to inhale some air and exhaling it slowly after holding it for a few seconds. She repeated the same process again, and again until she felt no tension on her muscles. When she opened her eyes, she found herself surrounded by the mares she used to work at Grogar´s castle. In fact, she was at Grogar´s castle! She looked at her clothes. She wasn´t wearing her armour anymore, instead, she was wearing her old blue dress. In front of her, there was a white shirt. Though she mainly sewed the same clothes, she remembered each detail that made each garment different, and she could even remember what had happened in the day she fixed it. And the shirt she had in front of her was very familiar. “Wait. Is this-” she thought aloud. “Done!” a familiar voice exclaimed. Buttons turned her head to the right and saw Fizzy holding her garment. Though it was pretty badly sewn, Fizzy seemed very proud of her work. As a matter of fact, she was showing it to some faceless troggles. “What in tarnation is that?!” one of them asked disgusted. “It´s a shirt! But I added some personal touch. Instead of being like every other shirt, now it has some embroidery. And not just any embroidery, it´s the embroidery of the emperor!” she said with a huge smile on her face. Buttons giggled. “She did some embroidery.” she joined her hooves together, grinning in pride. The troggle ruthlessly tore the shirt and threw it to the floor. “Can´t you do a normal shirt?!” “What are you? An idiot?!” the other troggle asked her. With every word they spoke, Fizzy´s ears dropped and looked down ashamed. “Hey, at least she has some creativity unlike others!” Buttons yelled to the troggles, outraged by how they were treating her. Suddenly, she was on a different location. This time, she was in the kitchen. She gasped when she noticed Fizzy surrounded by mares. Like the troggles, they were faceless.. “Fizzy! We told you to watch over the bread!” one mare yelled at Fizzy while showing her a burnt bread. “Well, I was watching over the bread, but since I saw that all of you were nervous about not getting bread to the emperor in time, I thought that if I added more coal, it would get done faster…” Buttons shook her head, smiling at Fizzy´s silliness. “Same old Fizzy…” she said. “Seriously? You couldn´t think of something better?” another mare asked her. “Why do you always do everything wrong?!” other asked her. “Whoa, whoa. She might not be the best at cooking, but that doesn´t mean she never does things right.” Buttons walked to the circle of mares. “Yeah, because you are around to help her.” “If it wasn´t for you, I´m pretty sure Grogar would have disposed her.” Buttons gasped offended. “You just did not say that!” Once again, her surroundings changed. Now, she wasn´t in the castle since she could see the sky. However, Buttons couldn´t tell the exact location, due to the many unicorns around her. Nonetheless, she got some clues of what was happening from what the ponies were whispering. “Poor mare. She didn´t stand a chance.” a male unicorn said. “Where are the friends she pledged loyalty to?” the unicorn next to him said. Suddenly, a loud voice started speaking. “The prisoner has been found guilty of the crime of treason. She is a traitor to the emperor, to the empire. To all of us! The sentence is death!” Buttons´ ears dropped in fear. “Oh no.” She made her way through the crowd, not caring if she upset some ponies in the process. She finally reached a spot where she could see what was happening. She gasped horrified when she saw Fizzy tied to the wooden post standing on a pyre. Buttons´ eyes filled with tears when she saw how terrified and alone she looked. “Fizzy!” she cried her name. No matter how loud she screamed, Fizzy didn´t hear. She was too focused on seeing how the torch went down to light the wood under her. “NOOOO!” “Buttons?” a familiar voice asked her just before the torch reached the wood. Buttons gasped as she opened her eyes. She grabbed her chest as she panted heavily. “Are you ok?” Gusty asked her as she offered her a comforting hoof. Buttons took some time to reply. She was wondering where everypony had gone, why she was laying on the ground, and why she was surrounded by trees and not buildings. Then, she realized that she was only dreaming. She left out a sigh full of relief when she saw Gusty, Glory, Lancer and Starswirl instead of the indifferent ponies in her dream. “Yeah. I am.” she took Gusty´s hoof and got up. “It´s just I had a nightmare.” “Don´t worry. We figured.” said Lancer. “Was it about Fizzy?” Glory asked her. Buttons nodded her head. “Don´t worry. We´re closer to getting her.” Gusty reassured her. “Starswirl, how long do you think it will take to get there?” “I´m not sure. I know this is the way, but I´ve never taken it myself. However, I´ve heard it takes one day approximately.” Buttons sighed. Gusty patted her back. “Then let´s waste no time!” she said confidently. Several hours passed. Judging from how much the sun was beating down, the unicorns deduced that it was afternoon. They panted as they struggled to walk with so much heath in their body. They felt how the sweat fell down their face. “How are you all doing?” Gusty asked like she did from time to time. “Can we get some shade please?” Glory panted heavily. “I don´t think I can take the sun anymore. Not with cloak and clothes over an armour!” “Is that ok with you Buttons?” “Yeah. Of course.” After they spotted a tree with a shade big enough for the five ponies, they sat underneath it, sighing in relief. “My hooves are killing me!” Starswirl complained. “Mine not really, honestly.” Lancer shrugged. “Though that´s because I´m used to walking for long periods of time. But I must admit that with clothes over the armour, I´m finding it more difficult.” “I hope we don´t have much path left…” Buttons fidgeted with her hooves. “Yeah, me too.” Gusty replied. “But if we keep up with this rhythm and there´s no interruptions, maybe we´ll get there soon!” Suddenly, her stomach growled. “Oops, sorry about that. I´m a little hungry.” Then, Buttons´ did as well. “Apparently, me too.” Lancer´s, Starswirl´s, and Glory´s did at the same time. “I think we all are hungry.” Glory smiled. “Doesn´t surprise me.” Lancer looked up at the sky, shielding his eyes from the sunlight with his hoof. “If you pay attention, you´ll see that the sun is brighter, which means it´s lunchtime.” “Then I guess it´s time for berries!” Gusty said as she took out her bag of berries. “Again…” she sighed. “I don´t mean to be whiny, Lancer, but I wish we had more food.” “None taken. In the army, we usually had enough food, but there were times where we ran out of supplies due to attacks. And believe me, none of us liked it.” he shook his head. Starswirl stroked his short beard as he thought of possible ways to solve a problem, turning his head around in hopes to find clues. Fortunately, he did, his eyes shining in joy. “Maybe we could go to an inn!” Starswirl pointed at a sign. The unicorns approached it. “The.. Dus…ty´s.” Gusty read. “Sounds like a great place to eat. And look, I think it says it´s a few inches away. What do you think about it?” “Well, I guess in order to get to Fizzy, I must have enough fuel.” Buttons commented. “I don´t know…” Glory said insecure. “Oh!” Gusty exclaimed surprised. “Is something wrong, Glory?” “Not really..” Glory took a few steps back. “It´s just… Um…” The more she talked, the more self-conscious she got. To comfort her, Lancer put his foreleg around her. “She isn´t comfortable around strangers.” he finished for her. “Especially in places where she could be the centre of attention. And right now, we are a very easy target of attention. Not only that, but we are also unicorns around earth ponies!” “Well, but they won´t notice we are unicorns, because we are in disguise, right?” “I know, what if something happens and they discover we are unicorns? I don´t think they´ll take that lightly.” “The key is not to use magic.” Starswirl intervened. “The spell doesn´t have a time limit. It only breaks if you make use of magic. And I trust that you are wise enough to follow my advice, so there´s nothing to worry about.” Lancer and Glory shared glances. They smiled at each other, telling each other that everything was going to be fine with only their eyes. Then, they turned their gaze back to Starswirl and Gusty. “Well, I suppose being around earth ponies in disguise can´t be as bad as not having food.” Lancer scratched his nape. “It´s just a few minutes. Maybe I´ll have everypony staring at me a few seconds, but I don´t think they´ll be constantly staring at me. Unless I do anything stupid.” Glory bit her lip nervously. “So, I guess that everypony agrees.” Buttons concluded. “Très bien. Now,” she walked behind everypony´s backs and started to push them. “let´s not waste more time and let´s go to that place. The sooner we get there, the sooner we´ll save Fizzy!” “I don´t mean to offend, but wouldn´t we be quicker if you didn´t push us and let us walk?” Starswirl asked politely. “Oh. Right.” Buttons blushed and giggled embarrassed. “I guess it´s the nerves.” Everypony shook their heads or rolled their eyes playfully. “You know what? Aside from Lulu, who definitely inherited he mother´s shyness, I thought I was the only pony that got nervous around strangers.” Gusty told Glory in their way to the inn. “Well, you´re not. I hate being around strangers. Especially if they are looking at you. You never know what they´re thinking.” “Really? Because when we first met, you were quite natural.” “Actually, I was feeling very nervous deep down that time, I always was when Majesty sent somepony to the castle! I just hid it well. I sometimes felt ashamed of it. But then I told myself that these ponies and Majesty were counting on me and that there was nothing to worry about. Plus, I have the theory that maybe that is why Majesty chose me as the leaders´ spy since I never talk to strangers.” “Could be. I don´t think it´s far-fetched.” The two unicorns giggled. Gusty smiled as she stared at Glory. Just when she thought she had completely known everypony around her, there was always something more to discover. And no matter what the discovery was, it always reassured her that she was not that different from everypony else. Finally, after some time, they arrived at their destination. It was a very old building that seemed to be falling to pieces at any moment. The window under the roof had a piece hanging, the facade was full of cracks, and there were several roof tiles lacking. In fact, one of them slipped and fell off, breaking in front of the unicorns. The unicorns blinked emotionless and shared glances. No word was said between them, but they could tell they were all regretting the decision they made. “Well… On the bright side, at least they have food.” Gusty giggled nervously. “That is if we can enter.” Lancer replicated. “Because I feel that by simply by rubbing that door, it´s going to turn to dust and bring the whole building down.” “Either that or a tile falls upon us.” Glory added. “Maybe my idea was not a good idea after all.” Starswirl paced back. “Non, non, non.” Buttons said as she walked through everypony. “We are not turning back!” she stomped her hoof. “I won´t let this waste of time that could have been used to walk to Bridlengton be in vain. We are entering and you won´t change my mind!” She raised her hoof violently as she hissed. Everypony closed their eyes, expecting Buttons to fail somehow, whether by breaking the door or getting harmed herself. However, to everypony´s surprise, she simply knocked the door with a confident smile and eyes closed. Seeing nothing was happening, she blinked, and raised her eyebrow confused. She knocked again. “Huh. They should have answered by now.” she turned to her companions, who quickly changed their expression of relief. “Hello is anypony there?” “Yeah! Right away!” a voice from inside replied. “Just one mom- AAH!” After the voice´s yell, the sound of dishes breaking, and casseroles rolling was heard. The unicorns closed their eyes in pain, feeling concern for whoever was inside. Seconds later, the pony opened the door. She was a pink earth pony with a straw, blonde mane, and blue eyes. She panted heavily, as she was carrying many casseroles. When she looked at the ponies, she blushed embarrassed and laughed nervously. “Um… Uh… Hi! Uh… What can I do for you?” “Could you provide us with some food?” Buttons said as she signed at herself and the other unicorns. “Of course! Of course! Please, come in.” she welcomed them with a gesture as she walked away to let them pass. Much to Glory´s horror, the inn´s main entrance was quite crowdy. Many earth ponies were sitting around the rustic tables the inn had to offer. They were either drinking, eating, chatting, or laughing. “Oh…” Glory stepped back. “This is worse than imagined.” “Oh my… After being alone for so much time a crowd of ponies this big feels very overwhelming.” Starswirl laid his hoof on his mouth. “Don´t worry. We have another lunchroom.” the earth pony reassured them. “And it´s empty, so you won´t have to worry about crowds.” Glory and Starswirl sighed in relief. “Thank goodness…” Glory muttered under her breath. “Hey! Where´s our beer?” a pony yelled. “One moment please!” the earth pony replied to them. “I´d accompany you but I have so much in my plate right now. It´s on that door to the left.” the pony signed. “MARE!” “Coming!” the earth pony answered somewhat upset. She picked both the broomstick and dustpan with her tail hanging from the inn´s stone wall. “My, I wish ponies were more patient.” she muttered as she walked away. The unicorns looked at each other, shrugged and started walking to the door the earth pony signed them. As they did, some ponies threw them suspicious glances. Glory covered her head with her hood and kept her eyes on what was in front of her. Lancer stared with fear and ears dropped. Starswirl moved his eyes away, and slowly turned his head around to avoid eye contact with the piercing gazes. While intimated, Gusty simply raised her eyebrow in confusion, wondering why they had that look on their faces. Buttons was the only one to challenge them. “What are you looking at?” she said with her head raised. Immediately, the ponies stopped staring at them. Buttons smirked and scoffed triumphantly. “Peureux.” she mumbled. They entered the room and gazed in awe. They couldn´t explain why, but it gave them such a feeling of comfort. Perhaps it was the wooden furniture, or the little paintings in the wall of a family of earth ponies. It was very tidy, every plate, cutlery, and glass had their own space. There was also a window with wonderful view of the trees, the road they had crossed, and the wheat fields. “Definitely much better than the other room, right?” Gusty turned to everypony. Everpony nodded in agreement. Right after, the earth pony that had attended them, came back panting. “Ok….” she widened her eyes when she noticed the ponies were still standing. “Oh! You still haven´t sat down. Ugh, you didn´t need to wait for me to say so.” she smiled sweetly. “Oh, we know that.” Gusty replied. “It´s just we were hypnotized by this place. It´s just so cozy.” The pony widened her eyes and gasped in surprise. “Really?” “Yeah!” The earth pony smiled with a blush. She noticed a tear forming in her eye, so she wiped it before anypony could see. “Oh well… That´s how just it´s always been here. Our motto is: Make everypony feel like they are home. I´m glad I´m living up to that. Speaking of which, what do you want for lunch?” she asked them as they sat down in the chairs. “What do you have?” Buttons asked her. “Many things! I have brews, soups, porridge… Oh! The last one is the specialty of the house.” she said excitedly. “Then serve us 6 porridges!” Buttons asked. “With wine, beer or water?” “Water, please.” Gusty answered. “And if you could give us some for the trip, we would be very grateful.” Glory said softly. “Of course. Your porridges will be made as soon as possible, although I´m afraid it won´t be quick. I have so many clients to attend and cook their foods, and clean the dishes…” “And you do it all on your own?” Buttons asked shocked. “Yes, but recently. I used to have a friend that worked me but… let´s just say that she was fired for rumors… Don´t ask.” “Oh my goodness!” Buttons exclaimed horrified. “Don´t worry, I´ll help you.” Lancer widened his eyes and threw an angry glance at Buttons. “Oh no no.” the earth pony shook her head. “I am the one who is supposed to serve you, not the other way around.” “Chérie. Before you opened the door, we heard some dishes break. And from what we´ve seen, it´s very possible that happened because of work overload. Let me help you.” As Buttons spoke, Lancer started shaking both his hooves and head to shush her, but the mare didn´t notice. “Well… I suppose help would come in handy.” the earth pony shook her nape. “On one condition, you eat first. I´ll make your porridges right away.” she said as she left. “Très bien!” Buttons exclaimed. “What are you doing?!” Lancer asked Buttons angry once the earth pony was no longer around them. “Helping her. Isn´t that evident?” “But why would you do that? She´s an earth pony!” “An earth pony who is clearly very stressed and takes care of us.” “But that´s because she doesn´t know you are a unicorn. What if she discovers you are a unicorn?!” “Starswirl has said it before, as long as we don´t use magic, there´s nothing to worry about.” “In that case, how good are you at working with your hooves?!” “Don´t worry, I´ll simply attend the ponies. You don´t need your hooves for that.” “And what about Fizzy, hey? You were so insistent in saving her as soon as possible!” “I´ll help her while you eat. Then, once you´re finished, we´ll go. You just have to get up and tell me.” Lancer sighed as he stroked his forehead. “This will end in disaster.” “Alright! There you have your porridges. Enjoy!” the earth pony entered and served all the dishes. She looked at Buttons. “As for you, take all the time you need to-” “Finished!” Buttons licked her lips. “It was delicious.” Everypony blinked in shock. “How did you eat that fast?” the earth pony asked confused. Buttons laughed. “In my previous job, I had to eat very fast. I´m used to it.” “But what about your tummy?” Buttons started pushing the earth pony to the door. “A tummy-ache won´t stop me from helping you. Stop worrying and accept my help!” “Ok! Ok!” the earth pony accepted begrudgingly. Starswirl, Gusty and Glory shook their heads and smiled at Buttons. On the contrary, Lancer kept stroking his forehead. “Oh, we´re doomed.” “Ok, so I was thinking I could attend the ponies and clean while you cook and wash the dishes. Sounds good?” Buttons told Shady. “Actually yes. The recipes are family treasures, and I want them prepared the same exact way.” “Ok. What´s your name sweetie?” “Shady.” “Mine´s Buttons. Ok, Shady, As much as I´d love to say here forever, my friends and I have a very important matter in our hooves and have to leave as soon as possible, so whenever a friend warns me, I´ll have to go. Is that alright with you?” “Of course. No problem.” “Very well!” Buttons walked to a table of four earth ponies with empty dishes and glasses. “Hello dears. Did you enjoy your lunch?” A stallion raised his eyebrow confused. “Where´s Shady?” “She´s in the kitchen. I volunteered myself to help her, since the poor mare is so busy. I assume you know her.” “Oh yeah. All Catnada knows her. But for the wrong reasons.” another stallion replied. “What do you mean by `for the wrong reasons´?” “Well, she didn´t do anything wrong. It is her witch friend.” “Witch friend?” “Yeah! Nopony has seen doing that, but everypony believes that she uses potions to do spells, going against her nature as an earth pony and trying to be a unicorn instead.” the first stallion said. “That poor mare doesn´t know what she´s into. Some ponies were seduced by this whole witchcraft thing and provoked illnesses! I hope she finds the light, repents her ways, and leaves all that world behind. Doesn´t she know that unicorns are dangerous sorcerers who made a deal with evil spirits to be granted their magic?” Buttons stayed silent, amazed and confused at how little earth ponies knew of unicorns. “Where did you learn that?” she asked them. “Well, that´s what we´ve always been told! How come you don´t know it?” the first stallion asked suspicious. “Are you a witch too?” the second stallion accused her. “What? No, I am not a witch. It´s simply that where I come from, there never have been ponies who worked with potions.” “Well, you are lucky. But in case you see that mare doing witchcraft, tell us. We are witchhunters. We are the ones who investigate the rumours of witchcraft and decide whether they are guilty or not.” the first stallion explained. “And what do you do with the witches?” “We burn them inside their houses.” Buttons widened her eyes, realizing that this place was more dangerous than she and her friends previously thought. She started laughing nervously. “That seems a bit extreme, doesn´t it?” “To protect our kind, we must do what is necessary.” “Well, it was nice meeting you. I hope you have a nice day.” Buttons said as she quickly picked everything up and took it to the kitchen. “Is it me or does she look suspicious?” the second stallion whispered to his companion. The first stallion narrowed his eyes. “We´ll keep an eye on her.” “Oh, I must check them. Lancer was right, it´s not safe for us to be here.” Buttons said to herself as she ran to the other room. “Do you have much left?” Lancer asked everypony. “Not really. Just a little more scoops.” Starswirl replied as he tasted the porridge. “A little more spoons? You just ate half of the porridge!” Lancer pointed at his bowl. “I´m sorry, it´s just so delicious and I like tasting my food slowly.” Starswirl apologized with a nervous smile. “How about you two?” Lancer looked at Gusty and Glory. “Half finished.” Glory answered. Glory nodded her head in agreement. “Good. The sooner we finish, the sooner we´ll be safe.” “How fun.” Gusty giggled. “Now I can say I met an earth pony. I always wanted to meet one.” “Why would you want that?” Lancer raised his eyebrow. “I don´t know. I had married a pegasus so why not meet an earth pony?” “How can you not be scared of ponies that are not unicorns?” Glory asked curiously. “You married a pegasus after all.” “I suppose it´s because I´m just curious about them. We are different but at the same time we are ponies. So I suppose there´s nothing to be afraid of.” “That makes sense.” Lancer commented. “However, all the interactions recorded between earth ponies and unicorns have resulted in being thrown stones.” “But why? There must be a reason they are afraid of us. We haven´t listened to their point of view.” “If you think about it, the only contact they had ever had with magic was with Grogar and Katrina. As a result, they must think magic as a bad thing. And unicorns are the only ponies that can use magic.” Starswirl suggested. “When you put it like that, I´d also be afraid of anypony with magic if I was an earth pony.” said Lancer. “I wish we could show them the beauty of magic. If we did that, they wouldn´t be afraid of us. And we wouldn´t be afraid of them.” said Gusty “That sounds sweet, but I don´t think they would trust us that easily. We can´t erase years of history just like that, you know that right?” Glory reminded her. “I know, but I wish I could do that. Personally, the only thing we should fear is Grogar not ponies different to us.” Glory and Lancer widened their eyes. “Or maybe Katrina in this moment.” She pointed at the window. Gusty and Starswirl turned around and took a quick view. They saw silhouettes of cats approaching. “Oh no…” Gusty muttered. “Seriously. Can´t we have a moment without being chased?!” Lancer thought aloud frustrated. “What else could go wrong now?” “We have a problem!” Buttons exclaimed. “Me and my mouth.” Lancer muttered to himself. “We also noticed another problem.” Gusty said as she approached Buttons. “We have company.” “What do you mean by company?” “Katrina´s soldiers. They are coming.” “Curse every soldier and security force in the empire!” Buttons whispered very angry. “They couldn´t have come at another moment, no… They had to come right when there are witch hunters around us!” “Witch hunters?” Glory asked confused. “It´s a long story. All you need to know is that if they knew we were unicorns, they´d kill us.” “I told you this was a dangerous idea!” Lancer reproached everypony. “Buttons? Is everything alright?” Shady entered the room without anypony noticing. She gasped. “Oh! I see you have finished. That was quick.” “Yeah! And we need to go right now. But there are soldiers approaching.” “What? Why?” Shady asked panicked. “Doesn´t matter. The thing is that soldiers terrify us, and we don´t want to bump into them when getting out so just talk to them at the main door and we´ll get out through the window, is that ok with you?” Shady´s ears dropped. Only a pony that had committed a crime would want to run away from soldiers. But at the same time, she knew that most of the times that soldiers captured a pony was trying to revolt against Katrina or for stealing. Katrina wouldn´t care about a murderer that killed her subjects, so they couldn´t be murderers. As for stealers, it couldn´t be either, because they weren´t carrying a bag. So, they had to be rebels. “Hey, it´s ok. I´ll give you protection.” Everypony widened their eyes. “Ah, Thank you, thank you.” Buttons answered distracted. “Wait. You- You would?” “Of course. I know who you are, you are rebels. You are working so hard to dethrone Katrina. And it´s a cause that many of us support.” The unicorns looked at each other. She wasn´t far from the truth. If they dethroned Grogar, they would dethrone Katrina. Gusty realized she could be a pony they could trust. Somepony they could tell the truth. “Not exactly.” she started to speak “We are working for something bigger. We are aiming to-” “There she is!” one of the ponies Buttons talked to said to the soldiers. He pointed at Gusty. “That´s the pony you´re looking for.” “Of course, she had to be the worst kind of witch: a unicorn. And so are you and your friends, huh?” the second stallion said to Buttons, who glared at him. “You´re unicorns?” Shady looked at Buttons confused. “I…” Buttons tried to explain her but couldn´t find the exact words. “Get them!” the captain of the soldiers ordered his subordinates. Immediately, Gusty lit her horn and conjured up a gust of wind that sent every soldier against the other room´s wall, leaving every earth pony in shock. “Let´s go!” she signed everypony to jump through the window. Shady looked astonished at how all the unicorns left. Suddenly, one of the witch hunters grabbed her by the foreleg. “You brat. You can´t stop befriending witches, can you?” “Let me go!” she begged him. “We know your friend is a witch too. Lead us to her or we´ll burn your inn with you inside!” the other witch hunter threatened her. “Never.” He raised his hoof to hit her, but Buttons kicked them both because they could a laid a hoof on her. “Don´t you dare touch her!” she yelled at them. Immediately she grabbed her hoof and teleported her and herself outside. When they reappeared, Shady held her chest, trying to understand what just happened. “Follow us! You´ll be safe.” Buttons told her as she ran away. Shady took a glance of her inn. Something told her that maybe this was the last time she´d be able to look at it. Her life was about to change. Even though, she wasn´t fond of that idea, it was her only chance of survival. So, she decided to follow Buttons. > Chapter 11: A deal > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Did we lose them?” Glory asked after she hid behind a tree as everypony else. “I think so.” Gusty took a deep breath. Starswirl looked around, noticing somepony was missing. “Where´s Buttons?” he asked worried. “Right here!” the pink unicorn replied right then. Lancer widened his eyes when he noticed that a certain earth pony came along. “What the? Why is she with you?!” he scolded Buttons. “I couldn´t leave her alone! She was about to be harmed by those witch hunters.” Buttons slammed her hoof. “You were? Are you alright?” Gusty approached Shady. “Yeah yeah I´m fine.” she walked backwards, trying to get away from Gusty as much as possible. “It´s not like I´ve just probably lost my inn forever, get myself involved with wanted unicorns, one of which casted some crazy spell on me that made me disappear one moment; and now I have a great chance to be executed!” she laughed maniacally. “WHAT´S GOING ON?!” she snapped, changing her mood rapidly. The unicorns stared at her scared. “Who are you? How did you get here? Or better question, what are a bunch of unicorns doing in earth ponies´ land?” Gusty inhaled and exhaled calmly. “It´s kind of a long story…” she lamented. “What´s worse, it´s even crazier than the fact we are in your land. But what I can assure you is that we mean no harm to any earth pony nor we ever intended to set a hoof in here. Circumstances just forced us to be here. Please, don´t be scared of us.” Shady´s angry expression softened. Gusty´s tone of voice and face indicated that she was being sincere and felt ashamed. She started regretting her sudden outburst. “I´m sorry.” she apologized. “It´s just so much to take into. To be clear, I´m not scared of you. I mean, Buttons helped me and saved me from the witch hunters.” Buttons smiled tenderly at her. “That tells me that you are good ponies. I´m just confused, this is the first time I interact with unicorns and see their magic. I don´t know how it works, or if it´s dangerous. I…” she shook her head. “I just don´t know how to react.” “Of course. We understand chérie.” Buttons reassured her. “But if you let us explain, you´ll understand everything.” Shady sighed. “Alright. Tell me everything.” So, Buttons told Shady the whole story. She talked about unicorns´ history, Majesty, the prophecy, the incident at Grogar´s castle, and Fizzy´s ponynapping. To every unicorn´s surprise. Shady listened with lots of attention and never judged them. Sure, she expressed confusion many times, but who wouldn´t if they were told such story. But she took it way better than they expected. “So… Do you have any questions?” Buttons asked her. “Well… To be honest, it is a very crazy story.” said Shady. “And no offence to you,” she looked at Gusty. “but I´m not really sure that a single pony will dethrone Grogar.” “To be honest, me neither.” Gusty admitted with a smile. “But I´m not alone. Besides, if there´s a chance that I´ll help somepony, then I think it´s worth the try.” Shady smiled back. “But in order to do that, we´re going to need to free our friend.” Glory added. “How much do you knoo about Katrina´s castle?” “Not so much. But I know somepony who probably does. She lives very hidden in these woods, but I know how to get to her.” “Wait.” Lancer stopped her. “Is it safe for us? Won´t they mind that we are not earth ponies?”. “Well, technically, you are an enemy to the witch hunters, so you´ll get along.” Starswirl widened his eyes when Shady mentioned the witch hunters. “What do you mean with witch hunters?” he asked scared. His question was ignored. “So we are going to see your friend, right?” Buttons deduced. Shady nodded. “Then let´s go! There´s not time to waste.” Starswirl approached Buttons once he made sure Shady was far enough for her not to hear them. “Buttons, you mentioned earlier about witch hunters. I never told you this, but there were also witch hunters among unicorns. They made sure that nopony was using black magic. If Shady´s friend is an enemy to witch hunters, she must be using black magic. Are you sure it´s wise following her?” he said worried. “I know you have more knowledge about magic and our history than any of us and I understand your worry, but I think their definition of witchcraft is different than ours. You saw they called Gusty a witch and she never used black magic.” “Hm... Good point. I´m just making sure. You know I don´t take black magic lightly.” And so, the ponies delved deeper in the woods. Buttons sighed sadly when she noticed that it was getting dark. The more they walked, the more scared they got, as this pony seemed to live very very far away from earth ponies. Perhaps Starswirl and Lancer were right, perhaps Shady´s friend truly used black magic and lived well hidden in the woods so as not to be discovered, and thus she may be a danger to the unicorns. Plus, the darkness did not help either. It was so late in the night that they could hear owls. Even Shady was stressed by the lack of light. When the unicorns lit their horns, she was initially surprised but welcomed their help anyway. Finally, in the distance, they noticed a dim light between the trees. Shady gasped excited. “There she is!” she exclaimed before running to the light. The unicorns followed the earth pony. They stopped in front of a cabin surrounded by many crops. It was similar to Starswirl´s home, however, it had much of an eerie air to it. Maybe it was because of the dark wood, the spooky aesthetic of the house or the unwelcoming, angry scarecrow looking right at the visitors. Whoever lived here, really wished to be in solitude. The unicorns shared uncomfortable glances, wondering if they had made a big mistake and asking each other whether they should run away. Shady, on the contrary, kept a happy smile on her face while walking to the door. “I hope I´m not disturbing.” she turned to everypony. Right after she knocked the door, the pony behind answered. It wasn´t in a very friendly manner, unfortunately. “GO AWAY IF YOU DON´T WANT ME TO CAST A SPELL ON YOU! NO VISITORS ALLOWED! DIDN´T YOU SEE THE SCARECROW?!” The unicorns hugged each other, shocked by this receiving. Noticing that both he and Gusty were hugging each other, Starswirl blushed in embarrassment. He diverted his look from Gusty to the door. Although also taken aback, Shady remained calm. “It´s ok, Magic Star. It´s me, Shady. Do you remember?” “Shady?” the pony behind the door wondered aloud. She slightly opened the door, revealing her appearance. She was a yellow earth pony. Her dark turquoise mane was picked up in a very messy ponytail. Her confused brown eyes checked Shady. “Oh, it is you!” she exclaimed genuinely surprised. She fearfully opened the door slightly more to see if she came alone. Starswirl looked at her with fear, Glory hid behind Gusty, Buttons pressed her lips, expecting the worst to happen. Lancer prepared his sword in suspicious paranoia, and Gusty waved her hoof gracelessly, wearing a nervous smile on her face. “Ah, and you brought some company.” she pointed out. To the unicorns´ surprise, the earth pony wasn´t freaking out or expelling them from her house. Instead, she just winked and returned her gaze to Shady. “Why did you do that?” she asked upset but coolly. Shady smiled apologetically. “I know, I know. But we need your help. We are being chased by soldiers and witch hunters.” “Witch hunters? Ah.. I see you finally joined the dark side, eh?” Magic Star nudged Shady while teasing her. “No. I´m still not interested in that stuff.” Shady lowered her foreleg. “I am on their watchlist because I´ve helped them, who are their real targets.” she pointed at the unicorns. “Oh. Are you witches too?” Magic Star asked the unicorns excited. The unicorns shared confused looks. “Um… Not exactly.” Buttons replied. “We do use magic, however.” she pointed at her horn repeatedly. “Oh right.” Magic Star giggled. “How silly of me. You´re unicorns.” she nodded with a calm smile. A few seconds later, she gasped in realization. “You´re unicorns?!” “Seriously? She realizes that now?” Lancer asked sarcastically. Magic Star shook her head. “Wai- Whe- Wha- HOW?!” she asked Shady. “I thought you were the careful one!” “I am. But it´s a very long story. Perhaps they can explain it better to you than I would.” Magic Star raised a skeptical eyebrow as she stared at the unicorns. “You see the pink one?” Shady pointed at Buttons. “She rescued me from a witch hunter. Plus, she helped me with the inn when they came there. Besides, it would be a great chance to share knowledge between magicians, huh?” Magic Star took some time to think. “Ok, you can come in.” she finally answered. “Technically, you are magicians, so I guess we can understand each other despite being very different. I just need you to answer one question. What on earth are you doing here?” And so, Gusty and her friends explained everything as Magic Star offered them tea and biscuits. Starswirl was the one who talked the least. Although he was afraid of her at first, that wasn´t the reason. He was just observing the house decoration. It reminded him so much of his home: shelves full of bottles and books, laboratory materials, a big cauldron over a fire in the middle of the leaving room, notes in every corner of the table. That´s when he understood that the so-called witch was nothing to fear. She was an investigator and not a black magic enthusiast. Once they were done explaining their story, Magic Star was left perplexed. It might have looked like she was staring at them, but in reality, she just had a lifeless gaze due to how confused she was. She was so focused trying to process what she just heard that she wasn´t aware that she was slipping the tea. “The tea!” Shady warned her. “Sorry!” Magic Star stopped pouring the tea in the cup. “I know this is a lot to take in, but I swear, this is what truly happened and the reason why we´re here.” said Gusty. “You unicorns have pretty crazy lives!” Magic Star exclaimed. “I mean, a prophecy? What? That´s just surrealistic!” “Well, you are a magician, aren´t you? I don´t think this should come as a surprise to you.” Lancer commented. “An earth pony magician. I only know what our ancestors taught us. And our magic is not like yours. We can´t cast the spells you do, or see into the future, or levitate objects, or control the weather. What you´ve just told me is pretty different to what I´m used to! We brew potions with magical materials, not challenge the laws of physics!” “Earth ponies used to be magic users?” Glory asked intrigued. “There were earth ponies that were magic users, but it wasn´t that common. Most of us were and still are dedicated to farming. And we are pretty good at it! Even though, our crops are not as good as they used to be. Nonetheless, every tribe needs doctors and healers. And they also have their beliefs. That´s what we witches were for. To make plants grow faster, make other ponies fall in love with others, to heal illnesses… We were very appreciated!” “So there were no witch hunters back then?” Glory asked. “Nope. But everything changed until Katrina came along.” Magic Star crossed her forelegs. “Katrina carries a potion that gives her power, and she uses that power to do evil things.” Shady explained. “Before she came, potions were used for good, so we didn´t see the dark side of their use until Katrina. After she came, everypony got so afraid of magic, that they tried to forbid their use among us! And those prohibitions, turned into persecutions to the point of killing any pony suspicious of witchcraft.” she lamented. “And in the best of cases, they were just shunned. That´s what happened to Magic Star. She used to work by my side, but after rumours of her being a witch spread, the previous owner of the inn fired her!” “I don´t care if it´s they think it´s bad, brewing potions is what I´m good at.” Magic Star said with conviction. “It allows me to experiment with their ingredients and create new potions that could help everypony.” “But what you´re doing isn´t witchcraft.” Starswirl corrected her. “Witchcraft is black magic, and black magic requires doing somepony harm or using it for selfish purposes.” “Then we must have different definitions of witchcraft, because for us witchcraft is using magic!” “See, what did I tell you?” Buttons whispered in Starswirl´s ear. “Nonetheless, we also had our history of witch hunts.” Starswirl continued. “While understandable, there were times where that fight became hysteria and innocent ponies paid for crimes they didn´t commit. I always say, it´s ok to fight for good but not to that point!” Gusty covered her giggle with her hoof. “Really? You had witch hunts? But you are the ponies with the weirdest magic!” “Like I said, we have different definitions of witchcraft.” “You know what? Despite that, we are not so different.” Magic Star and Starswirl shared sly smiles. Gusty smiled as well. She was happy to see that her friends were realizing that interacting with ponies of different species was actually good. She was glad to see Starswirl having the same experience she had with her husband. “While I enjoyed this class of earth pony history, I´m afraid I´ll have to cut it.” Buttons intervened. “We have a friend to save, remember?” “Oh right! Gusty exclaimed. “Shady told us that you could give us some information about Katrina´s castle. We are planning to get in to free our friend. What is it that you know?” “Plenty! You see, just like you, I am part of-” Suddenly, they heard knocks on the doors. “Ugh! DOES NOPONY NOTICE THE SCARECROW?!” Magic Star yelled frustrated. “Who might that be?” Buttons asked confused. Magic Star gasped in realization. “Oh no.” she quickly turned her head to the unicorns. “You might want to hide.” “But why?” Gusty asked confused. “Wait. You have a reunion today?” Shady asked Magic Star. “Had I known I would have waited.” “Apparently I do, but I didn´t remember.” “Why does it not surprise me?” Shady muttered under her breath. “Hey! I heard you.” “Magic Star? Is everything alright?” a voice from outside asked. “Yeah! Everything´s fine!” Magic Star lied. “You need to hide. Now.” she started pushing the unicorns one by one to a closet. “Could you explain us what is going on?!” Lancer yelled frustrated. “I have more visitors, and I´m not sure they´ll tolerate your presence here. Now, if you want to survive, you´ll just have to stay here until they´re gone. They can´t see you.” Glory bit her lip. “I´m afraid it´s a little late for that…” she said fearfully. Slowly, everypony turned their heads back. Behind the window, there was a brown earth pony, staring horrified at the scene. The ponies didn´t have time to react, as he just ran away before they could even blink. “No, no, no!” Magic Star ran to the window. She put her hooves against the window. “Alonzo don´t!” “Sir! Sir! There are unicorns in her house!” the male earth pony yelled. “What?” a deep and older voice enquired. “I think she´s having trouble to fight against them!” “Oh no! Don´t worry, Magic Star, we´ll help you!” Suddenly, the door was opened in a blow by a big bearded green earth pony, with other earth ponies carrying swords on their mouths. The elder earth pony, who was around Majesty´s age, glared at Starswirl, since he was the one Magic Star was pulling then. “You!” he exclaimed furious as he drew his sword. He walked intimidatingly to Starswirl, making him shake in fear. When he was close to him, he grabbed him by his armour and lifted him off the ground. “I don´t care that you´re a unicorn, stop harming her!” “No. You let him go!” Gusty demanded. “Or I´m afraid you´ll have to see my wrath.” she ignited her horn. “No, no! STOP!” Magic Star got between the two. “You all misunderstood.” she said the earth ponies. “They were not harming.” Magic Star explained. “They are with us!” The earth ponies widened their eyes in surprise. “They what?” the big earth pony asked angry. “Don´t you know they are not to be trusted?!” “They are, Moochick! One of them saved my life.” Shady said in their defence. “If you let us explain, you´ll understand.” Magic Star continued. Though not very trusting of the unicorns, the earth ponies trusted both Magic Star and Shady. So they listened what they had to say. “Aand that´s why they´re here.” Magic Star finished explaining. The earth ponies blinked in disbelief. Moochick snorted slightly and ended up roaring in laughter. “She- She´s destined to what? Ha ha! That´s the stupidest thing I´ve ever heard.” he wiped a tear. “Ah… I knew unicorns were proud, but I didn´t think they would have an ego that big.” “It is true.” Lancer stomped his hoof against the floor. “Look, I don´t know if it´s because you have magic, but you need to get your heads off the clouds. Face reality, one cannot defeat Grogar by miracle! You need armies, you need strategy, you need experience! And from what I´ve heard, you haven´t any.” “Well, I wasn´t planning to do it alone.” Gusty justified herself. “Besides, we are not going to attack him directly. We need to reconquer other cities in order to get to him.” “Ok, that´s more sensible.” a white earth pony commented. “Still, I find that prophecy hard to believe.” Moochick replicated. “If you don´t want to believe us that´s fine.” Gusty said in reply. “All you need to know is that we are not a threat to you.” “Yeah!” Glory agreed with Gusty. “And if you think aboot it, we both are fighting to take back our realms.” “Realm? We never had realms. We lived in clans.” “Oh, you didn´t? I figured you were reclaiming a throne like Majesty.” “We may not have had a kingdom like you, but these lands are still ours. We were the first one to establish our homes and crops here.” “Which is why you´re fighting Katrina.” Starswirl finished. Moochick nodded his head. “And how are you doing?” “Bad.” the white earth pony replied. “Knightshade!” Alonzo nudged him. “What honey? It´s true. We don´t know how to fight against her magic. And we´ve lost many comrades. You have to admit it.” “I do, but that´s why we are counting with Magic Star. Hopefully, we can confront her with potions.” “But we are still few to attack the castle tomorrow!” Buttons widened her eyes. She held Kinghtshade´s hooves. “You´re planning on attacking the castle tomorrow?!” “Um… Yeah?” “Then let us come with you! We can help you with Katrina and you can help us get Fizzy!” “What?!” Moochick asked shocked. “That´s a brilliant idea, Buttons.” Gusty complimented her. “No, no. We are not fighting along unicorns. We don´t need your freaky magic to defeat Katrina.” “Oh, I beg to differ.” Gusty intervened. “With our freaky spells, we might facilitate everything.” “Yeah, that´s the thing about you. We have to work twice as hard whereas you can ignite those horns and make everything a reality!” Alonzo said bitterly. “Well, Katrina does as well.” Glory reminded him. “Wouldn´t you want to have things as easy as her for once?” Alonzo stayed quiet to think her words more profoundly. “Good point.” he agreed with her. “And I happen to have lots of knowledge about Katrina´s magic.” Starswirl added. “This is usually forgotten, but knowledge is the greatest weapon.” “Lastly, this fella right here mentioned that you are in need of ponies to attack.” Lancer looked at Knightshade. Every earth pony shared looks. Their arguments were actually very convincing. “Everything sounds like a win-win to me.” Magic Star raised her eyebrow teasingly. Moochick sighed grudgingly. “Fiine…. We can help you get your friend, and you can help us overthrow Katrina. It might be helpful. Maybe.” “Woohoo!” Buttons screamed excited. “But now it´s not time to celebrate. We must plan this carefully.” “It somewhat is, Moochick.” Magic Star disagreed respectfully. “The time when The Great Seedling comes back is coming nearer.” “The Great Seedling?” Gusty asked curious. “It´s a spirit we venerate.” Shady explained. “He springs through to field, making plants grow. He´s so generous that he doesn´t mind being caught! And if he is, he´ll grant you crops that will always be in bloom. That is, if you catch him.” she winked an eye. “Unfortunately, he hasn´t come ever since Katrina came.” Magic Star continued. “But we believe that if we defeat Katrina, he´ll come back and make our crops rich again!” “Great Seedling come Fast as a drum” Shady sang. Magic Star smiled. She joined in her song. “Bless our fields Make grow the yields.” Slowly, some female earth ponies joined as well. “Take out the snow Let the sprouts show Jump on the land Where the seeds stand The soil needs you The time is due Hear our cry Be our ally.” “What are they singing?” Glory asked to Buttons. “That´s the melody our ancestors used to invoke the Great Seedling.” Moochick explained. After being so serious with them, Glory and Buttons were surprised to see him smile. “It´s also the hymn of our revolution.” He laid his hoof on his chest before he and other male earth ponies started to sing. “Grateful we´ll be We guarantee We´ll sing in cheer As plants appear Fruits and the trees All of the greens Bloom the flowers With your powers Colour the earth That you gave birth Let the spring Come back again Pretty, pretty, pretty Pretty spirit Pretty, pretty, pretty Pretty spirit. You´re our only light Our delight You are our home When all is gone.” They repeated the song from the beginning. Having heard the lyrics, Gusty began to sing. Her friends stared at her estranged. She winked an eye at them, inviting them to sing. Starswirl smiled and sang along her, then came Buttons, then Glory, and lastly Lancer. Though a bit doubtful, at the beginning, they enjoyed singing along the earth ponies. “Great Seedling come Fast as a drum Bless our fields Make grow the yields Take out the snow Let the sprouts show Jump on the land Where the seeds stand The soil needs you The time is due Hear our cry Be our ally Grateful we´ll be We guarantee We´ll sing in cheer As plants appear Fruits and the trees All of the greens Bloom the flowers With your powers Colour the earth That you gave birth Let the spring Come back again Pretty, pretty, pretty Pretty spirit Pretty, pretty, pretty Pretty spirit. You´re our only light Our delight You are our home When all is gone Great Seedling come Fast as a drum Bless our fields Make grow the yields.” > Chapter 12: Spirits > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- No matter how hard she tried, Fizzy could not sleep. There were several possible factors that played in her insomnia. Firstly, the cold chains rubbed her coat constantly, a very unpleasant sensation. Though she couldn´t see it, Fizzy knew that she already had marks on her hooves. Secondly, she was laying on a floor made of stone. She had never slept in a comfortable bed. In fact, in the last days she slept on the ground! But she had never felt as uncomfortable as she did at that moment. Lastly and most importantly, the sound difficulted her sleep. Ever since Posey left, the mysterious voice had been crying all night. No matter how hard she tried to block the sound by covering her ears, she couldn´t stop hearing it. It haunted her every second. Fizzy had tried anything to relax herself. From fidgeting her hooves to rocking herself. However, there came a moment when she snapped. “UUUGH!” she incorporated to sit down while putting her hooves on the air. “I can´t take it anymore! I need to get out from here!” Quickly, she covered her mouth. Not so far from her, the guard was sitting. Much to Fizzy´s luck, yet also annoyance and envy, he was still asleep. He simply groaned, stretched and return to his deep sleep. Fizzy wept the sweat from her forehead as she sighed in relief. “How can everypony sleep in the castle with all this noise?” she wondered angrily. However, after glancing with more detail, she realized the guard was wearing ear plugs, which caused Fizzy to narrow her eyes. As she glared at the guard, she noticed something. Her eye caught sight of keys hanging from his belt. She bit her lip. With her magic and body restrained, there was no way she could reach the keys. It had to be another way. She rubbed her chin as she tried to come up with ideas on how to escape without the keys. “Hm… Perhaps if I get nervous, I can conjure water like Gusty does with wind?” she wondered aloud. “Nah, that can´t be. I´ve been feeling uneasy all this time!” No matter how hard she tried to think, she always arrived to the same conclusion. She was trapped. She couldn´t get out. As she lamented her reality, Fizzy listened to the ghostly crying. Though she was tired and scared of it, she started to identify with the ghost. Deep down, that´s what she wanted to do. Crying and letting everything out. But what use would that bring? She wouldn´t scare the guards, instead, they´d be mocking at her. Like every pony who wasn´t close to her did. Perhaps it was because she was in her lowest, familiar voices started talking to her. But their words were not comforting. No, their words were sharp, mean, and insulting. What´s worse, they were voices she did not want to hear. Voices she thought she had buried forever. “Fizzy does everything bad!” said some foals that appeared in front of her, laughing at the expense of her. “That´s not true!” she denied as she shook the foals away. “Why can´t you pay attention for once? What are you, stupid? You always make things worse!” one of the maids at the castle accused her. “I try but it´s difficult!” she replicated. “Seriously, you can´t learn anything that easy? You useless. You should be rotting in the streets!” A troggle said to her. “I am useful.” Fizzy was in the brink of tears. She felt something turning her around. To her horror, it was a teary Buttons “You have to be more careful!” she scolded her. “What would happen if one day I´m not with you, huh?” “No, I don´t want you to think I´m a burden!” she laid her hooves on her shoulders, but when she did, Buttons vanished. “What will be of her?” a female voice called from her back. Fizzy´s blood froze. Slowly, she turned around, only to find a stallion and a mare talking to each other. What broke her heart the most were their worried faces. “Papá? Mamá?” she asked scared. “Will Fizzy be able to provide Galaxy?” Fizzy´s mother asked her husband after coughing. “You know how much her head is in the clouds. What if something happens to her?” “I´m not so sure, mi vida.” Fizzy´s father replied as he hugged his wife, equally as worried and sick. “She has wonderful abilities, but I don´t think everypony appreciates them. In order to survive, she´ll have to adapt, and knowing her, I don´t know how much she will be able to do that.” Afflicted, Fizzy grabbed her chest. Suddenly, all the voices sounded in her head at the same time, calling her useless, idiot, or telling her she couldn´t do things on her own. Fizzy tried to cover her ears and closed her eyes. “STOOP!” she left out a heartrending scream. Afterwards, she dropped her body to the floor and left herself cry. Her worst fears had come true. She became a burden everypony else had to take care of and she couldn´t solve problems on her own. Thanks to her, Majesty could get executed should her friends decide to spend their time rescuing her. At that moment, she just wanted to rot. Since she was busy crying, Fizzy didn´t notice that the ghostly crying had stopped. Finally, she had the silence and peace she was desperately looking for. Then, something incredible happened. “Unicorn, why are you crying?” an echoing voice asked her. Fizzy sniffed. “Because I only give problems to everpony.” she answered as she dried her tears. Her expression quickly changed when she realized that somepony had just talked to her, yet was completely alone, except for the guard, who was asleep. “Wait, who said that?” “The one you call Weeping Roar.” Fizzy blinked. “Oh dear…” she mumbled fearfully. “I´m sorry to have disturbed you. Please don´t take my soul.” The voice sighed tiredly yet frustrated too. “I am not going to take your soul.” “You aren´t?” “No! Where does anypony that ends up here get that idea from?” “Legends about ghosts? My grandmother used to tell me lots!” “I am not a ghost. I am a spirit.” the voice explained calmly. “A guardian and guiding spirit, or at least that´s what I used to be. I´m sure you heard of those, right?” “Oh yes, of course! Back home, we have tones of those. Spirits of lakes, nature, agriculture … But I thought they were invisible and you couldn´t talk to them. Not because it´s forbidden or anything, it´s just not possible.” “Actually, we can be visible and can communicate face to face with you, but we don´t usually do that.” “Then, why are you talking to me?” “Because you are crying, just like me. Besides, at this point I´m used to everpony seeing and hearing me.” “And how do you look like?” The spirit stayed silent for some time. “What? What is it?” Fizzy asked, wondering why the spirit wouldn´t talk to her. However, she understood why in a matter of seconds. “No, no. You are the jaguar that brought me here?!” “Yeah… Sorry about that.” “But you told me that you were a guardian and guiding spirit! Since when those kinds of spirits kidnap ponies and work for evil cats?!” “I know, I lost my way, and I repent for that. But I can´t come back home nor be who I used to be.” “I was wondering that, actually. From what I know jaguars come from rainforests, meaning that you must be some sort of guardian of a rainforest, am I right?” “Mhm.” she nodded. “But right now, you are in a territory of forests, although rainforests are technically forests, if you think about it, yet not the same because from what I´ve heard rainforests are hot and it rains more than in common forests, which is why they are called rainforests!” realizing she was getting off topic, she shook her head. “Sorry, I know you must be looking weird at me right now, that is if you can see me. Anyway, you are where you are not supposed to be. How did you end up here?” Once again, the spirit stayed silent. Fizzy lowered her ears. Perhaps she has gotten in a touchy subject. After all, she did say she couldn´t go back home. Did she do something that bad to have been expelled other spirits? Did she have a fight with them? Was she mistreated by other spirits? Whatever the cause was, it must have affected the spirit somehow. Maybe that was the cause why she was crying so much! “It´s ok if you don´t want talk about it. But talking about it can help, you know?” The spirit didn´t answer. Fizzy raised her eyebrow confused. “Spirit? Spirit, are you there?” she asked. While looking at the walls, Fizzy remembered what Posey said: The walls had ears. Everything they said could be heard by the guards or Katrina. So, she approached her head to the wall and rested her ear. She heard nothing peculiar, just the water flowing or the echo. She thought of the possibility that the spirit was on the other wall, but due to being chained, she couldn´t try that option. She looked at the floor and came up with an idea. The walls had ears, but perhaps the floor too. She laid on the floor and put one ear on it. Her heart skipped a bit when she heard Katrina´s voice. “I told you to bring me the Wind Warrior, not one of her stupid fellows! What´s worst, you brought me the dumbest!” Fizzy sighed, unsurprised that Katrina would think that, yet also tired of the same old story. “I´m sorry, that´s all I could find.” the spirit apologized. “She was alone and wore one of Majesty´s armours. But this mistake could also be a way to lure the Wind Warrior. You always say to be patient.” “Is that why she captured me?” thought Fizzy. “Ugh! Don´t you understand that we are in race against time? I´m competing against three idiots to be the first to bring her to Grogar! I can´t afford to wait that much.” “Geeze. At this point, Grogar will have to step in and capture us by himself.” “Maybe you don´t have to. Perhaps they are already coming.” “Or maybe they are rescuing Majesty first!” Katrina groaned. “You idiot. If you fail me again, why don´t I do us both a favour and open a portal to drag you back to the spirit realm?” “You know I can´t go back because of you.” the spirit said bitterly. Fizzy widened her eyes. This was getting very interesting. “Oh, really? Tell me, who was the one to lose her own cubs in a river, huh? Who was the one to offer herself to help me in exchange of tracking her cubs? Whose fault is it that her home is endangered by dark spirits? Who was the one who decided to neglect and go against her nature and now is afraid to face the consequences?” Fizzy covered her mouth. Though she didn´t want foals of her own, she always loved taking care of them and playing with them. If she loved them, she couldn´t imagine how much bigger that love would be if she was a mother. Especially now that she knows Gusty, who was willing to do anything for her fillies. She found despicable that Katrina took advantage of her pain to use her and trap her on eternal servitude. “Exactly. It was all you.” Katrina continued after the spirit stayed silent. “You still need me though.” said the spirit, maintaining her posture, besides feeling hurt by Katrina´s harsh yet true words. “You are right. But perhaps I can disregard you and look for another broken spirit to help me after I finish with the Wind Warrior business if you fail me again. You have been warned, Anima. You had better do things right this time.” “Anima. So that´s the spirit´s name.” Fizzy heard some steps and a door slam. Afterwards, Anima began crying again. “Wak´wala´!” the poor spirit yelled. Fizzy grabbed her chest, lamenting quietly the spirit´s pain. “Anima. Anima, can you hear me?” Anima sniffed. “Yes.” “Is that how you ended up here? Searching for your cubs?” “Yes.” “May I ask what happened?” “It´s not easy to talk about it. I´m still not over it.” “I understand, but talking about it can help, you know?” Anima sighed. “Ok.” the spirit agreed. “Back home, I wasn´t the only guardian spirit. There were also my cubs. Together, we would take care of the fauna, the animals, and the pony inhabitants. One day, we were nearby the river, because we had to help the spirit that inhabited it. I told them to be careful and paid them all the attention I could, because even though we´re spirits, we can still be affected by forces of nature and others. Unfortunately, a dark spirit came nearby. I immediately fought it but in doing so, I didn´t realize that from the scare my cubs had fallen into the river. I only realized when they started calling me. I couldn´t help them because I had to fight the dark spirit. When I was finished, I lost complete sight of them. I couldn´t ask the river spirit to stop or change the flow but I could ask if they managed to get out the river.” “But why? The spirit controls the river, right?” “Yes, but even we can´t go against nature. If we did, everything could go out of balance and have serious consequences for every creature in the ecosystem.” “I see.” “The spirit told me in which spot of the river they stopped sensing their presence, but he didn´t know about their current whereabouts, although I could ask other spirits. And so I did. All of them saw them pass but they didn´t know where they were then. Countless years went by, and I still didn´t find my cubs. I can certainly say that I had travelled around the entire world, except the earth pony kingdom, which I would soon discover due to sensing dark spirits. I followed them, which led me to a young Katrina, who had made a pact with dark spirits to gain magic.” “Is that how one gets dark magic from, dark spirits?” “It is one via, but not the only one. But if you do gain access to dark magic from dark spirits, you basically sell your soul. Because if things go wrong, they´ll turn against you. And even if you didn´t obtain dark magic by dealing with dark spirits, you still lose out. You basically condemned your soul to eternal suffering.” Fizzy tapped her chin. “Katrina always wears a potion as a necklace. Was that potion gifted to her by dark spirits?” “I suppose so, yes. Anyway, I tried to break the potion completely and warned her of what she had just done. But if Katrina is good at something, that would be persuasion. She told me that the dark spirits had gifted her with any power, including the one to track spirits. So, she offered me a deal. If I helped her conquer territories to build her kingdom and did chores for her, she would track my cubs. Blinded by desperation, I accepted. But in doing so, I let my dark side take over me for a long time. Fortunately, I regained consciousness when I came back home for one of my missions. I saw a filly on a river. She reminded so much of my cubs that the light inside me took over again and made me save her.” “Posey!” Fizzy thought. “That situation was a calling out of reality. After I got in touch with my inner self, I realized what had become of my home. The rainforest wasn´t as lively as it was before, the ponies´ crops weren´t fruitful, and there was only suffering. So, I decided to confront Katrina about it and to do her part of the deal. But she told me what would happen if I came back home back to my cubs. She told me that my cubs wouldn´t love me after what had done. Noy only that, if I came back home, who knows what the spirits would do to me? That´s when I realized I had condemned myself to never see my cubs again and be in peace.” Anima started sobbing again. Fizzy reflected very carefully on what to do or say to comfort the tormented spirit. “Excuse me if I´m wrong but… One of the values we learnt from spirits is to forgive one another. If they taught us that, it must be because you practice it, right?” “I guess so, but I haven´t heard of a spirit that made the same mistake I did and what happened afterwards.” “Well, everypony makes mistakes. But what´s important is learning from them and make things right again. I believe one can always redeem themselves if they truly want to.” “You think so?” “Yeah! And I´m pretty sure and I´m not the only one.” “What about the other spirits?” “I can´t tell for certain, but they should. After all, they are wiser than us, right?” “And how can I redeem myself?” Anima asked after thinking about what Fizzy said. “Well… There are many ways. For example, when I made somepony mad I always tried to do something meaningful for them, fix your mistake, say you´re sorry, though I wouldn´t recommend doing solely that one…” Fizzy widened her eyes and shook her head afterwards. “Look, the point is that demonstrating that you´ve changed. But I think you made a first step by saving that filly, who in fact, is the one that sings to you.” “Really?” “Yup! Good actions always pay off, I guess.” Anima sniffed. “Are you ok?” “Yes. These aren´t tears of sadness. It´s just… I´ve been so hopeless for a long time, that I never thought I would feel it again. Thank you. If you were a spirit, you´d be a great guiding one.” Fizzy yawned. Though she felt calm, she was very exhausted from everything. However, she still wanted to help Anima. “You´re welcome.” “By the way, unicorn, I never asked your name. What is it that they call you?” Anima got soft snores for an answer. She didn´t mind, as the poor mare had been helping her for some time. Instead, she chuckled. “Good night, good mare.” Like Fizzy, Posey couldn´t sleep either. She was thinking about how to free her, the Wind Warrior, the earth pony rebellion, and its fate…. So many things were running on her mind. Not being able to sleep, she decided to get up and stroll around the hallways until she got sleepy. She expected to run into some guards, so she walked with the least noise as possible. So far, she was relieved that she didn´t run into any. However, she ran into a far worse cat: Katrina herself. Quickly, she hid behind a pilar. She held her breath until Katrina passed. Fortunately, she didn´t seem to have seen nor heard her. Posey observed that Katrina seemed to be nervous about something. Throughout all her time serving her, Posey had never seen Katrina fearful. That indicated that something was going on. Obeying her curious nature, Posey decided to follow Katrina. The earth pony managed not to be noticed by Katrina throughout her stroll to the garden. Once she was in front in a wide spot, she started drawing a pentagon inside a circle and started to recite something in a language Posey couldn´t understand. As Katrina´s eyes turned white, everything turned darker, and spectres of demonic creatures started coming towards her Posey observed in fear. She respected spirits but never feared them, no matter what others said. Right now, however, she was hiding in bushes so they didn´t see her. For these were dark spirits. Once they were in front of her, Katrina started talking to them. “Friends! I know I´m in honk to you pretty deep already, but it seems like our little Wind Warrior isn´t where she is supposed to be. And I need your assistance to get her right on track.” The dark spirits frowned at her, making her laugh somewhat nervously. “I hear you. Now, what´s in it for all of you? Well, as soon as I get her to Grogar, I´ll have a lot to offer. Firstly, do you remember the four jaguar cubs I gifted you when you gave me their potion?” “Jaguar cubs?” Posey wondered aloud. “And the Great Seedling too, right?” “The Great Seedling?” Posey asked more surprised. “Yes, you do. Well, they belonged to a spirit that serves me. And that spirit is in so much pain because she misses her cubs. So, I was thinking I could give her to you.” Posey gasped horrified. “The weeping roar!” she muttered. “And there´s more. I´ll give you something I never offered you before: mortal souls. I´m not so sure if Grogar will want the Wind Warrior´s friends, but if he did, I could negotiate with him so you could take them.” Posey gasped again. “Fizzy!” “And perhaps some of the earth pony revels if they attack after the Wind Warrior business.” “Aj itz´.” Posey clenched her teeth as she called her a witch in her mother tongue. As Katrina was making her offer, she conjured up the figures of the souls she was offering and blew them to the dark spirits, smiling maliciously as they smelled them. “You love that, don´t you?” Katrina laughed. “So…” Katrina rubbed her hands. “We got ourselves a deal?” The spirits grinned at each other before transferring shadows into Katrina´s potion. She laughed maniacally. “Now we´re talking! We´re going to have so much fun! You may go now.” The dark spirits surrounded themselves in a circle and disappeared in a flash. “Well, well, let´s see where you are…” she said before drinking the potion. Her eyes turned white. She smiled when she found Gusty. “There you are. And it seems like you are with… earth ponies?” she said estranged. Yet she was still confident. “Oh, I´m afraid they won´t be of much help when you´re dealing with magic.” Taking advantage of her being distracted, Posey started walking backwards. Accidentally, she stepped on a stick, making Katrina´s ear twitched. “Who goes there?!” she asked aggressively. After looking at some bushes, she decided to walk to them. To Posey´s misfortune, she walked right to the one she was hiding at. The earth pony covered her mouth to lessen the sound of her fast-paced breathing. Just when she near enough to take a look inside the bush, Rep called her. “Ma´am? Ma´am?” “GAH!” Katrina put her claw on her chest. “Don´t you ever scare me like that again!” “I´m sorry, it´s just I couldn´t find you. What are you doing in the garden so late in the night?” “It´s none of your business! Besides, I was coming back now.” she started to walk back to the castle. “Because tomorrow, we have important things to discuss.” “Oh really?” Rep asked excited. “What is it?” “Oh, I don´t want to ruin the surprise. But all I can say, it´s like a diabolical miracle.” Katrina said with a huge grin in her face. “Oh, that rhymed!” Rep pointed out. Posey got out of the bush, once Katrina was inside the castle. She took a huge inhale of air, as if she had been underwater. She panted as she tried to take in everything that she just witnessed. Everypony that was fighting for a better and free life was in grave danger. “I have to warn the Weeping Roar and Fizzy.” she said to herself as she bit her hoof, very worried about what was coming next. > Chapter 13: Attack at Catnada´s wall > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Is everypony ready?” Moochick asked once he came out of Magic Star´s home. His soldiers exited next. After them, followed Gusty, Buttons, Lancer, Glory and lastly, Starswirl, who was having some trouble moving in the armour he was given by the earth ponies. “Yes, sir!” the earth ponies raised their hooves in front of their foreheads. “We are as well.” Gusty answered after checking her comrades. “Are you sure you have everything you need?” Shady asked Magic Star, as the latter crossed the door. Magic Star chuckled. “Don´t ask me! You´re the one who packed for me.” she replied teasingly. “I know, but maybe I forgot to pack something important. I don´t want you to find an army or Katrina herself and lacking supplies because of me.” “Knowing you, you probably didn´t forget anything.” Magic Star reassured her. She opened her bag and checked it to show Shady that she had nothing to worry about. She mumbled to herself all the objects she saw in her bag. “Yes, everything I need is in here!” Shady smiled, slightly calmer after hearing those words. Though they didn´t mean to interfere in a private conversation, the unicorns couldn´t help but overhearing their conversation. “Oh, ye´re not coming?” Glory asked Shady surprised. “Oh no, no!” Shady shook her hoof. “I couldn´t possibly fight against soldiers or Katrina. I mean.” she scoffed. “Look at me! I´m not built for fighting and I have zero combat experience.” “Well, neither do I.” Buttons said in reply. “Technically, you do.” Lancer pointed out. “You have fought against an ophiotaurus, an army of diamond dogs, and two witch-hunters.” “Oh, that counts as combat experience?” “Mhm.” Lancer nodded his head. “Huh.” Buttons raised her eyebrow, both surprised and intrigued by that fact. “I´d love to come with all of you, but I would only make things more difficult for you.” Shady continued speaking. “I wouldn´t want you to fail because you had to protect a weak and helpless pony.” “Don´t say that, Shady.” Magic Star surrounded her friend with her foreleg. “But it´s true.” Gusty´s heart wrenched. She was familiar with that feeling of uselessness and making things worse for everpony. When those thoughts appeared in her mind, she felt pain. But after hearing Shady saying those words, she discovered a new and worse kind of pain: seeing others going through the same as her. Because she knew how ugly that felt, she couldn´t stand that suffering in others. Frowning in determination, Gusty knew it was her turn to speak. “No, it´s not.” she told her firmly. “I haven´t known you for a long time, but I know that you are a strong pony and a fighter. Otherwise, you wouldn´t be standing here.” she said as she walked towards her. “I used to think I wasn´t strong too, and to be honest, I´m still not sure! But I do feel a bit stronger, and I guess that´s because I´m doing this for somepony else. Perhaps that´s what you need to realize how strong you are.” Shady stayed quiet, reflecting on Gusty´s words. “Wow. Thank you for those words, they´re so kind. But I still think that staying here is a better idea. Besides, somepony needs to look after Magic Star´s house and herbs.” “Don´t worry, we understand. I just wanted to make you see that you´re stronger than you think.” Moochick´s throat clearing redirected everpony´s attention to him. “Sorry for interrupting the conversations and the farewells, but there´s an attack we need to do.” “Of course! Sorry for the delay.” Gusty scratched her scalp apologetically. “We have to go.” Magic Star said to Shady before they hugged each other. “Stay safe.” “You as well.” They waved their hooves at each other as she ventured with her comrades into the forest. Once everypony vanished in the distance, Shady´s expression changed from a smile to worry. She worried about what awaited Magic Star and the unicorns, especially Buttons and Gusty. They might be of a different breed and not have known for a long time like Magic Star´s case, but they earned Shady´s trust when they saved her from the witch-hunters. Though she loved tending to everypony´s needs, making them feel comfortable, and carrying on with her parents´ business, there were rough moments as well. From rude customers who liked making fun of her to customers who took it too far in their entertainment at the expense of her. Though she had got better at it over the years, Shady still had problems to assert herself, so she was always grateful when somepony helped her or stood up for her, such as Magic Star. Her departure from the inn pained her a lot, since she was the one who defended her. When Buttons helped her and fought the witch-hunters for her, she was reminded that she wasn´t alone. And Gusty´s words… Could they be true? They just sounded so genuine. No matter the answer, Shady had one thing clear: She could trust her. She radiated such warmth, as if she was a benevolent spirit telling you that everything will be ok. She looked at Magic Star´s dried herbs, hoping that a miracle would happen. “May the Great Seedling protect you.” she prayed. Afterwards, she observed the silver thistles hanging from the rooftops. She raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Though they had been upset about the sun before, the unicorns were now missing the sun. Ever since they left Magic Star´s cottage, dark clouds had been blocking the sunlight. There was not a single moment when they let the sunlight escape, even when they reunited with Moochick´s other troops. Lancer looked at the clouds in fear. “Is everything ok?” Glory asked worried after noticing his expression. “Hm? Oh! I´m fine, don´t worry. It´s just I´m a bit tense.” “Well, I suppose that even after having years of experience, one can´t help but feeling tense in these situations. I also got very nervous when I had to heal grave wounds.” “Of course. But this is a bit different. I mean, it´s very superstitious.” he scoffed. “Says the most logical pony ever.” “What do ye mean?” Lancer sighed. “Perhaps it´s just a coincidence, but whenever we battled on cloudy days, something bad happened. Whether it was a death, a surprise attack, or something none of us expected.” “So, you´re having some kind of bad omen?” “It´s silly, I know.” “Well, I wouldn´t say so.” Starswirl intervened “We are fighting Katrina after all, and she uses dark magic. I wouldn´t be surprised if she cast a dark spell on us.” “What are you unicorns talking about?” Moochick asked suspiciously. “Nothing!” Lancer lied, worried about what they would think. “Look, just because we let you go along with us doesn´t mean that we trust you. You´d better not be conspiring against us, because earth ponies are known for not being merciful to their enemies. Consider this as a warning.” “No worries, Moochick. I´ve heard their conversation.” Magic Star spoke in their favour. “They´re not talking about that. They´re just worried about what´s coming next.” Moochick´s hard expression softened after he heard Magic Star. She was a wise sage after all. Plus, she was also an earth pony. He threw one last suspicious glance at Lancer, Glory and Starswirl before turning around. The unicorns shared uncomfortable glances. The whole journey had been full of this tense energy between the earth ponies and the unicorns. Except for Magic Star, none of them said a word to them. Some earth ponies looked at them with disdain, others in fear, and others in curiosity, as in Knightshade´s and Alonzo´s case, who quickly turned their gaze away whenever the unicorns noticed they were being watched by them. Gusty took a quick look at the earth ponies before talking to her comrades. “Perhaps you should tell them what you just told us.” Gusty suggested to Lancer. “Oh yeah, great idea!” he said sarcastically. “Let´s make them think worse of us by telling them that a creature with magic is having a bad feeling about something and scaring them off. What could go wrong?” “Wait, you can do that?” Magic Star asked shocked. “On the contrary.” Gusty continued, ignoring Magic Star. “If I were them, I would appreciate if you told me that you were sensing something was wrong.” “Yeah, I would very much appreciate that!” Magic Star repeated. “Well, that´s because you´re you Gusty.” Lancer continued talking to Gusty, ignoring the earth pony once again. “Not everything you feel or think applies to everypony. Besides, I´m not Lucena. I can´t see the future or sense that something´s wrong. This is just me being superstitious.” “So, you have no paranormal magic?” Magic Star asked him, but once again she was ignored. “Starswirl, I know ye didn´t study black magic, but can ye detect its presence when it´s not so obvious? Glory asked Starswirl. Starswirl shook his head. “I´m afraid is not that easy. It´s a well-known fact that evil is not always that obvious. The same applies to dark magic until it´s late. But I think we should be prepared for anything.” Starswirl´s words left Gusty reflecting. She looked at Moochick and decided to walk to him. “I´ll be back in a second.” she said as she made her way through some earth ponies, politely excusing herself if she hit them. “But didn´t Moochick say that you were forbidden to-” Magic Star started to ask but was interrupted by Lancer. “Don´t try to change her mind because it´s impossible.” Buttons advised her. “Normally, I would stop her, but I am with her in this one.” said Lancer. Despite some bad looks and complaints from the earth ponies, Gusty managed to get to Moochick. “Um… Sir Moochick? Can I talk to you for a second?” she addressed the elder leader politely. Moochick, Alonzo and Knightshade, who weren´t aware of Gusty´s presence, turned around and looked at her in an expression of surprise. Moochick´s showed slight anger as well since she had defied his orders. “What are you doing unicorn? Don´t you know you´re supposed to be in the back?” he asked her upset. “Firstly, you can address me by my name.” she said, tired of being called by her species name. “And secondly, I know what you said but this is important. It´s about Katrina´s magic is. I have a companion that knows about the dangers of black magic, and perhaps he can tell us how to fight it if he has enough information.” Moochick looked at Alonzo and Knightshade. The two earth ponies nodded their heads. “Alright.” Moochick accepted her request. “What do you want to know?” “All I know is that she wears a potion, but what spells can she do?” “Firstly, tell me the unicorns can do.” he commanded, looking at her with some suspicion. “Oh my, I hope to remember all of them…” Gusty muttered under her breath before clearing her throat. “Well, there´s elevation, illumination, teleporting, transforming objects into others or altering their properties… and some more. Some of us have magic connected to some kind of force. For example, mine is connected to wind.” “In that case, there´s not much mystery to it for you, unicorn. They´re very similar.” Moochick bluntly replied. “In some way, but Katrina´s magic is black magic. This is a type of magic that unicorns are not familiar with, mostly because we haven´t been educated about magic at all, but also because it´s something very dangerous to get involved in. The only reference of black magic I have is Grogar and I´m not sure if his and Katrina´s magic are-” The earth ponies turned their heads to her, staring in shock. “Wait. What do you mean with not being educated about magic?” Knightshade interrupted Gusty. “Well, all I know about magic is thanks to Majesty and my companion Starswirl. Before I joined the rebellion, the only spell I knew was elevating objects because that´s all we are allowed to do. Grogar forbid unicorns from using other spells and kept any information about history of unicorns and magic very well hidden from us.” “So, you´re not Grogar´s pets?” Alonzo asked. Gusty raised her eyebrow confused. “What?” “We all believed that Grogar was more benign with unicorns for their magical abilities.” Moochick explained. “You see, legend says that when he conquered Bridlengton, he gave earth ponies the hardest of jobs, treating us like beasts of burden. Many ponies died of suffocation, dehydration, fatigue, or wounds from lashes.” “That´s terrible.” said a shocked Gusty, covering her mouth with one hoof. “Our ancestors related some encounters with unicorns when they were transported to some places to work. They said that they had lighter jobs, mostly servitude. They contributed that to the fact that you had magic, and being the opportunistic tyrant he is, he decided to make use of that magic for himself. So, they thought that he taught you spells and gave you an education as long as you worked for them.” “Well, compared to your jobs, ours are lighter, even though we can also work on agriculture, but that´s not very common. However, make no mistake. Grogar also mistreated us. We would also get flogged and harsh work conditions, we were stripped of our knowledge of magic, and sometimes from our magic as well. I remember being very scared when I was taken a slave as a filly because I thought that I was going to be taken to Grogar so he could take my magic and grow more powerful.” “Wow, I suppose that´s like taking your whole essence from you. Sounds terrible.” said Alonzo. “Hmph.” Gusty nodded. “Then we can assume that you don´t know how to cast spells to hurt others, right?” Moochick asked her. “Exactly.” Gusty answered calm, until she realized that Moochick mentioned dark spirits. “Wait, what do you mean with summoning dark spirits?” Despite her question, the earth ponies didn´t answer. Instead, they stopped walking to admire the horizon. High above, on top of a promontory, there laid a castle. Although she was too far to appreciate it in detail, Gusty could tell that it had a simpler appearance compared to Grogar´s castle. Nonetheless, it was still an imposing building. Bellow the castle, there were several houses. Nearer the castle, there were the tallest houses, with roots formed of tiles, which probably belonged to Katrina´s servants. And at the bottom, there were the simplest houses, shorter and strawed roofs, meaning that they belonged to ponies. It was clear this was a city, and a big one too. It was clear they had arrived to their destination: Bridlengton. “Well… This is going to be more difficult than I thought…” Buttons bit her lips nervous as she looked to the castle. “Which one, getting into the castle or into the city?” Magic Star asked her. Buttons winked perplexed. “What do you mean?” “While the castle is the first thing in the city that catches the eye of any wonderer, the moat surrounding it should not be an exception.” Knightshade answered in reply. “A moat?” Starswirl asked confused. “You see that big ditch?” Alonzo pointed at the moat. “That is a moat. It is used as a defence mechanism for cities or castles so that is more difficult to intrude.” “Huh, that explains why underneath the capital´s gates there´s water.” Gusty muttered to herself. “And how did ye manage to conquer cities before with obstacles like this?!” Glory asked scared. “With lots of patience and faith, my friend. Lots of patience and faith.” Lancer surrounded his hooves around Glory and patted him. “Don´t worry. You´ll get used to it.” “Indeed.” Moochick nodded. “But now that I think about it, maybe we can facilitate things a little bit…” he smirked as he looked at Gusty. Everypony except Gusty seemed to have understood the message, since they all had some sort of expression in their faces. Just like their leader, the earth ponies stared at Gusty with a wide smug grin in their faces, with the exception of Magic Star who pressed her lips nervously. On the other hoof, the unicorns´ reactions were the complete opposite. Glory and Starswirl covered their mouths as they looked at each other, whereas Lancer and Buttons seemed to be very upset about what was going on the earth ponies´ minds. “Um…” she looked around everypony. “Why is everypony looking at me?” “You know what? I´m starting to think that maybe trusting these ponies wasn´t a good idea after all…” Lancer said to his companions, as they were being dragged like captured criminals. The earth ponies tied the unicorns by the neck in a line, Gusty being the first in line. There was rope around their horns as well. “Don´t worry. As much as they want to get rid of you, deep down they know that this alliance will be fruitful one way or another, even if they don´t understand your magic.” Magic Star reassured them. “Or at least I hope so…” “It´d better be. Otherwise, I´ll show them that unicorns are good at physical fighting as well.” Buttons threatened. “Sh! We´re getting there.” Glory shushed everypony. “Halt!” Moochick said to everypony once they were in front of the walls. Everypony looked at each other confused by the lack of soldiers at the keep. Even Gusty, Buttons, Glory, Starswirl and Magic Star, who had no knowledge of warfare knew that it was a must to have somepony watching over the horizon to prevent attacks or warn their ruler. But to those who did have warfare experience this could mean two things. One: Katrina´s soldiers were very incompetent or so dissatisfied with their jobs to the point of not caring. And two: they managed to spot them very far away, or spirits forbid knew they would attack today, and they are preparing a surprise attack. Moochick turned to his subjects and nodded his head at a mare that was carrying a trumpet. She took a deep breath, hoping to deliver a beautiful sound, but instead, the sound coming out of the trumpet was anything but graceful. Everypony stared at her, which made her smile apologetically. “Sorry. Must be full of saliva.” she said as she cleaned its inside. Fortunately, the second try was successful. “Now, we´re talking!” “Is that some kind of rebellion theme?” Gusty asked Knightshade. Although he was uncomfortable by the fact that a unicorn´s head was close to his, he couldn´t help but smile at Gusty´s enthusiasm. “Hm.” he nodded his head. Even after the trumpet, there was still no sight of a guard. “Hello?” Moochick yelled. Again, no response. The ponies stared at the wall, expecting something to happen. “Hello?!” Moochick repeated, in a louder voice. “Hallo! Who is this?” a grey cat replied. “It is Moochick, leader of the earth-” Moochick widened his eyes in realization. “Wait a minute, you already know who I am! Why do you ask?” “Of course, I know who you are, I was just teasing you! You know, so you have a laugh after your death!” he prepared his bow to shoot an arrow at him. Immediately, every soldier prepared their shields and ran in front of him to defend him. Moochick, however, was unfazed. He rose his hoof as a signal not to attack yet. “We have not come here to attack. Not if you listen to our proposal of negotiation.” “Negotiation?” “It has come to our ears that there´s a dangerous criminal unicorn named Gusty alias Wind Warrior walking free in the empire. We´ve also heard that our great emperor Grogar will give a great reward to the ruler that brings her to him, isn´t that right?” “How did you get that information?!” “I´m afraid that rumours spread fast. In any case, we believe we have her.” “Well, I´m afraid that it´s too late! Uh… We already have her, you see?” Everypony frowned confused. “What?!” Moochick asked. “He says they already have her!” Alonzo said to his leader. “They must have confused Fizzy with you.” Starswirl said to Gusty. “I don´t think so.” she shook her head. “Katrina saw me when I was serving Grogar. She must have told her soldiers how I look like.” “Are you sure you already have her?” Moochick raised his eyebrow skeptically. “Oh yes! She´s very nice. I almost feel bad for her!” Just as the ponies suspected, the cat wasn´t alone. In the keep he was in, there were two more cats hiding behind the wall. “I told them we already have her.” the grey cat whispered to his companions, making them cover their mouths in laughter. “Well, I think there must have been a confusion. Because the pony we captured matches the description better. Show her!” Moochick ordered the soldier that carried the unicorns. “Move!” the earth pony yelled at the unicorns as she pulled the rope around Gusty´s neck. The other earth ponies moved aside to make way for the prisoners. The grey cat widened his eyes surprised. “They do have her!” he thought aloud. “Really?” a black female cat poked her head to watch but the grey cat pushed it down. “So, can we negotiate now?” Moochick asked. The grey cat stretched his lips and looked up while thinking his answer. “Ok. What is it that you want?” “Let us pass and take us to Katrina so she can listen to my proposal: In exchange of the criminal, she must stop persecuting and mistreating all earth ponies, giving them the right to keep a larger part of their crops! If she does, we will no longer rebel.” “What about the other unicorns?” the black cat poked her head out again. “Will you stop doing that?!” the grey cat pushed her down again. “Let me take a look. Hm… The only one that is familiar is the Gusty one and the blue one. Lancer, one of Majesty´s most loyal soldiers. As for the other ones… I´ve never seen them but I don´t think they´ll give us a good reward for them, since they look… unimportant.” The cat laughed hysterically. On contrast, Glory, Buttons and Starswirl frowned upset. “Excuse me, but they are more important than you´ll ever be!” Gusty said in their defence. “Oh! She´s feisty. I like it.” the cat smiled in admiration. “So, will you let us pass or not?” Moochick asked persistent. “Wait!” the grey cat reached out his paws before ducking down. The cat left the ponies waiting for some time. They looked at the keep anxiously, wondering if this was a trap or if the cat truly believed them. Some minutes later, the grey cat showed himself along his companions: the previously seen black cat and an orange cat. “Ok! My good friend will send Katrina the message. In the meantime, we´ll keep an eye on you.” He and the black cat made a `I´m watching you gesture´. After patting his back, the orange cat nodded and ran off. Though so far their plan seemed to go smoothly, they were also aware that it could take a turn at any time, so they were still tense. Yet they also felt some relief. Unfortunately, that relief didn´t last, as the orange cat came back too soon. “Wait a minute. Didn´t Katrina say they were working together?” he asked confused. Everypony widened their eyes. “Is there a chance that Katrina´s potion gives her the power to spy us?” Gusty asked Starswirl. “Very likely.” he responded, just as nervous. “Dude! You ruined the surprise attack.” the grey cat scolded the orange cat. “Well, I guess this isn´t necessary anymore.” said Lancer. Every unicorn lightened their horn to free themselves off the ropes, leaving the earth ponies both surprised and scared of what they were capable of doing. They took their swords and shields and prepared for attack. “CHARGE!” Moochick yelled as he rose his sword. Some earth ponies took their bows and arrows and prepared to shoot the cats, but the latter were faster and managed to shoot first. “INCOMING!” yelled Alonzo. “FORMATION!” Moochick yelled. Every earth pony formed groups and covered themselves with their shields, putting it over their heads or in front of their chests. Of the unicorns, Lancer was the only one who used his shield. The rest didn´t have time to react, so they used their magic to form a force field instead, which thankfully was also effective. Both the earth ponies and the unicorns stared at each other, shocked by their tactics. “Huh, that´s actually a smart move!” Lancer said in honest admiration. “You lucky fools… That is one great advantage!” Knightshade said in reply, observing the unicorns. “Can they hear us?” an earth pony asked curiously. “Aye, I can!” Glory replied. “Magic Star.” Moochick turned his head to her. “On it!” she exclaimed as she opened her bag, protected by her comrades. She took out a sling and a potion. She laid the potion on the pocket, tied the sling around her hoof, swung it and thew it towards the keep she was the closest to. When it got to the top of the keep, the potion left out a green smoke, which made the garrison cough. “Nice shot!” Buttons said shocked. “What potion did you throw?” Starswirl asked curiously. Magic Star didn´t need to reply. Soon after, the smoke cleared out. The cats that received the potion seemed to be dizzy. “What happened?” one of them asked while looking at his companion. The other cat started laughing. “What? What´s funny?” “Your fur is purple. He he he!” Scared the cat looked at his paw. Truth to be told, his fur was still in its original colour: brown. However, just like his companion, he saw his fur purple. He started laughing as well. “Oh, you´re right! HA HA!” The other cats on the keep started laughing as well. “Why are we laughing?” one of them asked. Starswirl covered his mouth at realization. He slowly turned his head to Magic Star, who was smirking in pride at how her plan worked perfectly. Then, she picked up some stones and more potions and ran to another keep. “Now, unicorns!” Moochick ordered them. Lancer, Buttons, Glory and Starswirl took a deep breath before blasting the cats with their magic and throwing them off the keep. As they attacked, Moochick made signs to groups of earth ponies, guiding them where to go. The ponies that stayed with him went to the gates. Meanwhile, the cats in the other keep stared scared at the unicorns. Then, they looked at their boss, the grey cat, asking him what to do with their terrified eyes. “Ok now I get why they say unicorns are dangerous.” the black cat bit her lip. “Don´t stop attacking you fools! Throw arrows, stones, anything!” the grey cat ordered his surrogates. “You!” he said to the orange cat. “Go warn Katrina.” The orange cat widened his eyes. “Are you sure? Because you know what will happen.” he replicated. “You know that sooner or later we´ll have to…” the black cat reminded him, even though she was just as uncomfortable with the idea as he was. The orange cat sighed. “Ok.” The grey cat patted his back before he left. Then, he turned around abruptly when he heard yells. He saw soldiers flying around a tornado and sent far away. He and the black cat stared shocked at Gusty, just like the earth ponies. “Sorry!” Gusty apologized to the cats she hurt. “What?” she asked to the earth ponies after noticing their stares. Taking advantage of the fact that she was distracted, the grey cat took his arrow and bow and threw an arrow on her direction. Starswirl was the first one to react. “Gusty!” he yelled as he jumped to push her away. Gusty whimpered as Starswirl landed on her back. They observed at how the arrow landed on the spot she was in. Gusty held her chest. “Oh my! Thank you.” she smiled at him. Starswirl blushed and smiled in embarrassment. Just before he could say you´re welcome, a stone was thrown in their direction. Luckily, Gusty paid enough attention to stop the attack with the shield. She smiled back at him once they were safe. “You know you can throw it back at them, right?” Knightshade said to them. “Like this.” he smiled as he saw a stone coming. He turned around and stood in his two forelegs to hold the shield with the forelegs. When the stone reached the shield, he pushed it back to the keep, hitting a cat in the head. Starswirl and Gusty widened their eyes, as that stone seemed to be very heavy. He raised his eyebrow playfully. Meanwhile, Moochick and some of his troops ran to the gates. They turned around and stood in two legs. “On my signal!” the earth pony yelled. “Whoah, whoah. You´re seriously planning to break the gates just like that?!” Lancer asked. “Even Majesty who´s the most powerful unicorn I´ve ever known needs a battering ram to do that. No matter how strong our magic is, we still can´t-” “Kick!” Moochick ordered his surrogates, completely ignoring Lancer´s rant. The earth ponies kicked the gates, making them tremble. The vibration was felt by the cats in the keep and the ponies near the gates. Lancer´s head shook so hard that once the shaking stopped, he fell and his eyes went sideways. After throwing one attack, she went to assist Lancer why stopping some arrows with her shield. “You were saying?” Alonzo raised his eyebrow. “Now, that´s a barry strength ye have!” Glory complimented the earth ponies as she helped Lancer get up. “Of course! Why do you think Grogar used us as burden beasts?” he replied back. “Now keep on defending us before we end up killed!” Lancer shook his head. Afterwards, he raised his hoof to his forehead, with an expression of humility and embarrassment. Glory playfully smiled at him as he left. As she looked to the main keep, she realized something. Originally, there were three cats standing in the front. And now, there were only two. She saw the orange one leaving but he hasn´t come back in a time. “Where did you go, kitty?” she wondered to herself. Although it was a cloudy day, at the first trace of light, Fizzy woke up. The first thought in her mind was finding a way to get out of the dungeon so she could help Amina, the friendly spirit she talked to last night. Although she woke up very confident in getting out soon and easily, the reality was way more different. Hours passed, and she still found herself pacing around frustrated with an idea block. “Come on, think, think.” she softly hit her forehead. “There has to be something you haven´t thought of!” “That´s not true.” the guard told her. “You have thought of everything! In case your tiny brain hasn´t registered it yet, you ain´t coming out!” Fizzy rolled her eyes. She had been dealing with that guard as soon as she woke up. She stared at the chain attached to the wall, which gave her an idea, though not a very good one. Fizzy was known for coming up with the wackiest of ideas, but even she knew when an idea was way off reality or it wouldn´t work, and this one was the case. However, what else she could do? She sighed. “Here goes nothing…” she said after picking up the chain. She inhaled deeply and expired slowly before pulling the chain with all her strength. As expected, it didn´t work, but maybe after many attempts, it would come off the wall. And with a little bit of luck, maybe she could use it to break the door lock. However, judging by how many pauses she had to take to breathe, this would take a long time. There even came a moment when she fell to the floor on her back. She whimpered from exhaustion, pain and frustration. The guard laughed at her attempt. What´s worse, things were not going to get easier. “Good morning dearie…” the last voice she wanted to hear greeted her. Her eyes widened. Afterwards, she clenched her teeth and pulled her eyelids down. “Ay no…” she muttered. She sat down and looked at Katrina´s victorious smirk indifferently. “Hey. Nice to see you.” she greeted back sarcastically. “Laugh all you want, although I´m afraid now it´s not the best moment.” Katrina giggled. “You see, I´ve located your precious friends.” “You what?!” Fizzy held the bars. “I said I located your friends. And no matter how many alliances they do, they won´t be able to go against what I have in store.” she grinned as she looked at her potion. “Pretty soon, your so called Wind Warrior will be in my paws and brought to Grogar. As for you… Well, if I were you I´d be enjoying what´s left of your pitiful life, because you´re bound to lose it soon enough.” she scratched her chin with her claw. In response, Fizzy hit it, but Katrina didn´t seem to affect by it. “Not if I can help it!” Fizzy roared. “And how, huh? You can´t use your magic nor you seem physically strong.” she teased her. Contrary to what she and every cat, pony or any creature thought, Fizzy was smart. She looked at her potion and realized how close Katrina was to her, which made her come up with the best idea she could ever have had in her life. Faster than a cat, she picked the potion and started to pull towards her. Katrina gasped and wrestled against Fizzy for the potion. Seeing how determined the pony was into getting her potion, she pulled out her claws and scratched her cheek, making her let go of the potion. Once her paws were free, she conjured a ray to hit Fizzy. The poor unicorn flew against the wall. “DON´T YOU EVER DARE TO DO THAT AGAIN, YOU HEAR ME?!” she yelled at her. Fizzy´s ears lowered in fear. Up until now, she thought that Katrina was just an arrogant powerful cat. Although she knew she was capable of hurting her friends, she never imagined how scary she could be when she got angry. Just like Grogar, she was not a force to be played with, which is the reason why he kept her around. Some dungeons above Fizzy´s, Posey observed everything. Just like Katrina, she was planning to visit Fizzy, however the cat arrived before her. After witnessing how she hurt Fizzy, Posey decided it was time she took action. But she ran into an obstacle. “Posey? What are you doing here?” a masculine voice said. Her ears perked up. She turned her head around and saw Apricot, one of Katrina´s soldier. Posey took out a knife and laid it near his throat, making him raise his paws. Posey put her other hoof over her lips, telling him to be quiet. Unfortunately, Katrina´s sharp cat hearing perceived Apricot´s voice, despite being soft-spoken. She looked upstairs and frowned. Slowly, she walked upstairs and caught the pony and the cat off. They gasped horrified. “Yeah, that´s what I would like to know about, Posey.” she hissed. She looked at Apricot. “Aside from why you´re pointing your knife at Apricot. You´re not betraying me in any way, are you?” she walked to her menacingly. Posey walked backwards in response. “No, no. I just-” “She simply got scared!” Apricot said to Katrina. Katrina raised an eyebrow suspiciously. Confused, Posey arched an eyebrow at Apricot. “There are cats who like to scare her and she doesn´t like that, so she carries a knife around to scare us of. I know because I´ve seen it. I think she was just looking for you and we crossed paths.” he smiled nervously. “And why are you here and not in the fortress?” Katrina asked in return, now advancing towards Apricot. “I uh… Bring news…” “What news?” “The-the-” “The what?!” “The city´s fortress is under attack!” Apricot spat out. “They are here!” A smile drew in Katrina´s face. She chuckled. “Good.” she turned backwards to speak to the guard and Fizzy, especially the latter. “Now if you excuse me, I must go.” Fizzy crept to the bars. “You evil witch! You won´t get with yours!” “Oh. I´m afraid I already have” she turned to the guard. “Have as much fun with her as you want.” she said to him before leaving. “Gladly.” the guard replied after chuckling. “Now, I think I haven´t tortured you enough. How about we fix that?” he said as he pointed his spear at her. Luckily, before he could do anything, Posey kicked his head, leaving him unconscious. She took the keys and opened the dungeon. Fizzy hugged her, surprising her. “Ah, I´m so glad to see you!” Fizzy said to her. “Um… Same…” answered Posey, not so sure how to react to a unicorn hugging her, though a part of her said there was nothing to worry about, since that unicorn was her friend. “Are you alright?” “Yeah. A little hurt from Katrina´s attack but,” Fizzy shrugged. “I´ve dealt with worse. Anyway, I have something very important to tell you!” “Me too! But you go first.” “I know who the Weeping Roar is! It´s a spirit named Anima. And she´s not evil she´s just broken! She lost her cubs and she misses them and she´s with Katrina because she believes she´ll help her retrieve her cubs.” “Amina? What a beautiful name that means soul.” Posey commented. Seeing that she was getting off topic she shook her head. “Anyway, I do know about Amina´s story. But here´s where things get worse. Katrina found her cubs and offered them to the dark spirits so she could get the potion.” “What?!” “Yeah, and now she´s planning to offer her to them so they can grant her more power. And not only her, she´s planning to offer your friends and the earth pony rebels!” “And probably us too.” Apricot added. The mares turned their heads to him. He rubbed his crossed arms. “Katrina is planning to send the dark spirits to attack at the fortress. I know that she didn´t offer us but dark spirits take more than they give. They´ll probably take some of my comrades too.” “Then what are we waiting for? Let´s stop her!” Fizzy stomped her hoof against the floor. “Do you have any idea of where she could be now?” she asked Posey. “I do. Follow me!” Katrina opened the gates of her bedroom balcony. From there, she could catch sight of the battle at the fortress. She looked at the potion before closing her eyes and reciting these words: “Shadows, take the light. Make them run in fright. Make their eyes turn white. And bring me what is mine. What is mine.” Once she was done reciting her chant, she smiled wickedly as she watched the horizon. “Run, run little warrior.” she mocked Gusty. Suddenly, every cat and pony fighting at the wall started hearing a haunting melody. Both sides stopped fighting to figure out where that sound came from. “Wha-What is that melody?” Glory asked scared. Magic Star and Starswirl froze in fear. They shared looks and nodded at each other, confirming their worries. Knowing that they were the experts at magic, Gusty knew that this was Katrina´s doing. Another thing that caught her attention were the cats´ reaction. Just like them, they were full of fear, hiding their tails between their legs or embracing each other, preparing for what was about to come. “Quick everypony! Form a circle and light your horns!” Starswirl ordered his companoons. “But why?” Buttons asked frightened. “Just do it! I don´t have time to explain.” “Starswirl, what´s going on?” Lancer asked upset. “He knows what he´s doing. Trust him.” Gusty supported Starswirl. Though confused, the unicorn did as told. “I knew something bad was going to happen.” said Lancer. “You know what, if I were you, I would form a turtle with these on.” Magic Star adviced the earth ponies as she passed them silver thistles. Some had time to do as Magic Star commanded but others didn´t. In the blink of an eye, something took some earth ponies away. Afterwards, they weren´t seen. “What was that?” an earth pony asked. Everypony got their spirit when what took the earth ponies away made themselves visible to the ponies. They were black phantasmagorical creatures of different forms whose movement were like the flames of a fire. They roared at the ponies. “Dark spirits.” Magic Star said as she fearfully stared at them. > Chapter 14: An exorcism of light > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everypony stared scared at the dark spirits. However, the unicorns were more shocked than the earth ponies, except for Starswirl. Yes, they had seen that strange jaguar spirit but she wasn´t as horrifying as the ones that were laying their eyes upon them. Their faces were truly diabolical, with dark eyes except for their bright pupils and skeleton teeth with large fangs. They took notice of Gusty. She slowly dropped her ears in fear. When they roared at her, she closed her eyes. Her companions watched in horror, expecting the worst to happen. Starswirl, however, was looking at their face with determination. As he expected, and to the other unicorns´ surprise, the dark spirits did not attack. Instead, they went to attack the cats, who either ran away, attacked or simply accepted their fate. Knightshade observed the sudden change of target. “They´re distracted. We can continue!” he told Moochick, as he prepared to run. “Hold on.” Moochick raised his hoof, ordering him to stop running. “We need to plan this carefully. Otherwise, we might end up like the cats.” “Definitely.” Magic Star continued. “We must position ourselves strategically.” “Alas, you´re not wrong.” Alonzo agreed. Meanwhile, once Gusty noticed nothing holding her or not feeling strange sensations, as well as hearing the cats´ screams, she opened one eye. She gasped in awe as she opened her other eye. “But how?” she wondered, trying to understand what just happened. “Because of our magic.” Starswirl answered. “Since they are made of shadow, they are repelled by light, and that includes the light from our horns.” “And why the circle?” Buttons raised her eyebrows. Right after she made that question, the same dark spirit tried to attack Gusty again, though this time from behind, finding itself face to face with Buttons, who gasped scared. “Dark spirits are not stupid.” Starswirl continued his explanation. “If the light isn´t pointing in their direction, they´ll try to attack you from a different angle.” “But what about them?” Glory looked worried at the earth ponies. “They have no light to protect themselves!” “Don´t worry! We have these!” Magic Star reassured her as she showed her the silver thistles. “These flowers repel them away as well! Magicians are experts in spirits, since our knowledge allows us to attract the light spirits and protect ourselves against them.” “Is this why you gave us the flowers for every shield?” Knightshade asked her. “Exactly!” “How do we proceed?” Alonzo asked desperate to Moochick. The elder pony pressed his lips in frustration. “I´m not so sure. I don´t know if they´ll get tired eventually or won´t leave until they get what they want.” “Normally, they just want souls.” Magic Star explained. “But this time it seems a bit more complicated.” she turned to Gusty. “They probably won´t leave until they get her.” “But they are attacking the cats.” she pointed out confused. “Believe me, they are just snacks. The main course is you.” Starswirl warned her. Moochick stroke his beard as he thought. “Or not necessarily…” Everypony turned to him. “What do you mean with not necessarily?” Glory made that question with a certain tone of fear in her voice, knowing what Moochick´s intentions were. “You´re not suggesting that we give her to them, are you?!” Lancer asked angrily. “Think about it! Katrina knows that Grogar probably wants to kill her himself, so she must have ordered them to bring her alive. So, if she was captured by spirits, she would be fine!” “That is true, but dark spirits are not to be trusted.” Starswirl told him. “Exactly!” Buttons agreed smacking her hoof against the ground. “What if they take her away, huh?” “You might not feel comfortable with the idea of sacrificing your friend, but I don´t see any other choice!” Moochick replicated. “Besides, it seems like you´re struggling to keep that light, am I right?” They groaned in frustration, due to exhaustion and because Moochick was right. As they were arguing, Gusty looked at the clouds, which gave her an idea. “The clouds! That´s it!” she exclaimed excited. Now, she had everypony´s attention. “Excuse me?” Moochick asked a little blunt, thinking that Gusty simply had got distracted by the clouds. “The clouds! Dark spirits cannot stand light, so if I were one, I would attack when there´s no light such as night or…” “In a cloudy day!” Alonzo finished. “Exactly, because the clouds block the sunlight. But with the help of wind, clouds can move.” “Wait, wait. You´re telling me you want to move the clouds? Can you do that?” Knightshade asked. “I don´t know. But there´s only one way to find out.” “It might be a crazy idea, but it also might work.” Magic Star said to the earth ponies, who were looking at each other with skepticism. Everypony waited anxiously for Moochick´s response, who stayed silent as he assessed which decision to make. After a while, he sighed defeated. “At this point, we have made many wishful decisions, so what matters if your idea sounds impossible or even silly.” he replied. Despite having insulted her idea, Gusty smiled when Moochick accepted. She nodded, saying without words that he won´t be disappointed. “Still, we´ll need to organize carefully.” Moochick turned to the earth ponies. “While she´s trying to move the clouds, we´ll need to do a formation in which some kick the gates, and some defend us against the dark spirits.” “Then, in that case, you´ll need this.” Magic Star said as she took a jar from her bag. After opening it, she spread the content over the backs of the ponies in charge of kicking the door. “What is that?” Alonzo asked curiously. “Fennel dust. It is said it drives dark spirits away.” “But we have the shields. Why are you putting this on us?” a female earth pony asked. “Well, you´re not gonna use the shield to break the door, huh?” “That´s a good point.” “Then why do we need the shields if by putting that on we´re protected?” another male pony asked. After he asked that, a cat threw himself from the wall in order to escape the dark spirits. She fell in front of the earth ponies, who widened their eyes in shock. They knew cats could survive high falls, but they had never witnessed that phenomenon until now. However, the cat didn´t come out unharmed, as she whimpered in pain. “Ugh, my legs! I think I broke the four of them!” she yelled. Not many seconds later, a dark spirit took the poor cat away. The earth ponies widened their eyes in shock. “That´s why.” Magic Star took advantage of what had happened to reply to her comrade´s question. Although the cats were the main dark spirits´ target, some of them were still unharmed, as they were protecting themselves with torches and had learnt quickly from their fallen fellow soldiers how to protect themselves. They watched shocked how the dark spirit vanished with their comrade. “You idiot! I told it wasn´t a good idea to jump!” the captain yelled angry, though not because he thought he was incompetent but because she had put her life in danger. The black cat realized that soon they would have that same fate when she noticed that their troches´ flame was getting smaller. “Captain…” she said worried. “Yes, Odile?” “The torches will extinguish soon.” The captain immediately looked at his own torch in response, only to find that Odile was right. “Oh no..” “What do we do captain?” a three-color cat asked him. The grey cat struggled to keep his desperation and fear from showing. He and his comrades were doomed and there was nothing he could do about it. Though he enjoyed bossing them around, he was also worried about their safety, and they all considered each other family, making him hate his job sometimes. He snapped out of his thoughts by a meow. “Meow!” a siamese cat called them. “What, Bandit?” the captain asked. Bandit meowed as he pointed at the ponies. He wasn´t able to talk, but he was very appreciated in the guard due to being very observant. And thus, he was the first to notice that the ponies weren´t being attacked. The captain narrowed his eyes as he observed the phenomenon, confused at first, but for the cats´ fortune he drew conclusions quickly when he noticed the silver thistles and the circle the unicorns formed, which gave him the solution for what to protect himself and his fellow soldiers. “I know what to do…” the grey cat smiled both wickedly and mischievously. While the cats were conspiring, the ponies were too busy organizing themselves to notice their conspiracy. “There´s something that it´s important to have in mind and we haven´t mentioned.” Lancer said to everypony. “What is it?” Gusty asked him. “Can you produce winds with light? Because if you can´t or don´t know, you might be at serious risk.” he pointed out. Gusty widened her eyes in realization. “Oh, you´re right.” she put her hoof on her temple. “How are you going to move the clouds then?” Glory asked her. Suddenly, without anypony expecting it, Gusty was dragged out of the circle. The unicorns clenched their teeth panicked due to having a spot free of light, which could potentially enable a dark spirit to attack them, but their reflexes were quick enough to close the circle more before something bad happened. After making sure they were safe, they turned to the left, and noticed four shields. “No worries!” Magic Star yelled from inside the shields. “I´m just giving her talismans for protection.” Everypony sighed in relief, although they were still mad at her for her stunt. “You could have told us!” Buttons reproached her. Magic Star rolled her eyes. She was in the company of four more ponies, who were protecting her, and now Gusty as well, with their shields. “You know they have a point.” Gusty agreed with them. “Let´s just not talk about that. Besides, you were having trouble figuring out how to protect yourself if you can´t use the light from your horn, right? Well, you´re on luck because I have the solution!” Magic Star said as she opened the jar full of fennel dust and brushed all over Gusty. “Wait, wait!” the unicorn tried to stop the earth pony. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Some dust entered in her nose, making her sneeze. “Won´t this brush it off with the wind?” she cleared her nose. “Nah, it doesn´t need to be on your body all the time. Ever heard of pixie dust? Just after being on your skin, you´ll be able to fly for an hour, no need for it to be all the time on your body!” “Pixie dust?” “You know the fairy thing…” Magic Star smiled nervously. Seeing that Gusty still had her eyebrow raised in confusion as well as not replying, Magic Star shook her hoof. “Never mind. Earth pony folkore.” she whispered. Their conversation was interrupted by a sudden knock against a shield. It was so strong, that everypony trembled. “I thought you said that dark spirits didn´t come near the shields with those flowers on.” a female earth pony said to Magic Star. “They don´t. But perhaps another thing does…” Magic Star said after taking a quick look through the spaces the shields left. Suddenly, a paw entered between the shields. Gusty and Magic Star hugged each other while they yelped afraid. “Let me in! Let me in!” yelled the cat frustrated. “I´m afraid there´s no more space!” Magic Star replied as she kicked the paw. The cat meowed. “Ow, me knuckles!” he complained as before being taken away by a dark spirit. Magic Star and Gusty didn´t notice they were embracing until looked at each other. Both mares looked at each other surprised. Magic Star quicky undid the embrace and hid her forelegs behind her back. Gusty simply blinked. Seconds later, there came another knock from the same place. And then, another from the left, and another from the top. “What´s going on?” Gusty asked confused. “Cat ambush!” a male earth pony replied. “Dang it!” Magic Star cruched her hooves against each other. “They must have figured out why the dark spirits aren´t attacking us and want our shields.” “We need you to fight, Magic Star.” another earth pony told her. “In a minute!” Magic Star nodded. She turned to Gusty. “Now that you´re protected, you can carry out your plan.” Gusty nodded. She put her hoof on her shoulder. “Good luck.” she told her as she ignited her horn to disappear. After she poofed, the earth ponies widened their eyes in shock. “Did you see that?” Magic Star pointed at the spot Gusty was a few seconds ago. Gusty reappeared in the open field. The first thing she encountered was a dark spirit charging towards her but stopping right in front of her and growling in frustration before going away. Though she knew she was safe, she still got scared when she saw a dark spirit coming towards her. Once she recovered from the fright, she finally became aware of what was going on, opening her mouth and gasping horrified. The situation was worse than she thought. There were lots and lots of cats around the ponies! Meaning that the ponies had to defend against them at the same time they defended from dark spirits and tried to open the gates! “Oh no! I have to move the clouds as soon as possible!” Suddenly she noticed a weight on her back. She turned her head back and saw one of the cat soldiers, a siamese cat to be precise, rolling on her back. For being surrounded by spirits, he was surprisingly calm, as if he was completely confident he was not going to be taken away, which was exactly what happened after a spirit came near them. Shocked she stared at him, but the cat did not make any face expression nor noise. “I suppose he must have smelt the fennel.” she thought, trying to find an explanation as to what happened. “Meow!” the cat called to his fellow soldiers. “Not now, Bandit! We´re kind of busy in the moment! We´ll look later!” Odile answered upset to his call as she was fighting Buttons, who took advantage of that tiny distraction to kick on her nose while letting out a war cry. Seeing they weren´t listening, Bandit decided to keep advantage of the fact that he was on Gusty´s back to stretch and accommodate for a nap. “Hey, you´re not sleeping on my back!” she said to him. She tried to levitate him off her back, but the cat was too heavy to even move him. Seeing she couldn´t lift him, she pushed him a little, but he came back to where he was. Gusty sighed defeated. “Fine, do whatever you want I guess.” Cat or no cat on her back, she still needed to carry out her plan. She looked at the clouds with determination. She ignited her horn and started conjuring the strongest wind she could, sweating and groaning in the process. Though it began soft, it slowly built up to the point of the ponies being pushed. It wasn´t strong enough to send every creature flying away, but if one wanted to be where they wanted to be, they had to hold on to the grass. While it was uncomfortable for everypony, it made the cats unable to grasp on them for long, allowing them all a little rest. Not for the unicorns, though, they still had to keep their horns on light. “Ugh, hurry up Gusty!” Lancer urged her. “I don´t think we can take it anymore.” Glory said a little dizzy. Gusty groaned as well. “I´m trying!” she replied. But no matter how hard she tried, the clouds still didn´t move. Starswirl paid attention to how her wind was like. He remembered days with the same amount of wind and the clouds were moving, so Gusty´s wind wasn´t the problem. Then, he looked up to one of the flags standing on the keep, and he noticed that it wasn´t moving. He widened his eyes in realization and quickly turned to Gusty. “Gusty!” he called her, making her open her eyes and look at him. “I know what your problem is! You´re too low!” “What?” she said confused. “Look!” he pointed at the flag. Gusty narrowed her eyes as she looked at the flag. Starswirl was right, the wind didn´t move the clouds because it didn´t reach them. “You´re a genius, Starswirl!” she told him. “But wait.” Buttons raised her hoof. “Can you elevate yourself at the same time you create a wind towards another direction?” Since she didn´t know the answer to that question, she tried doing so. She created a small tornado to levitate from the ground a little and tried creating another wind. In doing so, she fell. She shook her head. Starswirl scratched his beard, as he thought of another solution. “What if I levitated you?” Gusty looked aside while she processed Starswirl´s words. “That could work but put yourself inside the shields.” she instructed him. “On it!” The two made themselves disappear in just a second. Just like when Magic Star pulled Gusty, Lancer, Buttons and Glory had to react quickly to close the circle. “COULD YOU PLEASE WARN US WHEN YOU DO THAT?!” Lancer yelled angry. Starswirl and Gusty reappeared next to Sir Moochick, who was struggling to not let the captain of the cat guard push him outside the shields. Both the cat and earth pony jumped backwards. “What the? How on earth did you do that?!” Moochick asked uneasy. Starswirl rolled his eyes. He was taught to always respect elders and authority, but he also knew there were exceptions to that statement. The most obvious was Grogar and his coalition, and another could be Moochick, since he was always mistrustful of him, Gusty and their companions. He still followed his orders thouhh, mostly because they needed the earth ponies to rescue Fizzy and because of Gusty, but there have been several times where Moochick almost drove Starswirl out of his patience. Gusty simply sighed frustrated. “Calm down, it´s a spell.” Gusty explained calmly, yet also at the verge of losing her patience. “What are you two doing here anyway?” asked Alonzo before kicking a cat on his face. “We need you to protect Starswirl.” answered Gusty. “He needs to be safe to help me reach the clouds.” “Great more work for us.” Alonzo whispered to Knighshade´s ear. “Would you rather stay here forever huh?!” Gusty elevated her tone of voice, surprising Alonzo. “Don´t you dare talk to him like that!” Knightshade immediately hugged him, leaning his hoof on his shoulder. “He´s sensitive!” “No, I´m not. You´re the sensitive one.” “That´s not true.” Knightshade replied with teary eyes. Alonzo raised his eyebrow while smiling at him and wiping his tears. Though still upset at them, Gusty and Starswirl couldn´t help but chuckle at the couple. Meanwhile, Buttons´, Glory´s and Lancer´s horns started to flicker. Glory was the first to notice, she turned around to see how the rest was doing. Slowly, Lancer´s eyes closed and ended up collapsing, stopping his magic in the process. “No!” she exclaimed terrified, knowing what was going to happen to him. She tried to reach him but felt to the ground in her attempt. She weakly opened her eyes. Buttons shook her head. “Non, non. Guys don´t leave me alone please! I can´t protect you all.” To their misfortune, two dark spirits noticed Lancer and Glory weren´t protected by their light anymore and took the chance to attack them. Buttons yelped as she threw herself on the two unicorns to protect them just when the dark spirits were at the reach. They ended up getting burnt as a result. Unfortunately, Buttons couldn´t keep up the light and ended up turning it off. She gasped terrified and tried to light it again but couldn´t. To make matters worse, a dark spirit noticed them and charged against them. All Buttons could do was embracing them and closing her eyes. But before anything happened, something strange but positive event happened. “AIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAAIAIAIAAIAIAIAIAIAIHEHEHE!” a female voice screamed and laughed at the end in one breath. The earth ponies widened their eyes. “The earth pony scream?” Magic Star wondered aloud. “But who could…” Every creature stopped attacking or defending themselves turned back to see where the noise came from. Even the dark spirits seemed to be intrigued at what was happening. The scream came from a pink earth pony, who was carrying many things in her back. She was wearing a humble and torn peasant dress. Her mane was tied back and she had facial war paint, probably made with mud. Buttons opened and narrowed her eyes to get a better view of the newcomer. Although she was near passing out, she completely woke up when she recognized the pony. “Is that… Shady?!” “Shady´s here?” Magic Star poked her head out of the shields. “Without any protection?!” “Hey you! Dumb things! Leave my friends alone!” Shady yelled at the dark spirits. “Shady! Those are not dumb things. Those are dark spirits!” Magic Star told her. “I know. They´re exactly the way you described them.” “THEN WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?!” “Defending you. Come and get me!” She took out a knife and cut her hoof, making a small quantity of blood drip. Everypony was disconcerted at what Shady was doing, but Magic Star was the most. She was very scared at well. When she saw her raising her hoof with blood, she covered her mouth with her two hooves. “Oh, no you didn´t…” she mumbled very scared. Every creature would understand why Magic Star was so scared. Apparently, after showing the dark spirits blood, all of them charged against her. Shady´s determination disappeared the moment she saw dark spirits coming towards her. “Oh dear, what have I just done…” she thought aloud. Buttons knew that no earth pony would be fast enough to reach Shady to help her on time, but a unicorn could. So, in a matter of seconds, she teleported herself in front of Shady to defend her. Without thinking it, she shot one of the spirits, hurting enough for it to go away. Both the spirits and ponies were shocked at the event. The ponies looked at each other and smiled mischievously at the spirits, before Buttons continued shooting them. However, the dark spirits were smart enough to attack where the light wasn´t directing them. Shady noticed one of them coming from the left. “Buttons look out!” she yelled scared. Buttons widened her eyes. Then, she got an idea. Instead of shooting them or simply lighting her horn, she instead created a magical forcefield. In that way, she protected every side of her and Shady´s bodies with light. Seeing that they couldn´t do anything, they left them leave. Buttons and Shady shared smiles before running to everypony. The unicorns were thankful to Shady for appearing, otherwise they wouldn´t have discovered another less energy-consuming way of protecting themselves against the dark spirits. Even the cats were amazed at the ponies´ trick. “Wow. That was pretty awesome.” said a cat next to Gusty and Starswirl. Speaking of them, they decided that now the show was over, they could continue with their plan. They both nodded at each other. Carefully, Gusty separated the shields to make way for herself to get out. “I´m ready.” she informed Starswirl once she was outside. He inhaled and exhaled before levitating Gusty. His magic aura reached Gusty until the neck, allowing her to conjure magic. At first, he had some trouble, due to the presence of a siamese cat in her back, but there was no time to ask that question. After so much sweat and effort he managed to put her at the level of clouds. “Come on Gusty. I don´t think I´ll be able to hold on for long.” he whispered as he observed her. Gusty was so close to the clouds that she could touch them. After feeling one with her horn, she smiled because she remembered her husband loved to touch the clouds while flying. As beautiful the idea of going back to the past sounded, now it wasn´t the moment. She closed her eyes to focus. “Ok. Here we go.” she said to herself before beginning. She ignited her horn and created a slight wind that slowly turned stronger, as always. She stopped modulating the strength of the wind once she saw the clouds were moving, letting a few rays of sunshine escape. “It´s working!” she exclaimed happily. She knew there still was some work left, since she wanted to uncover the whole sun, however the spirits were roaring in pain due to being in contact with the sunlight. Everypony looked in amazement, especially the earth ponies. “Wow… She wasn´t kidding when she said she was a Wind Warrior.” Magic Star thought aloud. “Sir, look! She´s doing it.” an earth pony told Moochick as she pointed at Gusty. Moochik looked up. His vision was limited due to the shields, but he had a tiny space in which he could see Gusty moving the clouds and unblocking the sun. He stared amazed yet also with fear at what a unicorn was capable of. As much as impressive the situation was, he and his soldiers couldn´t keep staring forever. They had gates to open. “Keep kicking everypony! We almost have it.” he instructed everypony. Everypony obeyed save Alonzo and Knightshade, who were still captivated by the imagery. “Alonzo! Knighshade!” Moochick called them. “Huh? Yes sir!” Alonzo raised his hoof to his forehead. Before joining Moochick, he poked Knightshade´s shoulder to get his attention and tell him to keep on kicking. Slowly, after some effort and time, the sun shone freely in all its glory, leaving the dark spirits no choice but to fade away. The earth ponies´ and cats´ jaws were hanging quite open as they undid the shield formation. The unicorns started cheering for Gusty, who smiled tenderly at them. She noticed Starswirl´s magic aura starting to vanish a little, indicating that her friend was tired. “Don´t worry, Starswirl, you can stop now. I can go back to the ground by myself.” she reassured him. He sighed relieved once he had the chance to rest from her magic. Once Gusty descended completely, every unicorn, including Lancer hugged her. “YEAH, YOU DID IT!” Buttons exclaimed with all the air in her lungs. “You go Gusty!” Glory clapped cheerful. “Thank goodness you did it! Thank goodness!” Lancer was about to cry, but he managed to hold it in. Meanwhile, Magic Star ran to Shady. The latter expected a hug, so she opened her arms. But instead, she received a slap in the face, making the earth ponies and the cats gasp. Shady massaged her cheek in pain. “Oh geeze…” the cat captain clenched his teeth. “Ouch!” she complained. “What was that for?” “What were you thinking?!” Magic Star shook her. “Didn´t I tell you that blood attracts dark spirits?!” “Yes, you did. That´s why I did it.” Shady shrugged. “Oh don´t you ever do that again.” Magic Star hugged her in the end. “What made you come here?” Gusty asked Shady. “You said that you would stay to take care of Magic Star´s house.” Buttons reminded her. “I did. But then I remembered what you said to me.” Shady said to Gusty. “How I was strong and a fighter and that how you discovered you were those things for somepony. And then I thought about Magic Star and Buttons.” she looked at Magic Star. “I didn´t do much for you to defend you when you were kicked out from the inn, and you were always there for me. I´m sorry, I should have returned the favour.” “You did, Shady.” Magic Star put her hoof over her shoulder. “You still took care after me. And came to visit and bring me food. That honestly was enough for me. Besides, I wouldn´t have wanted you to have trouble with your father!” “The moment he did that to you, he was my father no more, I can tell you that.” she turned to Buttons. “As for you, you saved me without caring that I was an earth pony. You even helped me at the inn! I had to do something for you.” “Chérie, you didn´t need to.” Buttons told her warmly. “Anyway, I noticed you forgot something important and wanted to bring it to you.” Shady kept on explaining to everypony “And I took that chance to be brave.” “Honestly, I never intended that you put yourself at risk with those words.” Gusty clarified, feeling somewhat guilty of having put a pony´s life in danger. “But I´m glad you found your inner strength.” Shady smiled at her. Meanwhile Moochick and the earth ponies managed to open the gates. “It´s finished. We can enter!” Moochick called. Right after hearing the news, everypony ran to him. Once Gusty reached them, Alonzo and Knightshade knelt before her, surprising the unicorns as a result. “Wind Warrior. Thanks for aiding us.” Alonzo said. “We owe you our lives.” “Oh!” Gusty laughed nervously. She looked at the other unicorns, seeking answers on how to reply. They all raised their hooves, telling her not to ask them without words. “I don´t think I saved your lives. I just made things easier.” “Well, to be honest, I don´t think we could have survived under the shields for too long.” said Kinghtshade. “Yeah. Talismen don´t last forever.” Magic Star agreed with them. Gusty was flattered by their words. However, she couldn´t help but looking at her companions. They were a backbone for her. Without them, she would have been dead. She felt somewhat bad for taking all the credit. They didn´t seem upset, in fact they were smiling happily for her, but she thought that their work should be acknowledged. “Thank you all for your kind words, but I´m not the only one that helped.” she pointed at Buttons, Glory, Lancer and Starswirl. “This wouldn´t have been possible without them, you know?” All the unicorns noticed a sudden shift in the earth ponies´ attitudes towards them. They were not looking at them suspiciously anymore, instead they had friendly and accepting smiles in their faces. Unfortunately, it wasn´t the same case for Moochick. He walked towards Gusty, with his head held high. The unicorn felt intimated, despite knowing that she had more advantage than him. “You´re quite powerful. Make sure you use it for the right purposes.” he said in a serious tone before turning around. “We´re going in!” he said to everypony. Despite being somewhat shocked by his `gratitude display´, the earth ponies simply obeyed without replicating. All the unicorns, except Gusty, glared upset at Moochick. Gusty simply lowered her ears, wondering worried if Moochick considered her a threat instead of an ally. Glory opened her mouth to talk, but before she could say anything, the cats talked over them. “Where do you think you´re going?!” the captain said after he and every other cat jumped in front of everypony, blocking their way with his spear. “Seriously? After sending dark spirits, being very aware of the possibility of them taking you away, you´re still defending her?” Lancer asked. “Actually, we don´t care about her.” Odile spat. The captain nudged her. “Ouch! I mean, yeah we are!” she put her paws up. Everypony could tell that the cats didn´t want to work for Katrina anymore, as evidenced by their facial expressions. However, the captain persisted on his duty, so they had no choice but to stick to his side, which meant that they weren´t up for negotiation. Everypony prepared to fight, but for their luck, Shady had a quicker and easier solution. “Hey, Magic Star. Do you want to know what you left at your house?” Shady said to Magic Star. “What?” Shady took a small bag and showed it to the cats, who after smelling it, their pupils dilated and were kind of hypnotized by the substance. “You want this?” she asked the cats with a smirk on her face. The cats nodded. “Go get it!” she said as she kicked it away. The cats chased the small bag, running away and leaving the ponies alone. Everypony turned to Shady, Magic Star having a big grin in her face. “Catnip. It was catnip.” she said to her friend. Taking advantage of the fact that the cats were distracted, everypony ventured into Bridlengton. The cat captain was the first one to reach the bag. He hissed at several cats that tried to take it away from him, having to fight if necessary. As he did so, he noticed the ponies entering the doors. He left out a huge gasp. “They´re getting into the city!” he growled. “This was a trap!” he threw the bag to the ground. “All of you, get up!” he ordered every cat as he pushed them aside the bag. “Honestly, after this dark spirit stunt, I don´t want to defend her anymore.” Odile said while sitting down and crossing her forelegs. “I never liked her anyway.” Every cat nodded in agreement. “Well, neither do I, but if she falls down, the earth ponies will punish us with prison, torture, or worse, they´ll execute us!” “Huh!” Odile laughed. “Those fates sound better to me than working for Katrina for the rest of my life.” she turned to the right. “Right, Bandit?” She widened her eyes when she realized the siamese cat wasn´t by her side. She looked for him everywhere, hoping to find in the cat multitude. “Where´s Bandit?” she asked scared. If Odile knew Bandit´s state, she wouldn´t be so worried about him. He stretched calmly on Gusty´s back as he yawned and went back to sleeping peacefully, despite bumping constantly due to Gusty´s running. Glory widened her eyes, surprised for not having noticed the cat when he was clearly visible. “Um.. Why is there a cat on yer back?” she asked Gusty while raising her eyebrow. Gusty turned her head to Bandit, narrowing her eyes at him with contempt. She rolled her eyes as she redirected her look back to Glory. “Don´t ask.” she simply replied. The earth ponies on the streets had witnessed everything, from their arrival to the wall to their fight against the dark spirits. Some cheered at them for their arrival while some stared in shock, especially when they saw the unicorns. Not only the earth ponies watched everything, the cat guards did as well. In fact, a tri-color cat was whistling peacefully until he noticed the crowd of ponies coming towards him. His fur pointed up and he stretched his legs as he jumped to a roof to save himself from being trampled. “What the?” she asked confused. Seconds later, the captain and the other cats reached her. “We need to ring the bell, quickly!” the captain shook her. The tri-color cat led the captain to the bell tower. Inside a room, there were two female cats talking. One was white and had her rear legs on top a table while filing claws. She seemed to be telling a younger brown tabby cat something, who was crying while holding the other´s cat door. They were so focused on their conversation that they didn´t notice the captain and the tri-color cat. “Bianca, ring the bell!” the tri-color cat told her. “He took your frying pan? Preciosa, honey, I don´t think he´s coming back.” Packard said to the other cat. “Bianca!” the captain and the tricolor cat yelled on chorus. “We´ll talk later.” she calmly put her rear legs on the floor and left the claw file. “But-” the other cat said after sobbing. “Don´t worry, I´ll remember.” she said while holding the bell rope. After she pulled the rope, the bell started sounding throughout all the town. Moochick, the earth ponies and Lancer widened their eyes. “Uh oh.” Lancer muttered. “What do you mean with uh oh?” Buttons asked a bit panicked. She got her answer when she noticed a multitude of furious growiling cats pursuing them. She whimpered as she sped up. “We need to divide!” Moochick said to everypony. “We´ll all reunite at the castle´s golden room!” “But how do we get to the golden room? Or better question, how do we even get to the castle?!” a full of stress Buttons asked him “Don´t worry, Shady will show you the way!” Moochick said in response. “Me?” Shady asked surprised. “But-” Despite her reaction, nopony listened to her, in fact she was interrupted. “I´ll separate from all of you to distract the cats, if that is ok with you.” Magic Star suggested to the elder earth pony. “Thank you, that will make things easier.” Moochick nodded. “We´ll divide in three groups! Us to the left, you on the centre, and you to the right. Alright? Go go go!” “I´ll take this, if that’s ok with you.” she said to Shady as she took the catnip from her and spread it throughout her body. After doing so, most of the cats smelt the catnip and followed Magic Star instead, who was somewhat regretting her decision. This gave the chance to the ponies to separate safely as well as a chance to defend themselves, since there were more of them than there were cats. Though the plan seemed flawless, Shady didn´t seem to think so. “Is everything alright?” Glory asked her. “Not really. You see, I haven´t been here since… Ages! I don´t quite remember the city and how to get everywhere.” “Oh goodness...” Lancer massaged his forehead. “But it cannot be that hard to the get to the castle, right?” Shady smiled nervously. The ponies looked at the route ahead of them. The castle was at the top of a hill, and to make matters worse, they only saw houses everywhere above them, without a single sign on which path to take. “Or maybe it is.” > Chapter 15: Katrina´s wrath > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nervously, Katrina paced around the garden, most specifically in front of the pond. Despite being arrogant and confident all the time, she was still a creature, so even she wasn´t immune to the sting of anxiety and doubt. If dark spirits took time to bring Gusty to her, that meant that she was not a force to be messed with. But she couldn´t have the power of a spirit, could she? She was just a mortal! Just like the cat. She was aware of that more than ever. Offers to the dark spirits were running out and each time she asked for their help, she got deeper and deeper in debt. Katrina had never been ignorant of the dangers that dealing with dark spirits could bring, yet she still made a deal with them, as unwise as that might be. Everything needed to go according to plan, no matter what. “Aaargh! What´s taking them so long?!” She was so focused on waiting that she didn´t notice Fizzy, Posey and Apricot running around the cloister. Apricot was the first to notice her, so he stopped Posey and Fizzy by holding the latter´s foreleg and pointed at Katrina. Fizzy was grateful that she was behind Posey, otherwise, she wouldn´t have noticed Apricot´s warning due to both the stress of the situation and the amazing architecture. It had some elements in common with Grogar´s castle, such as the pointy arches, but with some differences too. For example, Fizzy noticed that inside the arches, there tinier arches and geometric drawings. The garden was impressive as well. Instead of the thorns found in Grogar´s garden, there were orange trees and bushes. The two ponies and cat hid behind a column. “Is this where she meets the dark spirits?” Fizzy asked Posey. The earth pony nodded energetically. “Yes. I saw her right in the same spot the other day.” she replied. “Oh my…” Apricot bit his claw while observing Katrina. “I´ve never seen her so worried…” “Well, she should be. Gusty doesn´t mess around when it comes to her friends. Pretty soon, her reign will be over.” Fizzy was about to smack her hooves, but Posey put her hoof between hers to stop her. The unicorn smiled embarrassed. “Why are you worried about her, anyway?” she asked confused to Apricot. “I thought you didn´t like her.” “I never did, but it´s just I´m scared of what will happen if I don´t evacuate every cat at time. What if by helping you I bring doom to my kind? I mean, we´ve mistreated you for a really long time! It seems reasonable that afterwards earth ponies want us to be your slaves or executed.” “To be honest, you had no choice.” Posey said to him. “We both know you are as much of slaves as we are. I mean, most of you were forcefully taken from Abyssinia.” “Wait, what?” Fizzy turned to Apricot. “How do you know that?” Apricot asked in shock to Posey. “Walls have ears.” she shrugged. “Is Abyssinia where cats come from?” Fizzy asked Apricot. Apricot nodded. “Then, how is it that Katrina ended up here?” The orange cat sighed. “Pride mostly. You see, Katrina was the second daughter of the queen and king of Abyssinia. As you can guess, she was the second heir to the throne, the first being Seraphina, her older sister. Katrina desired the throne more than anything in the world, which led her to hurt her subjects and her sister. Angered by her behaviour, she was vanished. As demoralizing that event might be for some, it didn´t stop Katrina from wanting to become queen. If she couldn´t inherit her family´s kingdom, she would create hers.” “And that´s when she made the deal with the dark spirits, right?” Fizzy interrupted Apricot. “Because I assume she was completely on her own when she was vanished.” “That does explain why she can control them.” Apricot caressed his chin. “I thought it was because of her potion, but it would make sense dark spirits gave her that potion. None of us ever knew how Katrina managed to get dark spirits on her side, you know.” he explained. “And I suppose she must have used the dark spirits to take cats from Abyssinia. Or even Amina as well.” Posey added. “I don´t know who is this Amina you´re talking about, but I´ll assume so.” Suddenly, as they were talking, they were blinded by the sunlight, causing them to cover their eyes. “Sunlight?” Katrina wondered estranged. Then, she heard the sound of bells, realizing what that meant. “No. No, no, no, NO!” she growled frustrated. “Your highness!” Rep ran to her. “The Wind Warrior, her comrades and the rebels have entered the city. We believe she´s charging to the castle.” Without him expecting it, Katrina grabbed Rep by his shirt. “Did she do that?” “Do what?” “THAT!” she said while shaking him. Afterwards, she pointed at the clear sky. “Did she move the clouds?” Rep gulped, knowing what was coming for him. “Yes…” Katrina widened her eyes. She released Rep. The tomcat stared worried at his mistress, since she said no word. Instead, she turned around and walked. She stopped to take a breath while looking at the floor. “You want me to be a bad kitty? Fine, now I´m a bad kitty.” she said in a gloomy tone and a murderous look. Rep´s, Apricot´s and Posey´s hearts started beating. Fizzy didn´t know Katrina as well as they did, but from their reactions, she could tell that she was going to be at her most dangerous. All this time she was only playing around. Now, she was serious. “Capture all the earth pony rebels.” she ordered Rep. “And the Wind Warrior´s companions, if that´s possible.” “And the Wind Warrior?” “I´ll deal with her myself!” Katrina replied with a sharp attitude. “Now go!” Rep fearfully raised his paw to his forehead before running away. Katrina took some time before her next move, leaving Fizzy, Posey and Apricot expecting impatiently. At last, after some tense minutes Katrina sighed. “I´ll have to use her help. And she had better do well this time. Otherwise, her time here will be less.” she thought aloud as she took out a key from her robes. This was the sign they waited for. Fizzy turned to Posey and Apricot and nodded. “I´m afraid that won´t possible.” she said while she left her hideout. Katrina turned around. She arched her eyebrow, surprised and estranged by the fact she was in her garden and not in behind bars. Fizzy took advantage of that moment of disbelief to take water from the pond, making her lose balance, fall and drop the key. Once she was on the ground, Fizzy tried to get the key with her magic, but Katrina was faster and threw a magical beam at her. Her first instinct was to jump to the right. She thanked herself for trusting her instincts, otherwise she would have been blasted, something she could tell by the mark Katrina left on a column. However, by letting her guard down, she gave Katrina the chance to grab her. She brought her to her face. “Well well… Look who escaped.” she smiled as she observed how Fizzy was struggling to escape her grasp. “I must say I´m impressed. You´re not as dumb as I thought.” “I never was.” Fizzy clapped back in determination. Katrina clicked her tongue. “Oh, sorry but I disagree. You just gave yourself to me. And this time your destination isn´t a dungeon. It´s the gallows.” “Oh, but you can´t send me to the gallows directly. You could anger Grogar.” Fizzy pointed out. Katrina cackled. “HAHA! Do you really think that Grogar cares about what happens to you? The only thing he wants is the Wind Warrior. He doesn´t care about the rest of you.” “But knowing him, he´ll want to make an example of us. What would happen if you did it instead of him?” She grabbed her neck. She squeezed it as hard as she could. “I´m afraid that sometimes there are some casualties.” Just when Katrina thought Fizzy wouldn´t laugh anymore, the unicorn draws a cocky smirk on her face. The cat widened her eyes, confused as to why she would be smiling when she was being choked. Noticing the direction of her eyes, she looked at where she had dropped the key, only to find it wasn´t there anymore. “What the-” When she looked up, she saw Apricot talking to somepony behind a column. “I got it. Now run!” he said to Posey. The earth pony nodded before she and Apricot parted ways, running as fast as they could. Unfortunately, they were noticed before they could get far. Katrina released Fizzy´s neck from the shock. Fizzy coughed and gasped from some air. “YOU!” she yelled angrily at Apricot and Posey. She bound the two together. Since it happened so fast, they didn´t realize they could move anymore until they saw a magic tight holding them. They looked in horror as Katrina´s shadow covered them. “Oh dear… I guess it´s true what they say. It´s always from the ones you least expect.” she snarled and showed her teeth at them, terrifying them more. Fizzy´s ears dropped, worried about Posey. Luckily, she noticed she was next to the pond. Katrina sighed in false pity, becoming calm too abruptly. Next, she started conjuring up some magic. “Apricot, I always knew you were a softie but not to the point of being a coward.” The orange cat was hurt by the comment, but he still gave her a defiant look. Katrina approached her face to Posey. “As for you my sweet Posey. she shook her head. “Such a pity. You were very useful to me.” “I hope you tell that to Amina too.” In just a flash, Katrina wounded Posey´s eye with her claws. Afterwards, she finished her magic spell, which was creating a magical sword. She grabbed it and without any warning, she directed the sword towards Posey´s and Apricot´s necks. Before the blade could touch their skin, Fizzy picked Katrina with water and threw her to the other side of the garden. The impact against an arch made Katrina to release Apricot and Posey. “GO GO GO!” she told them. “You want me to come with you?” Apricot asked Posey, seeing the state of her eye. “Don´t worry. I can handle.” she reassured him. The orange cat nodded before parting ways. Katrina grunted as she tried to get up. She snarled with hatred at Fizzy, who was giving her a challenging smirk. The cat stretched her paws before throwing two magical beams at her. Fizzy managed to disappear before they hit her. She ran towards Katrina, but the cat swiftly stepped aside and tripped her, making her fall into the pond. Katrina smirked. Fizzy took her head out of the water. She drew her sword and created a water stream to hold it and approach it to Katrina. Very quickly, the cat conjured up a sword and used it to defend against Fizzy´s attacks. The unicorn´s attacks were so fast that she almost hit Katrina, had she not had her feline reflexes. She took advantage of the cat´s shock to reappear right in front of her. She tried to grab the potion, though for the unicorn´s misfortune, Katrina conjured a forcefield, sending her away. “My goodness, you´re quite the fighter.” Katrina teased her. “Unfortunately, not the best of the two of us.” Fizzy huffed, puffed and clenched her teeth. As serious as she may have looked, her next move didn´t seem as much. She created a water octopus. Katrina snorted. “An octopus, really?” “Yes, really.” She used the water tentacles to immobilize Katrina. No matter how hard she tried to free herself, she couldn´t get out of the tentacles. Luckily for her, Rep appeared in the perfect moment. He shot arrow that broke all the octopus´ tentacles. Katrina smiled at him with pride. “Get away from her!” he yelled at her. He started shooting arrows at her at the same time that Katrina threw her magical beams. Fizzy was already stressed by her fight against Katrina, but she started panicking the moment Rep entered. He wasn´t as intimidation as Katrina but his presence imposed a menace to her, considering that he was protecting his beloved. Plus, she was outnumbered and had to defend herself from two enemies at the same time. There came a moment when she couldn´t defend herself from one of Katrina´s beams, which pushed her backwards, causing her to strike against a column on her head. As a result, she lost consciousness. Since Katrina didn´t have time to check if Fizzy was dead, she picked up some of Rep´s arrows Fizzy and put them above Fizzy. She smiled before letting them go. However, her smile would quickly vanish thanks to Rep. “My dear, are you ok?” he asked concerned. His voice put her of her stride, causing the arrows to land around Fizzy and not on her, as Katrina originally intended. She growled furious. “YOU IDIOT! DON´T YOU REALIZE THAT SHE COULD NOT BE DEAD?!” she shouted at him. “Sorry…” Rep shook in fear. Katrina sighed. “It doesn´t matter. That blow will probably affect her magic. I don´t think she´ll have enough strength to destroy her trap.” she turned to Rep. “Have they reached the castle?” “Not yet, your highness.” he shyly responded. “Then make sure they don´t. And if you can´t restrain the Wind Warrior, weaken her as much as you can! And capture Posey and Apricot, they´re around the castle.” “Those two as well? But why? “DON´T ASK WHY, JUST DO IT!” Rep ran away terrified. Katrina clenched her teeth as she looked at the clouds. “Is it me or is the castle farther than before?” asked Buttons. Everypony looked up only to find that she was correct. The castle did look smaller. Shady sighed. “It is.” she confirmed in a tone of repentance. The unicorns grunted. Getting to the castle was mission impossible. They had been spinning around for who knows how much time, but it felt like ages, only to end up in the same spot or further from the castle. To make matters worse, all the streets looked the same. Narrow, brown stone attached houses, and passages with round arches. Something that caught Gusty´s attention was that there were no signs at the houses´ doors. Back in the capital, her and her neighbours´ houses had a sign that indicated which species the pony inhabiting the building was. Her dear and wise magaga explained that this phenomenon was due to the three pony species were present in the capital and lived segregated, so the signs were to recognize who the neighbourhood belonged to. “I´m so sorry.” Shady apologized as she buried her face in her hooves. “I´m only making things worse.” “It´s ok, you´re trying your best.” Lancer reassured her, in spite of the frustration he was feeling inside. “At least we dealt with the cats.” “Yeah. Besides, it´s not like the inhabitants are of much help.” Gusty added, noticing some earth ponies closing the windows in fear of the unicorns. “Well, at least this time they didn´t throw anything at us.” Glory pointed out sarcastically. Starswirl looked at Bandit. “We might not have had luck asking before, but maybe he could be our stroke of luck.” he pointed at him. Everypony stared at the cat. They were aware of their presence, but they didn´t trust him to guide them to the castle. Plus, he didn´t seem to be awakened by anything, which meant that waking him up would be a tedious and slow task. But right now, they had no other choice. Gusty sighed before clicking her tongue. “Tsk tsk kitty kitty.” she called him as she rubbed his nose. The cat simply frowned and twitched his whiskers. But he didn´t open his eyes. Gusty turned her head to the others and shook his head. “Well, this can´t get any worse!” Lancer yelled sarcastically. For their misfortune it could. Not so far from their location, there found the headquarters from the self-proclaimed witch-hunters that the unicorns previously encountered at the inn. After the bell rang, the news of the earth-pony coup spread throughout the whole city like a disease. Some citizens were in their homes, watching from the windows to see if something happened near them or how the events folded out. The witch-hunters were no exception. “Any news?” the boss asked his partners. The two other stallions shook their heads. The mare differed, however. “Guys! Guys!” she shook her hoof rapidly, hitting one of her companions. “What?” the stallion she was accidentally hitting asked upset. “Look! The witches!” she pointed at the unicorns. “And the inn´s witch´s friend!” The boss walked to the window to take a look. He gasped when he noticed them. “They´ve come to sabotage the rebellion! But we won´t let them.” he said as he left the window. His partners followed him. Meanwhile, Gusty kept on trying to wake him up, despite the previous failures. Shady and the other unicorns watched closely in expectation. “Come on little kitty wake up…” Gusty tapped Bandit´s head. The cat smiled in satisfaction as Gusty tapped his head. In fact, he started purring! She grunted. “No matter what I do, I seem to relax him more!” “Of course, because you´re a witch!” a familiar voice reproached her. Everypony widened their eyes and turned their heads in the direction of the voice. They rolled their eyes or grunted they recognized the witch-hunters. “Not them again.” Shady massaged her temple. “Don´t you know cats like witches?” the boss continued speaking. “We are not witches!” Gusty stomped her hoof against the ground to emphasize her point. “Katrina is!” “Witchcraft is defined by the usage of black magic. You´re just prejudiced against magic.” Starswirl said in their defence. “How could we not?” the stallion at the boss´s left replicated. “Magic has only brought us problems. And now that we have the chance to liberate ourselves from it, you come to impede that.” “Wait, what?” Buttons asked confused. “Don´t you play fool with us, you´re here because Katrina has recruited you to stop the rebellion.” the witch-hunter mare accused them. The unicorns and Shady shared glances. Lancer scoffed. “I´m sorry but I think there´s been a misunderstanding here. We are allies of the earth pony rebels.” Lancer clarified. “What?” the stallion next to the witch-hunter mare asked. “Yeah. We have entered the city with them.” claimed Glory. The witch-hunters raised their eyebrows in a mixture of confusion and estrangement. “Aaah… I see what´s going on here.” the boss smiled confident. “You´ve brainwashed them with your magic mind tricks to convince them you´re helping, but in reality, you´re using our rebellion to steal the throne from Katrina for yourselves!” “No, no, that´s not it.” Gusty shook her head. “Shut up witch!” the boss pushed her backwards. Gusty fell on Bandit, finally waking him up. The cat meowed in pain. “Oh geeze, sorry.” she apologized. Despite being enemies and having slept on her back without her permission, she felt like he didn´t deserve to be awakened like that. Plus, he never did anything against her. Gusty wasn´t sure if it was her imagination, but she could swear that the cat smiled at her. She turned to the soldiers. She frowned angrily and brought the boss closer to her with a strong gust of wind. When he was near enough, he grabbed his shirt collar. She stared at him. “Don’t you ever do that again. Understand?” The other three earth ponies tried to intervene, but were stopped by Starswirl, Buttons and Lancer. Glory noticed that the cat was free from Gusty. Surprisingly, he wasn´t running away or doing anything to warn his comrades, but she decided to check on him in case he did. “Ok, ok. We´re sorry. Please don´t hurt us!” the boss begged Gusty for mercy. “We won´t hurt you if you help us get to the castle.” Gusty told him. “How do we get to the castle?” “So, you can take over us?” “How do we get to the castle?” Gusty repeated firmly, raising her voice. “She´s asking you a question.” Shady supported. “Shady…” the boss laughed nervously. “I know we haven´t had the best of encounters, but after meeting real witches, we admit that we were wrong about your friend, and we forgive her. If you help us, we´ll tell the whole city that she´s innocent” “Hm…” Shady looked up in thought. “No.” “Come on, Shady. Don´t you care about your fellow earth ponies´ safety?” “Sir, let me make this very easy for you: I could give a horseshoe about your safety! How do we get to the castle?!” “Ok ok! We´ll take you!” the boss finally agreed. The unicorns let go of the earth ponies. However, they still needed to have them under control, as they could have lied, so they pointed their swords at their backs. “Could you a least sheathe your swords?” “No!” Gusty replied. Bandit jumped on Gusty´s back and remained seated on there. After a while, they successfully reached the castle. It had a less terrifying aspect, but it imposed power as well. There were six keep towers connected by walls with pointy arches, except for the one that had the principal door, which a rounded arch; and four passages with rounded arches. “There it is. The castle. Now let us go, please.” the boss begged scared. “Thank you.” Gusty said as she and the other unicorns sheathed their swords. “And one more thing. It had better not come to my ears that you burnt somepony inside their house or accuse them of being a witch. Is that clear?” she threatened them with a passive aggressive smile. The witch-hunters nodded while whimpering in fright. “Good. You can go now.” The four earth ponies ran away as fast as they could. “Wow. I didn´t know you could be that imposing.” Lancer said impressed. “Need I to remind you that she confronted Grogar alone?” Buttons playfully nudged him. “But you weren´t present there, so I understand your reaction.” “It kind of comes with being a mother.” said Gusty. She chuckled. “But I never thought I´d see adults more scared of me than my own fillies.” Everypony giggled. Up in the walls, there were some earth ponies watching over tied up cats. Between them, there were Knightshade and Alonzo. The first was panting anxiously and the latter was panting his back. “Don´ worry, Knightshade. Now it comes the easiest part.” “But it´s still not over. The unicorns and Magic Star are yet to come. Do you think they got captured? Or worse, have the cats killed them?” Alonzo bit his lip, not so sure to respond. But he calmed down when he looked down. “Let´s not go over-” “Because in that case, we are doomed!” “Knightshade.” “In that case, I´ll tell you that I love you so much, we don´t say that often enough.” “Knightshade! Look.” he pointed at the unicorns. Knightshade looked down and saw the unicorns, who waved hello at him. He laughed joyfully. “There you are! Moochick has already entered the castle.” “That´s wonderful! But how did you know you were going to invade the castle that fast?” Lancer asked surprised. “Remember the cats chasing us? Well, we used them as hostages. Turns out that they care more about each other than we thought.” “That´s clever.” Lancer muttered under his breath. “Do you know if he has reached the golden room?” Gusty asked him. “We´re not sure. It´s a big castle, with lots of staircases. Reaching any room would take a lot of time.” answered Alonzo. “Go, quick! Things could change in seconds.” Knightshade ordered anxious. “Wait. Is Magic Star with them?” Shady asked them. “We haven´t see her entering.” “Then I´ll stay with them and wait for them.” she told the unicorns. They nodded and ran through the gates. Posey ran through the marble aisles as fast as she could. She was feeling so many things, no matter how contradictory. She was scared that Katrina would get her but at the same time, she was full of hope, as she had noticed the troops of earth ponies entering the castle. Though she never met the rebels, Posey supported them to death, but kept it a secret from her master. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of hoofsteps. She widened her eyes when she saw who were making that noise: five unicorns. “Gusty!” Posey called the unicorn after gasping. Gusty´s ears perked up. She heard her name, but it wasn´t Fizzy. But who else could know her name? “Gusty!” Posey called her again while running downstairs. “How do you know my name?” she asked Posey. “Fizzy told me.” Posey replied. Buttons gasped dramatically. “Fizzy! Is she ok?” “I´m not sure. She stayed fighting with Katrina in the garden.” “Aah!” she exclaimed horrified. “Why did you leave her alone?!” she shook her. “Because I need to liberate a spirit! She´s in danger.” Posey said in her defence. “A spirit?” Starswirl asked intrigued. “It´s kind of a long story.” “If you are dealing with a spirit, then let me come with you.” offered Starswirl. “I have studied magic and spirits. Maybe I could help you. If that is ok with you.” he asked his comrades for permission. “I think it would be safer for you.” Gusty patted his shoulder. “Yeah, and he could help you with the blind field of vision.” Glory pointed at her eye. “That could come in handy.” Posey accepted. Bandit meowed at Posey. “Bandit! You´re with them?” she asked surprised. Bandit meowed once again. “Apricot? Well, he´s with us too. We parted ways but he went to the right.” Bandit thanked her by meowing. Before getting separated from everypony, he rubbed himself on Gusty´s forelegs. “Good luck to you as well, I guess.” she waved goodbye at him. She turned to her comrades. “Why didn´t he do anything to us?” “Who cares? We´ll think of it later!” Buttons redirected the conversation. “Right now, we have to get Fizzy! Where´s the garden?” “All to the right.” “Thank you!” she said while parting ways. “Katrina!” Rep called his master while opening the throne room. “They have entered the castle!” “What?! I told you that only the Wind Warrior could do that!” she scolded him. “But they were threatening our partners.” Rep replicated. “We never leave each other´s side.” “You fools!” she electrocuted Rep. “Your number one priority should be me! ME!” She was so furious that she didn´t realize that she was applying too much potential. Rep ended up motionless. He was whimpering, struggling to breathe. Katrina walked to him. Rep stared at her, hurt and confused by her betrayal. “But… I loved you…” he told her. She electrocuted him again, finishing the job without any remorse. “It´s clear that if you want things well done you have to do them yourself.” Her ear twitched when he heard pawsteps. She leaned her head out and saw Apricot helping his fellow soldiers to get out from the window. “Remember to land on the trees!” he reminded them. After getting the last cat out, he started climbing the window but was stopped by a blade submerging into the flesh near his heart. He fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Katrina looked at him in disdain while removing the blade. “Pathetic.” she scornfully clenched her teeth before disappearing. Bandit was nearby. He gasped when he saw Apricot. He ran to him and put him face up. “Bandit….” he smiled at him. “Glad to see you, my friend.” Bandit stared terrified at Apricot´s wound. “She..” he grunted. “She stabbed me.” he looked around. “Where are the others?” Bandit didn´t meow. He was too busy pressing his wound to avoid more blood coming out. “Hey hey.” he stroked his cheek. “Don´t worry about me. Just warn the others, ok?” Bandit shook his head. He tore the cloth from his uniform and tied around Apricot´s wound. He pushed him up but Apricot quickly felt. Bandit started pushing him, which slowed him down. “Bandit.” he called the siamese cat. Bandit turned to him in tears. “It´s okay.” he reassured him. Bandit sniffed. He pointed at his own shoulder. “Don´t worry, I´ll press the wound. I can handle it on my own.” Bamdit hugged Apricot very tightly before going away. Apricot weakly smiled at him while he observed him vanish. “Hold on, hold on. She offered spirits to the dark spirits?” Starswirl asked, recapping everything that Posey told him while going downstairs in a dark alley. “Hmh.” Posey confirmed. “So that´s why the spirits disappeared. And you´re certain your friend down here?” “She must be. Her crying sounds like it comes from underground. I suppose she´s at the lowest level.” “And what makes you think she´s trapped?” “Katrina mentioned that she serves her. She forbids me to get out of the castle and only lets me in official visits to spy for her. I suppose it must be the same for Amina.” Due to her limited sight caused by Katrina´s scratch in the eye, Posey didn´t notice some steps, so she placed her hoof wrongly and almost fell. Thankfully, Starswirl grabbed her before she got hurt. She thanked him with a smile. “If that is the case, then she must have used some sort of an anti-spirit spell in the door.” Starswirl continued their conversation. “Which one you think?” “There´s only one way to find out.” Since they were busy talking to each other, they weren´t aware that there were no more stairs. They found two big gates. “Amina?” Posey called the spirit. Behind the gates, Amina was pacing around. Normally, she would be lying around all day, whether looking down or crying. But after Fizzy talked to her, she developed a desire to get out so she could make amends, but she was still figuring out how. It sounded stupid, but a part of her would miss the castle. Not because of Katrina of course, but because of a singing voice that calmed her down during the night. Speaking of which, she thought she had heard it just now. Despite the fact it was talking and not singing, it sounded exactly the same. She widened her eyes and lifted her head. “Singing voice?” she replied . Starswirl raised his eyebrow confused. Posey, on the contrary, smiled in joy. She was finally having a conversation with the mysterious voice that cried. “Yes, yes, it´s me. The singing voice. I´m a friend of Fizzy. I came here with one of her friends to liberate you.” “Liberate me?” Amina asked confused. “Yeah! You´re in grave danger. Katrina wants to offer you to the dark spirits. I know you are guardian spirit and thus, you fight against them, but I´m afraid that she might weaken you so the dark spirits can take you.” There was a moment of silence. Posey bit her lip, fearing that whatever Katrina must have ordered her to do damaged her self-esteem that she wouldn´t care what happened to her, or even felt that she deserved it. Starswirl was nervous as well. “Ok, thank you.” Amina finally responded. Posey and Starswirl sighed in relief. “Is there any magic surrounding the gates that impede you from getting out?” Starswirl asked her. “Yes, every time that I tried to escape, something pulls me backwards.” Amina replied. “She must have asked the dark spirits to grant her a spell to keep me in.” Suddenly, Posey´s and Amina´s ear twitched. They widened their eyes and froze in fear due to the sound they heard. “What? What is it?” Starswirl asked her, scared of her reaction. “Me.” Katrina responded behind their bacs. Before they could react, Katrina held them both and opened the gates to throw them with Amina. The spirit growled and pounced her. “Leave them alone, Katrina! It´s over.” “Easy, easy.” Katrina said somewhat scared. “Otherwise, I won´t help you find your cubs.” “Oh, you´ll tell me right now. Where are they?!” “Well, let´s just say I made a little gift to the dark spirits.” Amina widened her eyes. “What?” she asked shocked. From the shock, she loosed her grip on Katrina, allowing her to push her backwards with a zap. Then, she created dark magic tentacles that grasped Amina´s entire body from the ground, taking the light out of her. “Amina!” Posey cried worried. Afterwards, Katrina picked her up. “Give me the keys, you traitor!” Posey struggled to release from her grasp. “Let her go!” Starswirl ordered as he lit his horn. “Oh no sir!” Katrina zapped at him, throwing him against a wall, giving herself enough time to get the keys. Afterwards, she dropped Posey and walked to the door. “NO, NO!” Posey yelled at her as she ran towards the door. By the time she got to the door, it was too late. Katrina had already locked the door. “YOU CAN´T DO THIS! LET US GO!” Posey yelled as she knocked violently on the door. “You can feast now. Just dispose of them forever.” Katrina talked to the dark spirits via the potion. “KATRINA! KATRINA!” Posey screamed desperate. The unicorns arrived at the garden. They gasped when they saw Fizzy surrounded by arrows. “Fizzy!” Buttons yelled as she and the others run. Between everypony, they removed the arrows around Fizzy. Buttons held her body. “Fizzy! Fizzy!” she called her name. “Oh, she doesn´t respond.” she said worried. “Don´t worry. Maybe with a few agitations she wakes up.” Glory suggested. Lancer started clapping in front of her face. “Time to wake up, ok?” he tapped Fizzy´s shoulder. “Hello? Can you hear me? Wake up Fizzyyyy…” he started shaking her violently, entering more in panic. “Fizzy wake uuuuup! I don´t like this, Fizzy wake uuuup!” Lancer´s violent shake-ups were successful. Fizzy opened her eyes. They were darting everywhere. “Whoah, whoah! Lancer, you´re making me feel dizzy!” she complained, as if she had been with Lancer the whole time. Then realization hit. She yelled excited. “Guys! I knew you´d come for me!” They all gave her a big hug. “You´re alive!” Gusty cried tears of joy. “Are you ok? Did she hurt you?” Buttons asked her. “Just a scratch. Nothing grave.” Fizzy caressed her cheek. “Where´s Starswirl?” “He went with a yellow earth pony.” Glory explained. “She said that she needed to free a spirit.” “Yeah! Katrina wants to offer her to dark spirits in exchange of their help. I hope she got there safely. Same for Apricot.” “Apricot?” Lancer raised an eyebrow. “An orange cat. He´s on our side.” “Another one!” Gusty exclaimed. “You know, a siamese cat has been sleeping on my back this entire time. I wonder why they are supporting us.” “Apricot explained that most of them were brought here by force by Katrina, so they don´t like her that much. However, they are also afraid of what the earth ponies might do to them if Katrina is defeated. They think their best chance is aiding us, so they´re merciful, or running away.” “Oh dear, I didn´t think that…” Gusty put her hoof on her temple. “Well, hopefully, we can appeal Moochick to be merciful.” “Be merciful for what?” Moochick asked curiously from underneath some arches with his troops. “Sir Moochick!” Gusty exclaimed surprised. Gusty, Buttons, Lancer and Glory bowed. Fizzy imitated them despite her shock. “You came along the earth pony rebels?” she murmured to Buttons. “How did you get them on your side?” “You have no idea what we´ve gone through to get to you.” Buttons murmured back. “I don´t mean to be rude, but didn´t you say to meet at the golden room?” Lancer asked him. “This is the golden room.” Moochick looked up the ceiling. The unicorns helped Fizzy to get up before going back with Moochick and the earth ponies. When they approached him, they got a quick glimpse of the room, understanding why it was called the golden room. Gold was the material the entire room was made of! It was even decorating the arches. As much as he wanted to admire all the details, Lancer knew they had an evil cat sorceress to fight. “Where´s our next stop?” he asked Moochick. “The throne room. I think it´s upstairs.” “It is but going up there won´t be necessary.” Everypony widened their eyes. They turned to the direction of the voice that had just joined the conversation. They saw a pair of green eyes shining in the shadows. Everypony quickly realized who they belonged to. The earth ponies drew their swords and put them and their swords in defence position. Gusty frowned determined. “Katrina.” she called the eyes. > Chapter 16: The battle against the cat who sold her soul pt. 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Katrina showed her fangs in a wide grin while getting into the light. “Well, well. Look who´s finally here. At last, the Wind Warrior. Or should I say, Gusty.” she chuckled when she saw Gusty snarling more. “Who would have thought, huh? That a pathetic frightened slave turned out to be Grogar´s supposed demise.” she started circling the unicorns. “I´ll admit though, I admire you for outsmarting him. Such a femme fatale move from your part.” she teasingly nudged her. “Don´t get near her!” Fizzy interposed between Gusty and Katrina. Katrina rolled her eyes. “Ugh, you again. You know, I´ve had enough of you, you waterbender.” she mocked her. “Fortunately, I get to meet the entire band!” she glanced at Buttons, Lancer and Glory. “Hm…” she examined them closely, which caused the three unicorns to walk backwards. “I only recognize you.” she booped Lancer´s nose, angering him. “The rest of you seem to be nobodies like the waterbender. And talking about nobodies, I see you brought company!” she said while looking at the earth ponies. “It´s over Katrina. We won´t let you oppress no more!” Moochick said firmly as he pointed his sword towards her. “Oooh, I´m so scared!” Katrina raised her paws mockingly. “Nah, without magic you´re nothing against me.” she lifted Moochick´s chin. “However, she is a problem!” she yelled while looking at Gusty. Before she could react, Katrina trapped Gusty with her magic. The unicorns tried to attack Katrina, but she pushed them with a magical beam, giving her enough time to throw Gusty to a window. She broke the window and landed inside a room. “Gusty!” Buttons exclaimed concerned. Slowly, Gusty got in fours. Thankfully, she only had a few cuts on her body due to the window´s glasses, but they were superficial. Still, that didn´t mean that they didn´t hurt. She felt like she had a thousand blades in her body. A few moments after, her friends reappeared by her side. “Are you ok?” Glory asked concerned as she helped get up. “I´m fine. Thank you.” Gusty reassured her with a smile. As soon as she was standing up, everypony lit their horns. Each of them walked around different parts of the room, preparing themselves to defend against Katrina, who wasn´t around at the moment, but could appear when they least expect it. As they watched out their surroundings, they deduced which room they were in. The walls were of a soft golden colour, the ceiling was very decorated with golden, dark blue and red motives There were even words with a message. At the front, there laid a big, elegant sit: the throne. They found themselves in the throne room. “Aargh! No matter what I do, your little friends are always beside you.” Katrina complained. “They´re like pests.” said Katrina. “But if I have to fight them in order to get to you, then I gladly accept it.” The fact that they could hear Katrina indicated that the cat was in somewhere in the room. However, she was invisible. “Show yourself!” Gusty commanded. “If you say so.” Katrina replied behind her back, ready to attack her with a magical sword. Fortunately, Glory noticed Katrina. “Gusty, watch out!” Glory cried, allowing Gusty to disappear before Katrina´s sword could touch her. When she reappeared, she pushed her with a gust of wind. “Oh hoh hoh.” Katrina laughed. “I see you want to play hard. Ok, so be it.” she said while getting up. She electrocuted Gusty afterwards. The unicorn whimpered in pain. As a response, Buttons teleported to Katrina´s side to kick her face. “Yeah, you go Buttons!” Fizzy cheered her. But Katrina returned that kick by tossing her out of the window. Buttons landed on some earth ponies. “Sorry…” she apologized to them. “I´m ok!” she told her friends. “Maybe you should come and help.” she advised the earth ponies. “You heard her! Let´s go!” Moochick ordered his followers. They nodded and left the garden. In response to what Katrina did to her friend, Fizzy trapped Katrina with a water stream and dragged against a column. “I am gonna bust you up gatita, and stop you once and for all!” she yelled at her. “Like I said, I had enough of you.” Katrina zapped her, sending her backwards. Much for Buttons´ misfortune, she reappeared just in the spot Fizzy was darting towards. “Ha ha! I´m baAAAAAAAAH!” she yelled as Fizzy crushed against her, falling once again through the window. “Oh, come on!” she complained. Katrina chuckled in amusement. Lancer tried to hit her with his sword, but having her flawless feline hearing, she dodged it and used magic to make him trip so she could have time to conjure her magical sword. Lancer´s quick reflexes allowed him to avoid the point of Katrina´s sword and started battling her. Meanwhile Glory checked on Gusty. “Are ye ok?” she asked her. Gusty tried to get up but she would only end up in the ground. “I can´t move much.” “Worry not, I´ll stay by yer side to protect ye from any attacks.” Glory reassured her while getting on a defensive pose against Katrina. Gusty looked at her horn. She wasn´t sure if the electrocution also affected her magical abilities. She closed her eyes to focus better on casting a light. She gasped in relief when she saw light around her horn. “Glory, I have magic!” she informed her. “That´s wonderful! But how are ye going to use it?” “I think I have an idea.” After closing her eyes, a small wind started circling Katrina. Katrina and Lancer stopped fighting, estranged by the sudden breeze. They looked at Gusty. Lancer smirked, as he knew what she was planning to do. Katrina, on the other hoof, since she didn´t know how Gusty´s magic worked, she didn´t take it seriously. Instead, she laughed. “Seriously? You´re doing this after sending me away? Please.” But she would stop laughing once the wind had enough strength to make her float in circles non-stop. Much to Katrina´s horror, the potion was slipping from her neck. Gusty smirked. But she would quickly realize that her strategy wouldn´t work. A big ball of energy started forming inside the tornado. Soon afterwards, Katrina brought the tornado to the ground. She struggled to undo it. As a response, Gusty intensified the winds all she could, surpassing all the limits she knew in regard to her magic. Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried, Katrina ended up winning. The tornado turned into a blast made of Katrina´s magic, sending Gusty away against a column. Katrina approached her. “Nice try…” Katrina said to her, full of resent. Luckily, something hit her before she could hurt Gusty in any way. She turned around, and saw Buttons surrounded by a stream of water. “Ha ha! Now you won´t be able to throw off the window!” Buttons said to her. “Buttons, give this to Katrina from my part!” Fizzy said from the garden. Then, she threw a raspberry. Buttons winked at her. “Fizzy wants to tell you something.” she threw her a raspberry. Katrina frowned and tried to attack them but was stopped by Glory´s magic, who smirked from the right. And when she was about to hit her, Lancer stepped forward from the left, and then Gusty from the middle. Katrina understood that they had circled her. But she could play that game as well, even if she was outnumbered. She laughed as she disappeared. Everypony looked around panicked. Suddenly, they were surrounded by various Katrinas. Gusty slowly turned around to face the Katrinas, since she noticed her muscles waking up little by little, permitting more range of movement. She shot at one of them but the vanished in a poof. “You missed!” she teased them as she reappeared, shooting her a beam of magic, which Gusty stopped with a forcefield. She looked worried at her friends. “Does anypony know what´s going on?” she asked. “That´s some illusion magic for you, mares and gentlecolt. Just something that I have on my sleeve. Little parlour trick, don´t worry.” Katrina falsely reassured them. “All you have to do, is get to the real me, but beware the illusions can attack with real magic as you´ve previously witnessed.” Lancer furiously shot at one of the Katrinas, but she turned to be an illusion. “Missed again!” “I really wish Starswirl was around here!” Buttons commented. Then, various Katrinas started to attack the ponies from various side, so the ponies only could defend themselves. Katrina laughed maliciously as she watched them helplessly trying to protect themselves and each other. “HELP ANYPONY, HELP!” Posey banged the door. At the same time Posey was asking for help, Starswirl looked up to the ceiling. He was very surprised by how easily one could hear what was happening in a room far from you. He was hearing magical zaps but he wasn´t sure if they came from Gusty or another friend, or from Katrina. “Gusty!” he muttered worried. He knew that he needed to get out of the dungeon as soon as possible but he would receive a reminder of the business he had to face before helping Gusty. Two of the tentacles holding Amina stretched, which got her attention. She quickly figured out what was happening. “Beware!” she managed to speak, despite getting weaker. “The tentacles!” But it was too late. By the time they heard her, the tentacles had already snagged their legs, carrying them towards the rest of the tentacles. Starswirl´s first instinct was to zap at the tentacle, which freed him. Starswirl widened his eyes in realization. “Of course! The tentacles are dark spirits.” he muttered. “Heeelp!” Posey yelled. Unlike Starswirl, Posey was nearer the rest of the tentacles. She was trying to hold on the floor to avoid getting closer, but it was no use. And the closer she got to the other tentacles the more tentacles held on to her. Starswirl gasped scared and immediately zapped at the tentacles. But when the tentacles disappeared, new ones held on to Posey´s body. So, he had no choice but to push her towards him. “Hang on!” he told her. Amina widened her eyes. Although, she couldn´t she felt something she hadn´t felt for a long time: the need to protect. A force ran throughout Amina´s whole body, which gave her enough energy to use her tail to slap the tentacles holding Posey without realizing it, freeing her in the process. Starswirl offered his hoof to her, helping her to get away. “Are you ok?” he asked her. “Yeah…” she mumbled. The tentacles tried to reach them again, however, this time Starswirl had time to react. He put himself in front of Posey and began battling against them. As much as she liked to help, Posey knew this wasn´t a battle she could fight. All she could do was stare at Starswirl, the tentacles, and Amina. She watched horrified at how the latter´s few light she had was slowly fading. Posey knew it wasn´t Starswirl who had freed her. Firstly, because she felt that the strike came from behind her and Starswirl was in front of her. And secondly because she felt something comforting softly brushing against her back. This brushing brought her back to the day she almost drowned, since that sensation was similar to what she felt when something held her out of the river. It was then that she knew how she was freed but she also had a deeper realization of who Amina truly was. And by knowing who she was, she knew how to help. “Amina!” she called her. “I know who you are. You are a guardian spirit. And not just any guardian spirit, you´re the one that saved me from the river than night.” “A guardian spirit?” Starswirl wondered aloud. Although he was busy fighting, he still had an ear for their conversation. Amina opened her eyes. She stared at Posey, realizing that she was indeed the filly she saved years ago. “Ja´” she weakly smiled. “Yes, it is you…” her smile slowly turned into an expression of sadness. “But I was no guardian spirit when I saved you. I haven´t been for a long time... Thanks to Fizzy I want to be who I am once again but…” she whimpered as she flickered. “I don´t think I´ll ever be.” “Yes, you will! I know you can free yourself.” “If you are a guardian spirit, that means that you fight against dark spirits and defeat them. Those tentacles are dark spirits!” Starswirl informed her. “They are? I didn´t recognize them.” Amina´s breath fastened in panic. “I let the dark side of me take over me for so much time that it had affected my true powers. That´s probably why I couldn´t destroy Katrina´s barrier nor attack the tentacles and or recognize them.” After speaking, she gasped. The sensation the tentacles around her body gave her could be compared to a thousand leeches taking blood of creatures if the leeches´ grasp and bite were like the snakes´. Posey noticed horrified that her light was flickering and was weaker afterwards. “Amina, your light is fading!” she warned her. “That´s because they want to drag me to their realm. The tentacles appear around a portal. They take the light off their victims in order to do that. And I cannot escape.” Amina struggled to speak. “I´m sorry, I failed you! I can´t save you nor your friends.” Dark tears started falling from her eyes. “I wish I could have had time to amend my mistakes!” “No, you didn´t! It´s not over for us nor for you. You still have a chance to free yourself and help us! In fact, you just helped me! You freed me from the tentacles!” Amina widened her eyes surprised. “I did?” “Ja´!” Amina gasped in realization. “My light is coming back… But perhaps now I can…” She closed her eyes and focused to radiate light. Slowly, a light her whole body was surrounded by a soft light that turned brighter and brighter. But it wouldn´t last, as it would flicker again. Amina tried various times, yet she had the same results. “I can´t!” she said between pants. “I can´t.” “Yes, you can.” Posey encouraged her. “You´ve done this before. You´ve fought fearlessly against dark spirits and ended up being victorious and you will now and until the end of times! Inside your eyes, there´s still that fire and it keeps growing. You might have pain inside you but your light doesn´t give up and keeps growing. Just take a deep breath and walk again. Take a deep breath and go back to who you really are.” Amina stared at the ponies. Posey smiled tenderly at her. Starswirl, although also supportive of her, was too busy fighting the tentacles. She realized what was the key to her power: remembering who she was fighting for. The whole reason that she existed was to protect every element on earth, including ponies, who despite some of them being evil, some really paid respect to nature and the other ponies. She frowned in determination and closed her eyes again. Like Posey said, she took a deep breath and started again. The light she formed was far brighter than before, to the point of blinding Starswirl and Posey. The light could have easily destroyed all the tentacles in just a flash. If it wasn´t for something else. Suddenly, the light turned softer, turning into just a shield to protect herself from the tentacles. She looked down constantly, as if there was something between the tentacles that caught her eyes. From her observation, Posey deduced that Amina was seeing something important, as she was panting intensely, but not because of exhaustion. Rather, it was due to worry. “Wha-What´s going on?” Posey asked confused. “I sense fellow spirits in the realm of dark spirits.” Starswirl widened his eyes when he remembered something Moochick said about the Great Seedling when they first met. “Unfortunately, he hasn´t come ever since Katrina came.” “The Great Seedling!” he exclaimed. “He could be there. Moochick told us that he mysteriously never came back after Katrina took over.” “He is.” Posey confirmed. “I heard her saying that. And Katrina´s cubs must be there too. And many other spirits related to nature, which we earth ponies are so dependent on. You have no idea how many problems we have had to grow our crops.” “That´s grave.” Amina shook her head. “Without spirits there´s unbalance, and that has given you the serious consequences you have been facing.” she looked down. “But perhaps they can be reversible.” Starswirl and Posey widened their eyes after understanding what her intentions were. “Wait, you´re not thinking on crossing the portal, are you?” she asked scared. “It could be the solution.” “But can you come back from there?” Starswirl asked her concerned. “I haven´t heard a single legend of anypony nor spirit escaping from the dark realm.” “In the case of spirits maybe it´s because they have lost all their light. But if I could transfer some to them, maybe we could open a portal and escape.” “And what about the mortal souls taken dark spirits? Katrina used them against us when we were trying to get into the city.” “Death is death. It´s in its nature to be irreversible. But maybe I can liberate them from that realm so they can go to the corresponded one.” “But you´ve never done that before, have you?” Posey started shaking her head. “What happens if you can´t escape or your plan doesn´t work? What if you turn into a dark spirit forever?” as she talked, tears formed in her eyes. “I might not know what will happen. It´s not in my abilities to read the future. But what I know is that if I don´t do anything, the spirits and souls will be trapped there forever and there will never be balance. Fortunately, you can help me.” Posey widened her eyes. “Tell us what to do!” “If you break Katrina´s potion, it´s possible the dark spirits will come for her as she has nothing else to offer, opening a portal to do so. And if we´re fast, we could escape. That´s the only way she can be stopped.” Though still unsure, Posey nodded. “Starswirl, get us where we first met!” “On it!” he started igniting his horn. “Wait! Before you go, what´s your name?” Amina asked Posey. “Posey.” “Posey…. How beautiful. Matiox. And thanks to you too Starswirl.” She turned to the grey unicorn, who nodded in return. Posey sniffed. “Kerik´a Amina. Goodbye.” Amina smiled back. “Kerik´a.” she replied. She took a deep breath before immersing through the portal, closing it in the process. Thus, the tentacles disappeared. Noticing her worry and sadness, Starswirl laid a hood on Posey´s shoulder. “Don´t worry. She´s tough. I´m pretty sure she knows what she´s doing.” he reassured her. “Now, if you don´t mind, we have a mission to accomplish.” After drying her tears, Posey nodded with a confident smile. “Now, hold your breath. This will be just a second.” he said while lighting his horn. Though she didn´t understand why he asked her to do that, Posey took a deep breath. Then, they disappeared in a flash. “Do you think they´re ok?” Knightshade fidgeted with his hooves nervously as he anxiously watched the castle. “Even if they weren´t, you know what the orders are: The two of us must stay here until Magic Star comes. Then, we´ll guide her to the golden room.” Alonzo reminded him gently. “I know, but what if they need our help and we´re not there for them?” “Knightshade.” Alonzo held his shoulders. “They are five unicorns with magical powers like Katrina, and Moochick is accompanied by a big group of earth ponies. I´m sure they´ll do fine without us.” Unfortunately, he would quickly realize that his words didn´t match reality. The sound of magic forced them to turn their heads and watch Katrina´s beams more often than the unicorns´, which scared Knightshade more and worried Alonzo. “Ok, maybe they do need our help.” he said before he and Knightshade threw their swords. “Whoah, whoah.” Shady blocked their way. “Nopony is leaving until Magic Star´s arrived.” “But have you seen the chaos going on?” Knightshade asked her. Shady turned around and witnessed the same image Knightshade and Alonzo did. She pressed her lips. “Yes…. But she cannot be that far.” “Something´s coming!” an earth pony called his comrades. Knightshade, Shady and Alonzo ran back to the battlements. In effect, Magic Star was approaching. The expression on her face and the speed of her running indicated that she was just as anxious as them. She curbed just in front of the gates. She panted heavily. “Magic Star! I´m so glad to see you.” Shady greeted her in relief. “Open the gates!” Alonzo ordered everypony. Magic Star widened her eyes when she heard Alonzo. “No, no no!” Magic Star shook her head violently. “Pass me a ladder, quick!” Everypony shared glances a bit confused. Alonzo shrugged. “Well, maybe it´s faster. And fast is what we need right now.” he reasoned. If helping Moochick wasn´t enough reason to be fast, they would soon receive another one, most specifically, Magic Star´s reason. A mass of cats was noticed soon after Magic Star appeared. Everypony whimpered. “Pass me the ladder! Pass me the ladder!” Magic Star begged desperately. Luckily, by the time the cats were noticed, the ladder was almost ready. As soon as it touched the ground, Magic Star went up the ladder and it was removed at a lightning speed. This was mostly thanks to the cats´ shock of seeing their comrades tied up. Everypony took the captured cats´ bowed and pointed arrows at the cats. “We have taken over the castle. Surrender and you will not be harmed.” Alonzo told them. “What do we do?” Odile asked the cat captain. She wasn´t the only one looking at the captain in despair. All the cats were. After taking some time to think, he frowned in determination. “Oh yeah? Have you defeated Katrina yet?” “No. But we´re on it!” Knightshade replied. “Then you still haven´t taken over.” he said while preparing his bows. The last thing the cats wanted to do was fighting for Katrina, but what other chance at survival would they have? So, they imitated their superior. Before a big fight broke, Bandit arrived. Seeing what was going on, he took a ladder nearby and climbed it in a second. Once he at the top, he meowed, shaking his paw to get both the ponies´ and the cats´ attention. The cats´ left ear twitched. “Bandit?” said every cat, even the muzzled ones. The ponies somewhat entered in panic, as he could easily free the other cats. Well, everypony, except Shady. So, before everypony could redirect the arches at him, she spoke. “Wait a minute, I know you! You´re the cat that accompanied us to the castle.” Everpony stared at Shady estranged. Bandit nodded. He pointed at the battlements. “You want to go here?” she asked him to make sure she understood well. Bandit nodded. “Do you think he´s to trust?” Magic Star whispered in her ear. “Well, he hasn´t done anything to us while he was on Gusty´s back…” Shady replied in her ear. Bandit walked to the battlements to communicate to his comrades. “Bandit! Where were you?! We thought you got captured!” the cat captain scolded him. Bandit pointed down. “What do you mean with lowering our weapons? Don´t you see that they mean to attack us?” Odile asked upset. “Meow!” Every cat gasped shocked. The cats started muttering. The cat captain dropped the arch in shock. “She what?” “I can´t believe it.” “Apricot….” the cat captain muttered in shock. Despite her shock, Odile didn´t waste time. She ran to the gates and started banging them. “Open the gates.” she ordered emotionless. The ponies looked at each other, not knowing how to proceed. Odile banged harder in fury. “OPEN THE GATES, YOU PONIES!” she yelled full of pain. “Please…” Afterwards, she dropped on her knees, with tears on her eyes. “Odile…” a female cat approached her. “I´m sick of her…” she sobbed. “She takes us from our home, uses us a sacrifices and now straight up stabs one of us? What else is gonna happen?” Never in a million years ponies thought that they would feel sympathy for one of their enemies. Yet there they were, witnessing how the enemy was feeling the same grief, anguish and anxiety of knowing that a friend is hurt and being too far from them. They didn´t seem to be acting, this was genuine worry and pain. Alonzo sighed. “Ok, you may enter. But you´ll be scolded by the four of us.” he signed at himself, Knightshade, Shady and Magic Star. he turned backwards. “Open the gates! And untie the cats.” The cats watched surprised and in gratitude at how the ponies untied them and opened the gates. “Thank you. Thank you.” Odile ran through the gates as fast as she could. Despite what they had just witnessed, the cat captain was still. “Captain, captain!” a female cat touched his shoulder. “They have let us enter.” “Huh? Oh, right.” he said emotionless before running. Starswirl and Posey reappeared just where Moochick and his earth ponies were running towards. He and the ponies closest to him jumped back from the fright. “Gah!” Moochick took a deep breath when he recognized who was in front of him. He puffed in relief. “It´ s just you. Where were you?” “We had to deal with some affairs. We´ll explain it better at a better time.” Starswirl smiled nervously. “How are they doing?” “Not sure. Katrina dragged the Wind Warrior to the throne room and her friends went to aid her. Since we can´t do what you can do,” Moochick said with some resent. “we have to get there on hoof.” “The throne room?” Posey asked. “It´s not very far from here. Follow me!” But just when she was about to take the lead, they heard steps. But they did not sound like hoofsteps, which alerted everypony of cats´ presence. They took their weapons out when they were visible, though they would soon see that it wouldn´t be necessary. Odile gasped horrified when she averted something behind the earth ponies. “APRICOT!” she yelled in tears. The earth ponies turned around, discovering a pale unconscious orange cat´s, with one of his paws covering what appeared to be a wound. The cats pushed the earth ponies to make way. Behind the cats were Alonzo, Knightshade, Shady and Magic Star. Odile bent and started to shake his body. The other cats stared in shock. “No, no, no! You must wake up, you must wake up!” her cry was choked. “Come on, you can´t leave us, friend.” the cat captain´s eyes started getting watery. But no matter how they yelled or shook him, he wouldn´t wake up. Every creature understood what this meant. Odile yelled in pain and grief before burying her head on his paws. Bandit walked to Apricot and laid his head upon his lap, silently crying and grieving for his fallen comrade. Everypony felt empathy for the cats, but especially the most experienced soldiers. Sadly, these moments were not odd in war. Friends, family, and other loved ones could stop being around you forever in just a second. Starswirl was reminded of his lost friends at the monastery. As much as they wanted to stay by Apricot´s side, there was no time. The cat captain lifted his head, and noticed Katrina´s magic, as well as the ponies. His ears went backwards, his eyebrows formed a frown, his eyes narrowed, he could feel his teeth clenching and his tail pumping up. “You… YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!” he said as he took out his sword. He ran ahead without any warning. “Captain!” Odile called him. “We´ll grieve him once we´re done with her! Come on!” he ordered furious. The cats hid their tails in fear. They knew his anger was not directed towards them, but they had never seen him that enraged, no matter how grumpy he was with them, because in those moments he acted like a parent that took care of his kittens. Now, he was about to turn into a beast out of control. But deep down, every cat had the same feeling in their hearts. Their insecurity disappeared and decided to follow his boss. Everypony followed them as well. Meanwhile, the unicorns were still fighting Katrina´s illusions. They were sweating and panting in exhaustion. “My, my… It seems like you´re enjoying this game a lot.” Katrina meaningly teased them. “But I got bored of it. How about an aiming game?!” She threw beams at them, but they all disappeared before being hit. Katrina grunted in frustration. First, she looked through the window, knowing that Fizzy was holding Buttons from there, but none of them were there. Then, she walked around the room, ready to attack at any moment. “Playing hide and seek, huh? Whose idea was this? Gusty´s?” she forced a chuckle. “You want to make me think that you´re the pathetic coward little slave I met at Grogar´s castle but I know you want to do a surprise attack! Well, I´m afraid it won´t work.” She noticed something moving her hair. She turned around and saw small breezes from behind a column. Katrina smirked. “Of course, you would ruin your own plan…” Little did she know that Glory was wielding her sword with magic, approaching it to the necklace to untie it. When she saw Katrina was too near Gusty, she nodded at Lancer, who was on an invisible spell. He stretched his hooves before making noise with them, making her turn around so she wouldn´t notice Glory´s sword. “You were planning on to attack me off guard!” she said to the invisible enemy. She started zapping everywhere in the room. For the unicorns´ misfortune, Katrina hit a column near Glory. As it was falling in her direction, it forced her to jump away, dropping the sword and making herself visible in the process due to fear. The other unicorns covered their mouths while holding their breaths when they saw Katrina turning around. Glory tried to reach the sword but Katrina picked it up before she could. “Oh, is this yours?” she asked in a fake worry. “Turns out you´re more dangerous than I thought, since you´re the assassin of the group!” Unpredictably, she threw the sword at Glory, with the help of magic so it would target correctly, like an arrow. It was so fast that Gusty nor Lancer could do anything to help. Glory raised her forelegs and closed her eyes. Unconciously, her horn activated and threw a bit of magic in front of her, creating a crystal that stopped the sword from hitting her. Katrina and the unicorns widened their eyes in surprise. Glory sighed and slowly opened her eyes. She bent backwards scared when she saw what she had done, almost falling on her back. As shocking as that event might have been, there were still more surprises in store. “KATRINAAA!” a voice called, getting every creatures´ attention. They saw the cat captain entering the throne room full of fury, unsheathing his sword. He was accompanied by his other comrades, some of whom had swollen and red eyes from crying, such as Odile. Still, they were standing with conviction and very mad at Katrina. “Captain. I suggest that you shield your sword right now.” she commanded in a passive aggressive tone. “We know what you have done. We will not ignore that!” he defied her. Knowing what they were talking about, Katrina stayed quiet before coming up with the best answer she could. She put her paws together while taking a deep breath. “Look, this is all for the greater good. It´s that simple: if you obey me and help me get rid of the unicorns and the earth ponies, then you will be rewarded and unharmed. But if you don´t, I´LL GIVE YOU THE WORST DEATH SENTENCE THAT EXISTS!” “We´d rather choose death than serving a queen that doesn´t care about us and sacrifices us for her own benefit and kills one of us cold-boodedly!” Odile spoke. Fizzy gasped. Although she was outside the throne room, she could still hear everything. “Apricot…” she looked down sadly. “Pobrecito…” “Then so be it.” Katrina sentenced while conjuring up magical swords. She and the cats started a deathly duel. Though they outnumbered her, Katrina was more advantage due to the use of magic, so the cats had a rough time resisting her attacks. Meanwhile, the unicorns levearaged the moment to reunite, Buttons and Fizzy included, the latter being responsible to bring themselves up with water. “Should we help them or what?” Lancer asked everypony. They would soon receive the answer. A voice called them from their backs. “Psst! Guys!” They turned around and saw Starswirl poking his head from the door. The unicorns smiled, glad to see them him ok. “Starswirl!” Gusty exclaimed before teleporting herself and her friends by his side. Once they reappeared, Gusty hugged Starswirl, catching him in surprise and leaving his heart fluttering even faster, if it wasn´t beating fast enough. “I´m so glad you´re ok.” she told him. Starswirl didn´t answer, as he was still processing what just happened. Then, Fizzy hugged him once Gusty undid her hug, making it even tighter. “Starswirl!” she greeted him very joyfully. Afterwards, she and every other unicorn would notice he was accompanied by every earth pony, including Posey. “Posey!” she waved her hoof at her. “Did you manage to free Amina?” she asked her and Starswirl. “Well… Sort of…” Starswirl answered, as he scratched the back of his neck. “She went to the dark spirit realm.” Posey continued. Fizzy gasped. “She was absorbed?” she asked terrified. “No, she willingly went there to get to free the captive spirits.” Posey explained. “Spirits Katrina offered to the dark spirits in exchange of powers.” The earth ponies gasped. “I knew she made the spirits disappear somehow!” Magic Star crushed her hooves against each other. “Will she get them back? Will our crops grow again? Will nature be ok again?” Shady asked her. “She thinks she can, so I guess I´ll trust her.” Posey simply responded. “What about our fallen friends? Can she bring them back too?” Knightshaded asked. “If everything goes well, she´ll get them out but she can´t bring her back to us. You can´t reverse death, you know?” Posey felt so sorry saying those hard words. Moochick and the earth pony soldiers inhaled and exhaled sadly. “I suppose the same goes for the poor Apricot.” Fizzy guessed. Posey nodded sadly. “Is that why the cats are fighting Katrina? Does that mean that they´re on our side?” Buttons asked. “We don´t know that for sure.” Moochick responded. “But the cats turning against Katrina is certainly an advantage for us. They won´t be able to defeat her but if they resist for some time, they might weaken Katrina physically.” “Not only physically, magically as well, since the two are closely connected.” Starswirl added. “Apart from the cats, we also have another important advantage. Amina, the spirit we helped, told us how to defeat her.” Everypony listened intrigued. Katrina brushed all the cats off and took their swords away from them. But as Moochick predicted, she seemed to be more exhausted. She panted as she approached her ex-subjects. “You cannot defeat me. It was a foolish of you to turn against me.” Bandit shook his head with a smirk. Afterwards, he looked to the right, watching in satisfaction at how everypony finally intruded the scene. The earth ponies circled her and pointed swords at her, except for Magic Star, who took two potions, ready to throw them at any time; and Shady and Posey, who were willing to fight despite lacking weaponry. The unicorns ignited their horns. Katrina felt some panic, as she was really outnumbered this time. She frowned at Gusty as she walked to her. “We may not be as powerful as you, Katrina. But it is you against all of us!” she told her sternly. “We have taken over other cities from you before, Katrina.” Moochick spoke, as he joined Gusty. “You know that we aren´t nobodies and what we´re capable of. Do you yield?” he advanced his sword against her. Katrina inhaled and exhaled furiously and a bit nervously before replying. She closed her eyes to think better. When she decided her next course of action, she chuckled, but it was different than what the earth ponies and cats were used to. Normally, her chuckle resembled confidence but this time it resembled frustration and exhaustion, as if she was about to completely lose her mind. “Well…” she stretched her claws “I´ve always loved a little challenge.” > Chapter 17: The battle against the cat who sold her soul pt.2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Katrina conjured up a magical wave that sent everypony, with the exception of Gusty, away. The ponies landed everywhere in the room, some of them crushing against the cats, such as Buttons and Fizzy. Once she was isolated from others, Katrina started impulsively throwing several deathly beams at her, laughing maniacally. Gusty created a forcefield, both to defend herself and think her next move of action. She looked at her sword, which gave her an idea. She inhaled and exhaled before undoing the forcefield. After undoing it, she picked up her sword with her hooves. Katrina chuckled. “Now, that was a stupid decision!” she teased her. She put her paws next to each other to create a stronger beam. When she calculated it was near enough, she swinged her sword, combining it with a wind swipe, changing the beam´s direction to Katrina as a result. She jumped to the right to dodge it. She scowled when she saw how Gusty was smirking at her. The battle was far from over, but at least Gusty was now more matched to Katrina. The ponies affected by the blow had their lives in danger as well, since they noticed that swords, which belonged to them and to the cats, were being thrown at their direction. “Everypony duck!” Moochick warned everypony. Luckily, no pony, nor cat was harmed. But they weren´t safe yet. The swords unhooked from the walls by themselves as if they had a mind of their own. The earth ponies covered themselves with the shields, whereas the unicorns zapped at the swords. However, there were too many swords for only five unicorns to handle. “How can we help them?” Alonzo asked the earth ponies near him. As he did, a sword that was safe from the unicorns´ magic, took the chance to attack that earth pony group. Knightshade, who was at a different spot of the room than his lover, noticed it. “Honey, watch out!” Alonzo widened his eyes when he saw the sword coming. Shady, who was next to him, gasped scared. She borrowed his shield without permission and used it to hit the sword, swinging from the left to the right and vice versa. Surprisingly, her method worked. The sword got dizzier with each blow it received to the point it fell to the floor, returning to its original inanimate state. The ponies and cats stared surprised. Shady didn´t witness the results of her idea, since she had head turned to the left and her eyes closed. Alonzo put her hoof on her shoulder to stop her from mindlessly swinging the shield. “Hey, hey, it´s done, you did it.” he reassured her. Shady opened one eye, finding out that Alonzo was right. “Huh. It worked!” she said surprised. Magic Star laughed. “That´s my Shady! Always accidentally finding out the solution to everything.” she commented. “Now, if I could have my shield back.” Alonzo put his hooves on his shield. “Oh.” Shady removed her hooves from the shield. “Sorry.” she smiled apologetically. “You know what to do. Let´s move!” Moochick elevated his shield. Everypony yelled as they ran to the swords and started hitting them with their shields. Some of them fought individually and others worked in small groups. The unicorns felt relief, as they didn´t have to put much effort like before. Not every earth pony dealt with the swords. The only thing Magic Star had to fight the swords was her bag, in which there were glass bottles that contained the potion liquids, so using it to fight wasn´t a good idea. It was better to use the potions against Katrina. On the other side, Shady and Posey were unarmed. Luckily, just when they were about to be attacked, the cats jumped in to save the day. Posey raised an eyebrow and smirked playfully. “We´re doing this because these are our swords, not to protect you!” the captain clarified. “Hm… They quite look like pony swords to me.” Posey teased them. “SHUT UP!” Odile yelled at them. Though Shady was somewhat taken aback by her reaction, Posey rolled her eyes with a smile. “Shady!” Magic Star called her. “Um… The other pony that´s not Shady!” she called Posey, since she didn´t know her name. “Come with me! We have work to do!” The two earth pony mares nodded their heads and ran to her. Meanwhile, Katrina and Gusty were continuing in their fight. No matter how much she attacked her, Gusty still resisted. Perhaps that´s how she survived the abuse in Grogar´s castle and why he didn´t underestimate, or even farther, feared her. Despite that, there had to be a way to defeat her, and in order to get there she had to think in a place completely free from distractions. She tried to teleport to another place, but something pulled her back in. “What the-” she thought aloud. “Sorry. Magical barrier.” Starswirl replied from a hidden corner of the room. He was sweating due to the effort, yet he still had a defying smile. “I learnt it from you.” Katrina scowled. When she turned around, Gusty was no more. “WHERE´S THE WIND WARRIOR?!” she asked Posey and Shady. “Oh, just having a little break.” a different voice to Gusty´s. After turning around, she discovered that it was Magic Star speaking. “In order to get to her, you´ll have to go through me!” Magic Star explained while showing off two potion bottles. Katrina snorted. “Seriously? With potions? Fine, let´s just get this AH!” Before Katrina could start fighting, Magic Star threw a potion that made an explosion. It wasn´t magic per say, but it had the same effect. The cat growled furiously and started zapping at Magic Star, though she evaded them either by jumping aside or with a fennel bottle, replicating the same effect of a force field. She wasn´t at the same level as Gusty, but she was definitely a rough match. At one point, Magic Star threw a potion in front of Katrina that left out some smoke. The sorceress coughed, desperately searching for Magic Star through the smoke. “Where are you amateur?!” she yelled. When the smoke cleared, she realized she was right in front of her, holding her potion. They looked at each other with widened eyes. Magic Star chuckled nervously as she slowly let go. Before she could run, Katrina pounced on them. She laughed while she tried to free herself from her grasp. “Did you really you could take my potion? Wrong! Now, you will spend the rest of your existence in ashes!” She raised her arm, expecting a gigantic magic beam coming out of her paw. But shockingly, nothing happened. “What the-” she asked panicked. She turned to the earth pony, who was smirking in victory. “What did you do?!” “Oh, just the old potion swap.” Magic Star answered. “Where is it?!” “Right here.” Posey replied while showing the potion on her hoof. Next to her was Gusty. Katrina widened her eyes. “Don´t you dare!” She tried to run to them but was stopped by Shady, Moochick, Knightshade and Alonzo, who jumped on her. “Your reign ends here Katrina!” Moochick told her. “This is for Amina, her cubs, the spirits, Apricot and every earth pony or cat you hurt!” Posey exclaimed before throwing the potion to the air, making Katrina gasp in both fear and shock. When it was in the air, Gusty zapped at it with her magic, destroying the potion in small pieces. In just barely seconds, the ambient turned darker and ominous voices were heard. Every earth pony got away from Katrina as much as possible. Now free, the cat ran to the broken pieces. “No! NO!” she whimpered while holding the pieces. “How am I ever going to pay my back my debt?” she asked panicked. As soon as shadows and dark spirits appeared, the unicorns prepared to form a protective circle for the earth ponies, but Starswirl stopped them. He pointed at Katrina, indicating that they were only coming for her. “Frieends!” Katrina greeted them panicked. The dark spirits and shadows advanced towards her, wearing wicked smiles on their faces, forcing Katrina to walk backwards. “This is just a minor incident, nothing I can´t fix!” she yelled when a portal opened behind her. “If you help me, we´ll be back in business! Look around you, there are all the mortal souls I promised you!” The ponies and cats watched in horror how the dark spirits took enjoyment in Katrina´s vulnerability and terror. The earth ponies and the cats knew perfectly well that Katrina was very very arrogant but not enough to believe she could evade the dark spirits´ wrath and have them at her service forever. The unicorns had the same thoughts in their minds, except for Starswirl, who knew she was doomed from the day she made a deal with them. “I just need some time and your help!” Katrina yelled as she felt something around her ankles, which were tentacles similar to what almost took Starswirl and Posey. “No, no, please, no!” she whimpered as she was dragged towards the portal. She tried to hold to the floor with her claws, but it was no use. “Just a little more time! I promise I´ll pay you back! I PROMISE!” But no matter how much she begged, she submerged into the portal while screaming in terror. When the portal closed, there was a ray of colours that exploded like fireworks, leaving small lights floating everywhere. The earth ponies at their homes, opened the windows to find out what made such noise, although somewhat scared, they liked the spectacles. In Katrina´s castle, everypony admired with curiosity. “What are those?” Shady asked intrigued. “They look like…” Starswirl touched a light. “magic.” Magic Star gasped. “You mean like, spirit magic?” she asked shocked. “Check the garden, quick!” Moochick ordered everypony. The earth ponies closest to the window immediately poked their heads through it. Starswirl ran to the window as well. The other unicorns looked at each other, wondering why Moochick would order such thing and Starswirl had that reaction. They shrugged and decided to join Starswirl. What they saw through the window was something they had never seen before and truly extraordinary. The oranges were no longer hanging from the trees. Now, they were forming a big symbol, as if it was a track. The earth ponies screamed in joy and celebrated with hugs or kisses, such as Knightshade´s and Alonzo´s case. “It´s back! It´s back!” Knightshade exclaimed while shaking Alonzo, who was feeling somewhat dizzy. Although they were happy for them, the unicorns didn´t share their enthusiasm. In fact, they were confused. Well, except for Starswirl, who was just smiling. “Why is everypony so excited? It´s just a weird drawing with oranges.” Fizzy wondered aloud. Everypony widened their eyes at their phrase, which made her rethink her words. “That came off very rude.” she regretted. “Those drawings, my unicorn ally, are tracks left by The Great Seedling.” Magic Star explained to her. “He always leaves them to indicate he was there.” “Aaah…” Fizzy gasped. “So that means that every spirit is back?” Magic Star nodded. “Wow, that´s so good!” Fizzy gladly exclaimed. “I hope Amina can return home too.” she said a bit sadly. “Why wouldn´t she? She did free the spirits and possibly the souls of the abducted innocents.” Buttons reminded her. “I know, but maybe she sacrificed herself in exchange of her cubs, the spirits and the souls or maybe the Great Spirits aren´t as merciful with her as I thought.” she sighed. “In any case, I wish I could have said goodbye.” “Don´t worry. Maybe you see her again someday.” Posey reassured her. “I may not know what happened to her, but I want to believe that she´ll come back to who she was or transform into a better spirit and that we´ll meet again somehow.” “This might sound strange, but I´d like to know her better.” said Gusty. “I´m pretty sure she´s a great spirit.” “Oh, she is.” Fizzy confirmed as she nodded. “She calmed me down when I was crying alone in a cell. If everything goes well, she might help you and meet properly one day.” Gusty smiled. While the ponies were observing captivated the spirits´ comeback, the cats tried to sneak out, but not everypony was distracted. Two earth ponies blocked their way. The pony multitude opened to let Moochick pass through. He stopped walking in front of the cats, looking at them with wrath. “You have committed many crimes against us. Some of them caused losses, injuries and sorrows. Many of us will never forgive you, and I think we all agree that you should be punished.” The cats started sweating in fear. Moochick was as scary as Katrina when mad, which meant that he was capable of extreme punishments as well. The ponies who knew the cats´ stories were also worried but none of them dared to intervene. None but one. “Um… Sir.” Gusty bowed to him. “If I may, I´d like to say something relevant to the punishment.” she smiled nervously, confusing both the cats and ponies. “Go on…” Moochick raised his eyebrow. “Some of these cats have been helpful to us.” she said. “They could have turned against us at any moment, but they never did.” “Yeah, and most of them were taken from their homes and forced to work for her.” Posey stated. “I know they´re not lying because I´ve lived around them long enough to know it´s true.” “What they did was definitely not ok.” Fizzy shook her head. “But if you think about it, they were almost in the same condition as you!” Her words angered some of the earth ponies. They gave her deadly glares. “Ok, that sounded worse than I intended.” Fizzy muttered. Luckily, Shady intervened, knowing that she didn´t mean to be condescending and that they would listen one of their own. “What she means is that just like us they were forced to do things they didn´t want. Granted, we were more brutalized, but they were just trying to survive.” “I agree they should make amends for their crimes somehow, but perhaps you should consider their circumstances before deciding their punishment.” Gusty summed up. Moochick looked at the other earth ponies to see if they agreed. To his surprise, most of them seemed to be rooting for a softer punishment, either because they witnessed their grieving or because they knew their background already. Moochick sighed. “Very well… I´ll spare your lives. But you´ll never set a paw here until the end of times. You´ll never interact with an earth pony ever again. Understood?” The cats nodded with a lowered head. “Now go!” Moochick ordered them aggressively. The cats walked with their heads lowered, processing everything that had happened, the deaths of their comrades; and surprised by the fact they had been spared. But not before stopping around Gusty, Fizzy, Shady and Posey. “Why? You could have let him torture us, execute us or we could be your slaves now, yet you advocated for us. Why?” he asked them. “Well, you defended us against the swords.” Shady answered. “I know you turned against Katrina for yourselves, but if you don´t care about us, why did you do that then?” The cats looked down. “Yeah, and after meeting Apricot, I couldn´t take you as evil anymore.” Fizzy replied. “Because they have never been in the first place.” said Posey. “I heard you all talking about your story one night when I was younger.” “Walls do have ears, huh?” the cat captain chuckled sadly. “Besides, you were kind to me from time to time, despite all the teasing and scaring.” Posey added. “And as for me, because I know what is like to lose somepony due to those who are supposed to rule us.” Gusty responded. “Luckily, I´ve never been pushed to the same edge as you, but I would do anything for my family.” “Who did you lose?” Odile asked her. “My husband.” Gusty replied. “I´m so sorry. You know, Apricot and I were more like siblings, but I loved him a lot. I can´t imagine what is like to lose the love of your life.” “It´s ok, thank you.” the cat and unicorn gave each other sad smiles. “Out of curiosity, where are you going to go now?” “Back to our real home.” the cat captain affirmed. “Our elders secretly told us the way there.” “May you get there, then.” Gusty nodded in respect. The cats gave her a smile. Bandit rubbed against her forelegs. “Oh! Uh… It was nice meeting you too.” she told him. Bandit grinned. Afterwards, the cats left the room. Gusty reflected in this encounter. Just like earth ponies and pegasi, creatures that weren´t ponies were very similar to the unicorns. They had feelings and cared about each other. She remembered Drog, the only troggle that had been kind to her during her stay in Grogar´s castle. Seeing the troggles as misunderstood was going to be harder, since she had been directly harmed by them but maybe they were like the cats. Drog mentioned that they depended on Grogar for their survival after all. They ended up with a tyrant in a different manner, yet they were equally as mistreated. But would she be able to forgive them? Moochick´s voice brought her back to reality. “We thank you all for your assistance.” he bowed and so did the other earth ponies, making the unicorns blush in embarassment. “Now, we understand better how magic works and have been able to defeat Katrina because of that. I understand you must now rescue your leader, but in order to do so you must rest. It has been a long day.” Glory and Lancer sighed. They didn´t like the idea of making Majesty wait more but Moochick was right. They had another journey and battle ahead of them. “I don´t think we have another choice, do we?” said Lancer. “Don´t worry. Majesty´s tough. I´m pretty sure she´s still hanging there.” Glory reassured him. “I hope.” she muttered under her breath. “She was ponynapped by Crunch´s henchdogs, am I right?” Alonzo asked them. “That´s right.” Fizzy nodded. “Perhaps we could help you!” Knightshade suggested excited. Alonzo nodded in agreement, but Moochick didn´t seem to like the idea. In fact, he gave him a frown for saying that. “Yeah, maybe some potions could come to your aid.” Magic Star offered herself. “I have been many times in Trottingham. I could come useful as a guide for you.” Posey joined the plan. “Did I almost die? Yes. Did I discover that maintaining my family´s inn wasn´t what I truly wanted and found out what fulfils me thanks to this? Also true. Do I prefer to avoid death and danger and stay safe and warm at home? I certainly do. Is serving in an inn is more stressing to me than fighting a tyrant and dark spirits? Yes, you should know that. What I mean is that I don´t like being this reckless but I´d love to have an adventure along my friends like this one again.” Shady huffed and puffed. “I need a blanket.” “Well, if I have learnt something today is that the more the better.” Buttons shrugged. “And in exchange we could give you protection if Grogar decides to-” Gusty tried to suggest but was interrupted by Moochick. “That won´t be necessary.” Moochick raised his hoof. “Knowing how he is, he´ll probably only send his troggles for the job and will focus most of his energies on finding you. He won´t probably come here. We needed your help this time, but we can defend ourselves without the need of magic. We are not helpless, you know?” Though she respected his opinion, Gusty thought that he was too sharp with her. It hurt her that after going through all the fighting and teamwork, he still mistrusted unicorns. Maybe not them exactly, but perhaps he was weary of Majesty and the others. A part of her even believed that he may be scared of unicorns. It was understandable, nonetheless. They had been under the rule of a tyrant who was an user of magic. Trust takes time. “I´m sorry, I didn´t mean to be condescending.” she apologized. “You´re right, you´re very strong and capable too. We wouldn´t have survived the walls if it wasn´t for you all.” “Thank you.” Moochick simply said. “You may accompany them if you wish.” he said to Alonzo and Knightshade. “After all, one of our biggest values as earth ponies is repaying our debts. Now if you excuse me, I must spread the news of Katrina´s defeat.” he nodded before leaving. “What is wrong with him?” asked Lancer, upset by the treatment he gave Gusty. Gusty stared at Moochick with worry as he left. The cats left the town using the right gates of the city´s wall. They had many emotions inside, both negative, due to how some earth ponies disrespected them as they walked through the city, and positive. But there was one that surpassed them all: the feeling of freedom and going back home. But their path would be disrupted for some time. Next to some cats, a hole in the ground started appearing. From the hole got out Gaueko, Gwyllgi and Cavall, panting in exhaustion and coughing out the dust. “We´ve been scavenging for days! Are you sure she´s here?” Gwyllgi asked Gaueko. “She is! The track smells like her necklace.” Gaueko replicated as he pointed at Gusty´s necklace. “Who, the Wind Warrior?” a female tuxedo cat asked them. The three dogs´ ears perked up. They slowly turned to the tuxedo cat. “Yes!” Cavall exclaimed. “Do you know anything about her?” “Ha! Better than any creature else.” she looked at the other cats, making the dogs notice all of the other cats. “What is this? A seasonal migration?” Gaueko asked rudely. “More like an exile.” “You´ve been exiled by Katrina?!” Gwyllgi asked shocked. “All of you?!” “No, by Moochick. The earth ponies took over town thanks to the Wind Warrior and her soldiers.” “And Katrina? What happened to her?” Cavall asked. “She received what was coming for her for a long time. The Wind Warrior managed to break her potion and the dark spirits finally came for her.” “So she´s…” Gaueko crossed his finger across his neck, The tuxedo cat nodded. The three dogs stared at each other in shock. “What do we do now, Gaueko?” Cavall asked him panicked. “Well, better for us!” Gaueko shook his head before replying. “Now there´s less competence. This is the definite response that Crunch is better than Katrina.” he closed his eyes in pride. “That wouldn´t happen to Crunch.” “Oh, I wouldn´t get that confident… She along her soldiers are very capable. But she´s very kind and understanding too. In fact, she´s the reason why we´re going back home and not dead, tortured nor enslaved.” The cat smiled while remembering how she wished them a good journey. “Though, you dogs support Crunch and see him as a hero more than we did with Katrina.” “Well, do you have any problem with that?” Gwyllgi defied her. “Not really. But she might not be that forgiving with you as she was with us. So, if I were you, I would ask for extra help.” the tuxedo cat advised them before catching up with the cat group. “Should we tell Grogar?” Cavall suggested. “Well, if we tell him directly, he´ll call Crunch a coward.” said Gaueko. “But if we spread the word around, maybe the emperor will decide to give him more resources…” “Aah, that´s clever.” Gwyllgi nodded her head. “But how are we going to make the information arrive to the emperor?” At the distance, they saw the tuxedo cat they talked to before, which gave Gaueko an idea. “I think I know how.” > Chapter 18: Have you heard the rumours? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Life back at Grogar´s castle was just as exhausting and stressful as what Gusty and company were going through. Emperor Grogar tortured unicorns to get new information about Gusty, which always ended up in failure. He also forced the pegasi and earth pony slaves to work harder, as well as the troggles. The troggles most loyal to Grogar didn´t complain, since they thought they were honouring their saviour. The ones who secretly opposed him, however, were not that happy about it. One of those troggles, most specifically Drog, was way more sleep-deprived than before, so he leveraged the times he was alone sleep. Right now, he found himself resting against a column in the garden. Near where Drog was sleeping, the diamond dogs dug a hole to snuck out their heads and noticed the troggle sleeping. “Hey wake up!” Cavall exclaimed, but his attempt didn´t work. The dogs shared glances. “Hey! Wakey wakey, it´s working time!” Gwyllgi clapped, but once again, there were no results. Frustrated, Gaueko scrubbed his paw throughout his face. “HEEY!” he yelled. “GAH!” Drog woke up in a jump. “I´m awake! I´m awake.” he exclaimed while looking around around. “Finally! Come over here!” Gaueko ordered him. Drog blinked confused. “Are you diamond dogs? Whatever are you doing here?” he asked while standing up and walked to them. “We need you to do us a favour.” answered Gaueko. He and his accomplices picked up a tied and muzzled female tuxedo cat and threw it to Drog, who caught on time before she fell to the ground. “What the?” he wondered aloud after gasping while looking at the cat. “We need you to tell Grogar that this kitty cat was sent by the earth ponies to send him a message.” Cavall ordered him. The cat shook her head to Drog. “If you tell him we had something to do with this, I´ll make sure you get taken care of, ok?!” Gwyllgi threatened him. “We have plenty of friends bigger and strong than any of you!” “Ok, ok! But why would you want me to say that? Or better question, why did you bring us a captured cat?!” Drog asked confused. “Just bring her to Grogar!” Cavall commanded him in response. “Besides, she carries a note that explains everything.” “Diamond dogs, out!” Gaueko exclaimed while they crossed the arms. Afterwards, they went back underground and closed the hole. Drog winked perplexed. The cat´s muzzled cries brought him back to reality. He put her on the ground to untie the handkerchief around her mouth. “Please, don’t say anything! You´ll bring us death!” the cat begged him. “Whoah, whoah! What are you talking about? What happened?” “Read the letter.” Drog noticed a paper hanging from the ropes. He picked it up and opened it to read it. The letter said: With the help of Wind Warrior, we have overthrown Katrina. Our land is back on the hooves of earth ponies. You and your other allies are next! Drog stared at the letter in shock. “Is this true?” he asked the cat in disbelief. “Or is it a scam designed by the diamond dogs because they want something from Grogar?” he raised his eyebrow in suspicion. “No, no it really happened. Katrina captured one of Majesty´s knights so she and other four unicorns went to Coltlogne to retrieve her and in doing so they must have encountered the earth ponies on the way, and I don´t know how, but they formed a coalition and they burst in the town despite confronting dark spirits at the wall! Then, they invaded the caste and defeated Katrina.” “And what happened to her? Did they… You know…” Drog fidgeted his fingers. “Well, not directly per say, but the Wind Warrior broke her potion and well,” the cat shrugged. “we saw what happens when you can´t satisfy a dark spirits´ deal!” The emotion the cat put in the story seem to be genuine, but Drog was still convinced that the diamond dogs forced her to say that. “It´s ok. The diamond dogs aren´t around no longer. You can tell me the truth now.” “I am telling you the truth.” the cat remarked upset, frustrated that the troggle wouldn´t believe her. Luckily, an idea came to her mind. “Look at my bag and you´ll see the proof!” Drog raised his eyebrow in intrigue but looked inside the bag anyways. What he found left him astonished: it was none other than Katrina´s favourite goblet! Golden with several embedded jewels in it, such as sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and pearls. “You did not seriously think that I would be alive right now after taking such precious treasure from Katrina, who always smells and hears a thief miles away and never forgives such crimes!” She was right. Something must have gone wrong with Katrina if this cat was still alive. “And what happened to you? Were you punished?” Drog asked while putting the goblet back to the bag. “Not really. Even though exile is the worst punishment for some, for us it was actually a liberation and a mercy. Most of us were taken from home by force so this was a chance to go back again.” “The earth ponies forgave you?” “Well, mostly thanks to the Wind Warrior. She was the first one to intervene, encouraging other ponies to beg Moochick to lesser our punishment. Which is why you mustn´t tell Grogar. If he found out we got out alive, he would send soldiers to kill us.” Drog gave out a small chuckle in hope. As much as he would like to imagine the future ahead for him and his kind, right now, he had a cat to help. “Don´t worry, I won´t say a word. And I´ll also help you to get back to your clowder.” “How?” “I happen to know who can help us…” Back in the castle, in a dark and almost empty room, there were six troggles. One was sitting against a corner while singing soulfully. “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality…” she sang sad and tired. The other five troggles wore the same expression of exhaustion on their faces. The youngest one was sleeping over the laps of his parents. Another one, who seemed to be in his teen years was playing with a stone, throwing it against the wall and making it bounce. And the last one was Yrsa, Drog´s best friend. She was rhythmically moving her fingers against her arms. “Oh, Thalia, would you stop it please?” a troggle asked her. “If you´re going to sing, sing something with a little mh… bounce in it!” Thalia narrowed her eyes. “I can buy myself floweeeers!!” she sang begrudgingly. The troggles complained by whimpering or covering their eyes. “No, no! Anything but that!” Thalia stayed silent to think of a song. She widened her eyes when she found the most adequate. “I´ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts! Didididi…” she moved her fingers on beat. “There they are standing in a row. Small ones, big ones, some as big as your head!” Satisfied, the other troggle started singing along. On the contrary, Yrsa wasn´t having it. “Will you shush it?! If they discover you like this, you´ll get in big trouble!” she warned them. “Sorry Yrsa. I was just expressing my pain…” Thalia looked down. “Until Enki forced me to hide my emotions!” she threw an angry look at him. “And I need something to cheerme up! A depressive song won´t do.” Enki said in his defence. “Listen to your sister, Enki.” a female troggle ordered Enki as she stroked the sleeping troggle´s hair. “Ugh, she´s not my sister, she´s adopted!” Enki protested. Yrsa rolled her eyes. “Hey! She is your sister, do as she says!” the other troggle, in whose legs the young troggle was laying on, pointed at him. In doing so, he made the young troggle jump a little. “Careful Acher, you´re going to wake Oak up.” his wife put her hand on his shoulder. “Oh! You´re right Isis, sorry honey.” he apologized with a smile. “I know these are rougher times, but we cannot afford any slip ups. Don´t you see how intolerant Grogar is just for a tiny mistake?” Yrsa stated. Thalia and Enki looked at each other, shivering while realizing their mistake. “Yeah you´re have a point…” Thalia admitted. “But in a certain way, that´s good, right? If Grogar´s taking so much time to get the Wind Warrior, that must mean that the idea of her defeating Grogar doesn´t sound so stupid.” Enki opined. Yrsa snorted as she crossed her arms. “Or maybe Majesty killed her for spilling her secret.” “I´m just trying to be positive!” “For what? To crash against the ground when Grogar kills her? I prefer to stay realistic.” “Yeah, I see it´s doing wonders for you.”. “Huh! What do you think that will happen? That the Wind Warrior will do a miracle all of the sudden?” “Guys! The Wind Warrior has defeated Katrina!” Drog exclaimed, opening the door with a loud blow of the door, catching all of the troggles off guard. Isis and Acher literally jumped from the surprise, waking up Oak as a result. “Wait. WHAT?!” Thalia screamed as she stood up. The cat covered his mouth while shushing him. “Not that loud! What if they hear you?” “Sorry it´s just I´m too excited.” Drog apologized. Oak rubbed his eye. “Oh… What´s all the commotion in here?” “That´s what I would like to know” Yrsa crossed her arms. “What do you mean with that the Wind Warrior has defeated Katrina?” “It´s better if she explains…” Drog pushed the cat forward. Every troggle but Yrsa gasped when they saw the cat. “Is that a cat? I love cats.” Oak ran towards the cat to hug her. Not knowing how to react, she simply cleared her throat. “Oak, I don´t think it´s a good idea to be near her.” Yrsa advised him as he gently separated him from the cat. “Where did you get this cat from?” Yrsa asked Drog. “Just let her tell you everything and you´ll know.” Drog replied. After pondering it carefully, Yrsa finally accepted his request. So, the cat told them the whole story, leaving no detail out. “…Which is why you cannot tell a word to the emperor, because if you do we will never go back home.” the cat begged them. When she finished, the troggles weren´t so sure how to react. They were so confused that they could simply wink with expressionless faces. Yrsa was the first one to speak. “Are you sure you didn´t hit your head and all of this was just a dream or something?” Yrsa suspiciously interrogated her. “I said the truth and the whole truth.” the cat put a paw on her chest and raised the other. “Oh, really? Where´s the proof then?” The cat showed the goblet in response, leaving the troggles breathless in astonishment. “Is that Katrina´s goblet?” Isis asked as she signed at it. “In the flesh.” the cat reiterated. “Or should I say in the metal.” she smiled nervously at her pun. “Oh mommy, Lucena was right, she will defeat Grogar!” Oak jumped in joy while holding her mother´s hands. “And not only that, we might actually rebuild our lives as well!” Drog added. Though it seemed to be enough proof for Enki, Acher, Isis and Oak; Yrsa still had her reservations to believe her. “Well, that cannot be enough proof! Maybe this time her feline instincts failed, especially being now super busy trying to catch the Wind Warrior.” “Oh… I beg to differ.” the cat replied. “Trust me, we´ve been in busier situations and she never misses one stealing attempt.” As much as she wanted to refute, she was well aware that the cat knew Katrina better than she did. But for Yrsa that event didn´t mean that the prophecy was true.. “But it could have been just a stroke of luck!” “Or not!” Thalia refuted. “Don´t worry we won´t say a word.” Acher swore. “Eh?” Yrsa asked shocked. “And we will escort outside of the castle safely.” Isis added. “What?” Yrsa turned her head abruptly to Isis. “Yeah! Drog knows every secret gallery underneath the castle and they are very useful to get out of the castle!” Enki reassured the cat. “No! No! Could you all stop for a second and think straight for a moment please?!” Yrsa said upset. Noticing Drog´s, her parents´ and brothers´ expressions of hurt, Yrsa joined her palms and took a deep breath through her nose. “I´m sorry, it´s just I don´t want you to get hurt.” she apologized. “But even if by some miracle Gusty managed to defeat every tyrant including Grogar, we don´t know if we benefit from this. Yeah, she forgave the cats, but that´s because they didn´t do anything that she took great offense like we did. Don´t you remember our kind killed her husband? Do you really think she will forgive us just like that?” After listening to her, the troggles´ joy turned into anxiety and uncertainty. “And let´s not forget that most of the cats hated Katrina, but every other troggle supports Grogar to death! I don´t think she´ll really slide that.” Yrsa added. “You have some good points Yrsa, but wouldn´t you really prefer to live peacefully in a village inside a forest where you didn´t have to hurt anypony and could do your own thing?” Drog enquired her. “Of course I would, but we have to be careful not to get carried away by idealism. It could be our downfall.” “Well…” the cat joined in the conversation after a brief silence. “Once the Wind Warrior knew our story, she stood by us because she understood our circumstances and saw the good in us. I´m pretty sure she will do the same with you.” Judging from her eyes, Yrsa could tell she was very moved by the Wind Warrior. Then, she looked at how her family and friends were smiling. Ever since Gusty´s incident happened, they were on constant work, which made them stressed, depressed, and unable to smile most of the time, so seeing them smiling moved her deeply. Perhaps protection and caution weren´t what they needed for their welfare but hope. Yrsa sighed. “I can´t believe I´m doing this…” she muttered to herself. “Ok, fine we won´t tell Grogar and we´ll help you go back to your cat friends.” she begrudgingly accepted. “Thank you!” the cat surrounded her with her arms. “Hey, that doesn´t mean you can´t hug me!” Yrsa struggled to undo her hug. “I´m glad you took the right decision.” Acher tapped her shoulder, making Yrsa smile. “Take Oak with you.” Isis told Drog. “I think that´s the closet he´ll get to play in these days.” “Right this way missy!” Oak took the cat´s paw excitedly as they followed Drog. “Enki, Thalia! You´re needed!” a voice from above called them. “Gotta go. Duty calls.” Thalia pointed at the ceiling. “Good luck!” Enki waved his hand as they left. “Be careful! And don´t you slip a word about this!” Yrsa told them as they left. “Don´t worry, we won´t, Yrsa!” Enki reassured her, although Thalia wasn´t as sure. Though, Yrsa wasn´t as confident as Thalia on her not slipping anything out. “Ugh, please don´t make me repent this…” Yrsa covered her forehead on her hand. A troggle impatiently hit the floor repeatedly with his foot, turning his head around in hopes of seeing Thalia and Enki running towards him. Finally, that moment came. “What took you so long?!” he angrily demanded explanations. Enki and Thalia stopped running once they were running in front of him and leveraged to catch their breaths. “Ok, ok. We´re sorry to be late.” Enki apologized. “Where do we have to go?” “To Grogar´s library.” “To Grogar´s library?!” Thalia asked scared. “As you heard.” the troggle replied relaxed at first, though after seeing Thalia´s reaction, he became distrustful. “Why the nerves?” “Uh… She´s just excited!” Enki improvised a lie. He tapped Thalia´s shoulder to calm her down. “That the emperor would trust us so much to guard his so precious library in these times of turmoil! But she wants to do it well, thus the nerves!” “You´re certainly right to be nervous, because if you mess up, it´s off with your head!” the mean troggle crossed a finger through his neck. “Understood?!” The two troggles nodded. “Good. NOW GET TO WORK!” Enki and Thalia quickly ran to Grogar´s library´s door to get away from the mean troggle as soon as possible. Once they made sure he wasn´t seeing them, they exhaled all the air they were holding in and panted very hard. “What was that, Thalia?” Enki quietly scolded Thalia so they wouldn´t be heard. “I´m sorry, it´s just I realized that from now on we´ll have to stand near Grogar while keeping secrets from him, which is practically impossible because I´ll be so nervous!” Thalia shivered in fear. “Oooh, I know his bells will ignite and he will find out we´re hiding something and I´ll slip that the Wind Warrior has defeated Katrina and that the prophecy´s true!” “But you already knew the risks and never expressed any worries about that. Why do you so now?” “I don´t know. Maybe because a part of me thought that this would never happen! And now that it´s happening, reality hits!” “Hey!” Enki held her shoulders. “Like Drog says, if you think that will happen, that´s exactly what will happen. You just have to think that Katrina´s defeat won´t come out of your mouth, and no one will know. We just have to act normal. No one will ever know.” Suddenly, they heard porcelain breaking. Enki and Thalia widened their eyes and slowly turned their heads to the right. Turns out that while they were talking a slave was walking around, and consequently, heard them, discovering everything. The poor earth pony was just as scared as the troggles. Without saying a word, she ran away. Although they knew well that they had to stop the pony, they were too much in shock and paralyzed by the mistake they had made. “We blew everything, didn´t we?” Thalia whispered. “Yup…” Enki confirmed her suspicions. The earth pony closed the kitchen´s doors once she arrived. Seeing their friend hyperventilating, the other slaves at the kitchen came near her. “What´s wrong? Is any of those disgusting troggles chasing you?” one of them asked them. “You won´t believe what I´ve just heard…” the earth pony replied. She signed them to form a circle around her. After making sure no troggle nor Bray, nor Grogar was around; she whispered the secret to her friends. Their reactions varied from gasps to covering their own mouths with their hooves. “…But most importantly, you didn´t hear this from me.” those were the last words the earth pony spoke before a female troggle saw them not working. Naturally, these friends would whisper the secret to their friends. And those friends would whisper the same to their friends and so on. Soon enough a unicorn or a pegasi would hear the information and tell their kind. It didn´t matter if they were different species, they´d all end by saying: “But you didn´t hear this from me.” Without any exaggeration, one could say that in a matter of one hour almost everypony already knew what had happened. But that was not the case for the non-ponies. Hadn´t it been for them being busy, the news wouldn´t have spread as fast. However, a certain butterfly with a band on its wing would hear the information while resting on the ledge of the gallery beneath the courtyard. After listening carefully, it flew to the highest tower in the castle. Young Discord took advantage of Bray sleeping to turn everything upside down, literally. He had put everything on the ceiling, furniture, books, even Bray and himself! On top of that, Discord decided to do a house of cards whose tip would be over Bray´s nose. To do so, he adopted the position of a bat, tying his tail around the chandelier and extending his body to the full, shortening it by pulling his goat horn the closer the house got to Bray. His ears perked up when he heard a small knock in the window. He smiled when he saw a pink butterfly waving hello outside. He returned the wave and stretched his body to the window to open it. “Hey little butterfly!” he greeted it while joining his paw and claw to allow the insect some rest. “Want me to scare you again? Oh ho ho, are you sure? I am bigger this time!” Discord covered a giggle. “Actually, I´m not.” he whispered to the butterfly as if he was telling him a secret. “I´m stretched.” After grabbing his neck and stretching it, his body shortened abruptly, bouncing for some time before turning to its normal state, just like a spring. “See?” said Discord once he wasn´t feeling dizziness. After giggling, the butterfly stared at the house of cards. “This? Well, this is a prank on Bray. I do that every time he falls asleep, isn´t that great?” Discord chuckled. “Well, not the house of cards exactly, this is new, since doodles in the face got old. He got so used to it that he simply stopped getting mad and just wiped it out calmly! So, I´m just trying new ways to tick on his nerves.” The butterfly observed Bray. It arched an eyebrow at Discord. “Oh, he hasn´t always done that!” Discord raised his paw and claw. “But he´s been behaving differently lately. One day, all of the sudden, he started being scared all the time! At first, I was excited because I thought I was finally scary! But then he told me off for not being scary enough.” Discord´s smile banished after saying the last sentence. The butterfly could tell Bray´s words hurt him. It placed itself on Discord´s shoulder, not minding being upside down. “And then the falling asleep happened.” Discord continued speaking. “At first it was fun, but it seems like he´s getting used to everything I do that nothing surprises him anymore! I don´t like being scolded but not having any reaction from him… I don´t know why but somehow it´s less fun...” he fidgeted with his fingers. The butterfly pointed at its wing. “What about father? He´s grumpier than usual.” Discord shivered. “Trust me, you don´t want to see him again.” he looked at the butterfly. “Why do you think they´re acting like that?” The butterfly shrugged. “I do have some theories myself.” Discord said in reply while tapping his chin. “Maybe they´re training me because they´re considering on letting me out to scare ponies!” he exclaimed excitedly. “Or they are scared of me deep inside and don´t want to admit it! What do you think?” While listening to Discord, the butterfly remembered why it came to Discord. It jumped and fluttered its wings energetically. “A secret?” Discord raised his eyebrow confused. “What do you mean?” The butterfly looked at Bray, making sure he was still asleep. Then, the insect signed Discord to raise its ear. The young draconequus listened attentively to what the butterfly had to say. “The ponies found out that some Wind Warrior defeated Katrina?” Discord recapitulated. “And you think that´s father´s and Bray´s secret?” The butterfly nodded. “And who are they? Are they writing a book or something? Cause to be honest I don´t seem them doing that. But the fun thing about chaos it´s that it´s unpredictable, right? Father and Bray writing a book in secret. How chaotic!” he rubbed his paw and claw together while laughing mischievously. “And I´m sure we´ll soon find out…” Discord smirked when he noticed there were two cards left to finish the house. “Go hide so they don´t find you.” he said to the butterfly. The butterfly nodded and hid behind a book on the bookshelf. When Discord put the last two cards, Bray wrinkled his nose, feeling the need to sneeze. “A-a-a-AAACHOOO!” When the donkey sneezed the house of cards fell over Bray´s face. He shook his head when he noticed something above it. “What the?” he thought aloud when he found himself surrounded by cards and hanging in the ceiling. He yelled scared. He quickly understood who was responsible of this when he heard Discord laughing. “DISCORD!” “Rise and shine!” Discord teased him. “Put everything back to normal this instant!” “As you wish!” Discord snapped his fingers but instead of following Bray´s command, he filled the room with water. Realizing what he had done, he snapped his fingers again, and turned his room into the space. Bray looked estranged and shocked at his surroundings. Discord attempted one more time, but it ended up in failure once again. This time, his room was surrounded by trees, and in the centre, there was a pink table with dancing teapots playing a melody. Discord smiled excitedly but stopped when he noticed Bray frowning at him. “Think before you snap, think before you snap!” Bray scolded him. “And break it into small steps, how many times do I have to tell you?!” “Wait! Let me try again.” Discord put his fingers on his temples. He held his breath as he thought but sighed defeated. “I don´t know where to begin.” Bray grunted frustrated. “The table wouldn´t be a bad start. Just saying!” Discord rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, turning the table into normal. “Good, now the chairs.” After Discord´s snap, the chairs turned back to how they were. “And lastly, get rid of the trees and the teapots.” Bray covered his ears. “Oh, the last ones are making my head hurt!” “But I like them!” Discord complained. “They add some good background sound.” “More like noise. Get rid of them!” “Fine…” Discord begrudgingly accepted. With the last snap, the room was back in its normal state. “Now, where were we?” Bray said while opening the book he laid his head on to sleep. “Nowhere. We didn´t even begin and you fell asleep already!” Bray winked, both surprised and estranged. “I did?” “Yeah! Even you know how boring it is to read that!” “I differ. History is very interesting! It´s just I´ve been 24 hours on call, serving your father in everything he needs. And apparently my body finds this time as the perfect chance to sleep. But I must fight that urge! And, that doesn´t mean you´re slacking off from work mister!” Discord snickered. “Yeah. On call.” “What do you mean with that?” Bray asked, both upset and confused. “Come on, I know your secret…” Discord teased him. “What secret?” “You know… the book thing!” Bray tried to repress his laugh at first, but the ended up releasing a cackle. “A book? Where did you get such stupid idea?” “Well, it´s just I…” Discord took a pause to think his response, since he didn´t want to get the butterfly in trouble. “… I´m seeing ponies whispering to each other about something.” “Just dumb gossip, nothing important…” “Oh, so Katrina and the Wind Warrior are slaves then.” Discord thought aloud. Bray perked his ears up and widened his eyes. “Wait what?” “Since I saw the ponies whispering to each other, I decided to lend an ear. So, I took a glass.” Discord snapped his fingers to summon a glass. “Put it on the window and listened to what they had to say!” Discord mimicked the actions he narrated. “And what did they say about them?” Bray asked anxiously. “That the Wind Warrior defeated Katrina. If they exist, then I suppose they are famous troublemakers who always get into a fight, and the one who always loses finally won.” Bray felt the adrenaline flowing through his body. This couldn´t be happening, he thought. It could be just a rumour. But if it was, how far did it get and how many ponies had heard it? Or worse, was Grogar aware of this? “You know what, I think I´m going to give a free day because I have something very important to do right now!” Bray rushed to the door. “You´re leaving now?” Discord asked disappointed. “But we are not over yet!” “Yes, we are!” Bray replied before closing the door in a blow. Discord winked, trying to process everything. “Huh. Maybe they were writing a book.” he thought aloud. “Please let it be a rumour, please let it be a rumour, please let it be a rumour!” Bray repeated to himself as he ran down the stairs. His heart would go off the roof when he found the last creature he wanted to see right then: Grogar himself. He braked to avoid crashing into him. “My emperor!” he bowed down. He laughed nervously. “Wha-wha-wha whatever are you doing here?” “I was taking a walk to refresh my mind. Plus, soon it´s my turn to see Discord. But I have q better question, why did you leave before time?” Grogar asked suspiciously. “Because something very important came up. And I don´t have time to explain because if I don´t act right now, it will get worse!” he ran off. “Bray, what´s going on? Bray!” Grogar called him but the donkey didn´t obey, causing him to ignite his horns in anger. But before blowing him off, the ram took time to think. If Bray´ was acting weird, it was surely due to emergency coming up. Bray was prone to get very nervous in these types of situations, although that allowed him to take action quickly. But how would he know something was going on if he was with Discord? That last thought led him to the key to the situation. He looked up the stairs and narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Did you see that?” Discord asked the butterfly after laughing. “He got so scared! Perhaps my next pranks should be like that.” “What pranks?” Grogar asked. Discord´s ears fell in fear. His body paralyzed, but he managed to turn his body to his father. “F-Father! I-I wasn´t sure you were going to come too soon.” Discord nervously greeted Grogar as he closed the door. “I´m never too busy not to get early for our weekly visit dear boy.” he smirked when he realized his bells were igniting. “Is there something troubling you?” he asked in sarcastic worry. “Hm… No.” “Oh, but there is. I know there is.” Grogar walked towards Discord, making him walk backwards. Discord knew he couldn´t hide anything from his father once his bells were growing. So, he confessed. “Ok, you´re right. I suppose Bray told you already.” “Tell me what?” “About the book…” Grogar raised his eyebrow. Although at first glance, it sounded stupid, he knew there was more to that. “Expand please.” he calmly but coldly ordered him. “It´s just that I found out that you were writing a book because I´ve heard some ponies talking about the ending.” “How did you hear them?” Grogar´s eyes shone in anger. “With a glass on the window?” he laughed nervously as he showed Grogar the glass. “Well, you´d better not do that again.” he took the glass from Discord. “Because if you do,” he broke the glass with his hoof, making Discord release a small whimper. He smirked in pleasure while feeding off his fear. “there will be consequences. But that´s not what´s important now. What I need to know is what you heard. What did those ponies say?” “That a wind warrior defeated Katrina…” Grogar´s smirk dropped in an instant. “What?” “That´s what I heard….” Grogar took some time to answer. He seemed to look at nowhere for some moments and his breath fastened. Discord started to get more anxious. Was his father…. Scared? Grogar usually had everything under control, so Discord didn´t know what this meant. “Father?” Grogar closed his eyes and frowned as he retrieved his composure, as he knew his next step of action. “Were mares saying those things?” “I suppose…” Discord lied. Only the butterfly knew that, but Discord thought that Grogar wanted to teach him something, so he answered what he thought his father wanted to hear. “Then let me tell you something, my son: never trust females. Of any species but especially mares. Mares might seem like they are inoffensive or sweet or innocent, but they´ll stab you in the back when you least expect it.” Grogar widened his eyes. “Don´t tell me you look at mares from the window.” “Sometimes I like watching ponies from the window, I can´t tell if they´re mares or stallions, they´re just so little to know!” “Don´t lie to me!” he grabbed Discord by his shoulders and shook him. “Do you get any feelings from watching those mares?!” “Feelings? What feelings? I don´t understand!” Discord replied scared. Judging from his confused reaction, Grogar saw that he wasn´t in that phase yet and sighed in relief. Discord was still too young for that, after all. Still, he decided to give him an early warning. “I have talked to you about sirens and witches before, have I?” Discord nodded. “What do you remember about them?” “Sirens had voices that hypnotized others into their bidding. And witches cast spells on others.” “Exactly. Well, females can be sirens or witches in a sense. They primarily use their beauty, but they can also use other charms such as personality or intelligence to get you into their spell or fool you. And be careful, my boy, because once you feel drawn to them,” Grogar took a small pause. “you fall into their trap!” he cornered Discord and smacked his hoof against the wall. “Because they´ll use you for their own purposes, which can include destroying you! And if you´re lucky enough to stay alive, they´ll dispose you once you´re of no more use to them.” “That, that doesn´t seem fun…” Discord said so Grogar could release him. “It totally isn´t. That´s why I was worried about you. Because I wouldn´t want such thing happening to you. Remember Discord, I am the only one capable of loving you.” Grogar caressed Discord´s cheek, although it didn´t give Discord reassurance. On the contrary, it made him very uncomfortable. “No other creature, especially mares, will ever be able to see through your appearance. They´ll probably think you look ugly or idiotic.” Discord looked down. “I think I´ve given you an important lesson today. I must leave now.” “Wait, you´re not going to explain wha-” “Explain what?!” Grogar asked threateningly. “Nothing…” Discord preferred not to ask after seeing his father´s reaction. “Good.” Grogar said before closing the door. Once he was out of Discord´s sight he angrily snorted and went downstairs as fast as he could. Meanwhile, Discord simply sat down, both feeling bad and confused about his father´s words. The butterly, who observed everything, frowned and got out of its hiding place and flew to Discord´s shoulder, tapping on it and then patting its leg on its chest. “Oh no, don´t worry I don´t care if you are a female.” he reassured the butterfly. “In fact, I already knew it because of your big wings and their patterns. I read it on a book about fauna, you know?” The butterfly swept off her sweat. “It´s weird because you never used me for any purposes, like Grogar says females do. Maybe he´s wrong and doesn´t know it. But one thing´s clear: he´s hiding something from me.” Discord and the butterfly stared with worry at the door. Meanwhile, at the canteen, the ponies felt uncomfortable by Bray´s intense stares with no blinking. Even if he was doing something else, he still had his eyes on the ponies. That was until Isis and Acher distracted his attention. “Bray, is everything ok?” Acher asked, blocking his vision from the ponies. “AH!” Bray exclaimed scared that he lost sight for a moment. “Get away!” he pushed him aside. Much a pony leveraged the moment to whisper something to another, making him cough. However, he took the pony whispering before she could finish. “Sorry sweetie, it´s just that we thought you were anxious about something, since you´re not blinking.” Isis apologized while she picked her husband up before he could fall to the ground. Since Isis also interposed in his area of vision, Bray couldn´t see the ponies again, but he knew that the secret had been passed, since he heard somepony spitting water. By two ponies´ reactions, Bray knew that they were talking about Katrina´s defeat, which meant that almost everypony already knew the news. Ok, the damage was done, but maybe he could find out who was responsible of, hopefully, such rumour. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Bray said to Isis as he walked towards the ponies. “Hey, hey, hey!” he greeted the ponies with a forced smile. “There is quite an atmosphere today, huh?” Bray leaned on the table. “Heeey….” a pony waved hello awkwardly at him. “There sure is….” another nodded with a nervous smile. “Yes, indeed.” Bray plaid fool by nodding with fake concern. “Is it possible that this has something to do with ponies whispering to each other secrets?” Acher and Isis slightly approached Bray to find out the roots of Bray´s concern. They looked at each other estranged. What could the ponies whisper to each other about? Soon, they would discover it. In another table, which was in the opposite direction of Bray´s area of vision, a pegasus stallion whispered something to a pegasus mare whose mouth was hanging quite open while staring at Isis and Acher. Another pegasus next to the mare looked estranged at her friend, but she would understand why she reacted like that when she was told the secret. Her reaction was less dramatic, but she demonstrated shock while throwing glances at the troggles along her friend. Now, it was Acher´s and Isis´ turn to get worried. “Oh dear… You don´t suppose they know about that?” Isis asked her husband after gasping and joining her palms together. Acher widened his eyes. “You think? Enki and Thalia aren´t the brightest, but I don´t think they could be that reckless, could they?” Bray couldn´t understand what the troggles were saying, but he heard their voices. He turned around and noticed their expressions of concern. He widened his eyes in realization. “Bingo!” the donkey quietly exclaimed. “Is everything going alright back there?” Drog asked to Oak and the cat while they were creeping through a narrow tunnel. “I sure am!” Oak replied. “You´re asking the master of sneaking through small spaces if she´s doing fine?” the cat raised an eyebrow playfully. “Although I will say, I´m a bit tired. I don´t mean to complain but I feel like we´ve been going in circles and circles.” “That´s kind of the point.” Oak gladly stated. “In this castle, you must make detours if you don´t want to get caught. As more prisoners tried to escape, Grogar set more and more deadly traps at the secret passages.” explained Drog. “But luckily, Grogar needed secret passages in case he needed to escape or if he wanted to do something secret, so he built more but in the form of a labyrinth.” Oak finished the explanation. “Wow… You really are risking your lives for me, guys. Considering you´re so few…” Drog clicked his tongue. “Well, Grogar kind of did a favour to our kind. He `helped´ us in our time of need. That´s why troggles appreciate him greatly. Although I consider he just wanted us to be dependent on him.” “But that doesn´t mean that no more troggles will join!” said Oak optimistically. “We hope to recruit more.” “There we are!” Drog exclaimed when he saw stairs. Carefully, they went down the stairs. Drog ordered Oak and the cat to wait, since he needed to check if any creature was around. He moved the rock blocking the passage and looked attentively at both sides. “It´s safe.” he signed them to pass through. “Safe from what?” The troggles and cat widened their eyes. Bray came out from the shadows, followed by Acher, Isis, Enki, Thalia, who were covering their eyes in shame; and lastly Yrsa, who clenched her fist against her mouth in fear. Noticing that Oak was behind the cat, Drog had an idea. He took out his spear and pointed it towards the cat. Oak quickly understood his intentions, so he imitated him the best as he could, since the spear was too heavy for a troggle his age. “Safe from treacherous cats!” Drog acted. “The diamond dogs brought her to us. She had a silly note saying Katrina was defeated but I think it´s just a deploy. Nonetheless, her feline friends must be searching for her, so I think the sooner we free her the better.” The cat subtly puffed. For a moment, she thought Drog had betrayed her. Both she and the troggles admired how smoothly he reacted. “A silly note? A silly note?!” Bray asked upset. “That note has triggered a rumour that has run through every slaves´ ear!” “Wait what?” Drog asked in shock. “That´s a great question I have, how did the slaves get that rumour?!” “Because Thalia and I accidentally slipped that information in front of a slave.” Enki confessed. Every creature stared at the two troggles in shock. “After retrieving the cat, Enki and I were called to duty. And while we guarding an empty, an empty corridor, we discussed the events, and out of nowhere, a pony materialized.” “Did she materialize or was she there already and you didn´t realize?” “She materialized!” “Did you at least try to stop her?” Bray asked them. Thalia and Enki hesitated to speak. “Did you try to stop her yes or not?” Bray insisted. “No.” Enki answered softly. “And why, if I may ask?” “We were too shocked to move.” All the other troggles massaged their foreheads, both mad at Thalia and Enki, but also terrified for their lives. “I actually don´t understand how that rumour spread.” Thalia smiled nervously. “Maybe it was because the words were rhythmic or they sounded funny…” “No, it wasn´t that, it was because the story´s super juicy.” Bray plainly stated. “The story´s juicy, yes…” Thalia admitted. “You really got yourselves in a very big mess for not taking her to the emperor in the first place.” Bray pointed at the cat. “However, we cannot know whether the diamond dogs´ declarations are true because if she´s been blackmailed, she might be saying what they told her to say in interrogation. So hopefully, we can confirm this was just a rumour.” “I wouldn´t call it just a rumour yet…” Grogar said behind their backs. After noticing his presence, Bray and the troggles made way for him and vowed towards him. The cat´s ears dropped in fear as Grogar got closer and closer to her. “Drop everything you have.” he ordered her. “I… I´m sorry my emperor but I´m not carrying anything.” the cat lied, hoping to sneak off a search. “If that´s the case, you wouldn´t mind me looking at your bag, right?” Grogar pulled out her bag so fast that the cat didn´t have time to react. He shook the bag downwards, dropping Katrina´s goblet in the process. Bray´s jaw dropped where as the troggles clenched their teeth. “Well, well. How did you manage to get this in your paws if it´s a well-known fact that it´s impossible to steal from Katrina?” Grogar raised an eyebrow. The cat panted in horror. She was so terrified that she couldn´t speak. The troggles held their breaths by covering their mouths. “You have four days to leave the empire. It´s a slow death sentence, considering most of your comrades have been wiped out thanks to your incompetence.” he walked towards her. “If by the fourth day word comes to me that you any of my territories, I´ll order for your arrest and torture you until your death.” he calmly threatened her. “Is that clear?” The cat felt relief inside. What he asked her was impossible to achieve, as the empire was enormous. But all she wanted was no harm to her comrades. “Yes sir.” “Escort her out of the castle slowly.” Grogar ordered Drog and Oak, seeing that they were nearest her. Drog and Oak raised their hands to their foreheads and pointed their spears at the cat´s back. Grogar turned to the rest of the troggles. “Get every troggle in the castle to the training place immediately.” The troggles nodded and left as fast as they could. Bray was about to leave with them but Grogar put his hoof on his way. “Not you Bray. We need to talk.” Grogar told him. Bray´s ears dropped. “I´m sorry I didn´t realize sooner but by the time-” he apologized before hoof. “It´s not about that. We both found out too late and that´s not our fault. However, there is something important that you have neglected.” “What is it?” “Discord, Bray. Discord! He´s growing more curious each day that passes and he´s starting to use his powers to get in touch with the exterior world. He´s the reason why we discovered all this scandal!” “Oh dear, you´re right…” Bray bit his hoof. “And before this happened, he started asking me about going outside. My emperor, I don´t know what we can do about this. There comes a time when you can´t hide anything from a wondering mind. You yourself did this in your younger days!” “THAT´S BECAUSE THEY DIDN´T DEAL WITH IT WHEN THEY SHOULD HAVE, JUST LIKE YOU RIGHT NOW!” Grogar yelled at Bray after stomping his hoof. “Discord will never be able to serve me as a serious threat to ponies. He´s just a creation of mine that failed, and the only reason I keep him around is to avoid him messing everything I created! Make sure he doesn´t undo any spells I´ll cast on his room. Until he becomes into a cold and serious beast, he mustn´t have any contact with the exterior! Understood?!” Bray looked down sadly. He never liked when the emperor yelled at him, especially at times he was expressing concern about him. However, showing hurt branded him as weak, so he simply held his head and frowned. “Yes, my emperor.” “Go join the troggles. I´ll be there soon.” “Do you need anything?” “No, just time alone.” Grogar turned his back on Bray. Bray nodded and left the ram alone but not before taking a glance of him with worry. Once he was completely alone, Grogar left out all the rage he had in by striking a wall with his magic, leaving a whole on it. He cursed both on Lucena and Gusty, but mostly the unicorn. Why? Why didn´t he suspect of her as more than just an incompetent spy? He already knew she wasn´t as innocent as she seemed, but he did not imagine her shadows would be that large. What´s worse, there was a warm and wise aura to her that drew others towards her. Even he found the contradiction between her emotions and intelligence very interesting, which might be one of the reasons why she fooled him. At least he was smart enough not to let her manipulate him, but he also knew others could be more vulnerable to her tricks. But perhaps the most frustrating thing of all was that in his heart there was the same feeling he drew his powers from others: fear. It was illogical, she was nowhere as powerful as him, but her personality was dangerous, very dangerous. Grogar noticed a breeze from the window moving his mane. He frowned at it and started walking towards the window. “I´m afraid when you´re out there Sharing your smile with others Because I can clearly see How you fool them all with your care And of your emotional heart For you making you rebellious And of your appearance Because it is so devious Of every time I see you thinking Planning carefully your next move Even of you staring at me Strongly desiring me to lose I think of your eyes of your eyes They´re like daggers on my chest I think of your eyes of your eyes They´re like daggers on my chest I think of your eyes of your eyes They´re like daggers on my chest I think of your eyes I think of your eyes I´m afraid when you´re out there Sharing your smile with others Because I can clearly see How you fool them all with your care I´m afraid when you´re out there Sharing your smile with others Because I can clearly see How you fool them all with your care So innocent that you threaten Your silence terrifies me Calculative like a siren I´m sure both of us can agree So I´ll watch all your steps Preparing every assault Because if I´m am not cunning My doom will be all of my fault I think of your eyes of your eyes They´re like daggers on my chest I think of your eyes of your eyes They´re like daggers on my chest I think of your eyes of your eyes They´re like daggers on my chest I think of your eyes I think of your eyes I´m afraid when you´re out there Sharing your smile with others Because I can clearly see How you fool them all with your care I´m afraid when you´re out there Sharing your smile with others Because I can clearly see How you fool them all with your care.” Realizing he was making the Bray and the troggles wait, Grogar decided to go back to his responsibilities. He gave the breeze entering a distrustful look as he left. > Chapter 19: Way down Trottingham > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- At that same night, Gusty couldn´t sleep. It wasn´t only due to the fact she shared the castle´s library with everypony to sleep, but there was simply too much to process as well. On the span of days, she managed to join forces with earth ponies, face dark spirits, and what´s more surprising, defeat a tyrant. Never in a million years would Gusty ever imagine this would happen to her. And all because she was nice to a sheep. After today, perhaps the idea of defeating Grogar didn´t seem that insane. But she still had three other tyrants to face before getting to the emperor. Even so, she felt hopeful that things could go better for her and her daughters. If only they were by her side to tell them these amazing adventures that had happened… Leaving Grogar´s castle gave her the chance to see them again but since she had to flee to survive, she didn´t have time to get their handkerchiefs, which were her own way to communicate with them. However, after noticing a scroll, she thought there was perhaps another way to communicate. Carefully, Gusty got up and passed through everypony without stepping on them and controlling the sound of her hoofsteps. Then, she took a paper and a fountain pen and walked to the balcony. While doing so, she took a moment to glance at Starswirl and the earth ponies and smiled at them, thankful for having met such wonderful ponies. Once she sat down, she strolled the scroll and started to write. She felt her heart filling with warmth and joy with each word she wrote down, even chuckling at some sentences that she wrote. When she finished the letter, she hugged it tightly and closed her eyes, imagining herself with her daughters. “Everything´s going to be ok. I promise.” she told her daughters. “Are you sure you want to go?” Moochick asked Knightshade and Alonzo as they packed to accompany the unicorns in their quest to save their leader. “There must be another way we can repay our debts.” “I appreciate your concern, sir Moochick, but we believe the sooner we return the favour, the more likely unicorns will help us in times of need.” Alonzo replied politely. “You never know when Grogar could attack!” Knightshade added while revising they had everything they needed. “Ah, I´m forgetting the food!” he quickly ran to grab it. “There will most probably be an attack, yes.” Moochick admitted. “But I doubt Grogar himself will be present there.” “Yeah, but knowing Grogar, he will probably send some powerful magical creature to destroy us. And I don´t think Magic Star will be able to create enough talismans for everypony for protection!” Knightshade pointed out anxiously. “I understand that unicorns´ magic can seem dangerous and difficult to understand, but from what I´ve seen, these unicorns use their magic wisely and not to hurt others. Unless it´s in self-defence of course.” Alonzo reassured him. “I know, I´m just being prudent. Every time we have interacted with a creature capable of magic, it´s always ended up in harm for us. They prey on us because they believe we are weak for not having their abilities, and some could even believe we shouldn´t exist.” Moochick argumented. “Well.. Katrina never tried to exterminate us all. She needed our work. Every tyrant does.” “Because we were lucky with Katrina. But we don´t know the unicorns´ leader.” “But we know six of her followers. And I believe they see us as their equals. Do you trust them at least?” Moochick looked down through the window, observing the unicorns talking to each other. Lancer and Glory seemed to be worried about something, so Gusty put her hoof on her chest, as if she was promising something. Then, Fizzy swang over Lancer, causing both of them to fall. The other unicorns giggled while watching Fizzy shrugging with a nervous smile at a frowning Lancer. Moochick slightly chuckled, since he was reminded of his youth and the companionship between earth ponies. They were not that different from them. Perhaps these six unicorns were trustworthy. “You´re right.” the elder leader finally agreed. “It´d be wise to return the favour as soon as possible to maintain them by our side, should their leader turn out to be hostile against us.” Alonzo smiled. “Well said sir!” Knightshade congratulated him from the other side of the room. “I´m glad you´re starting to use logic and reason!” Alonzo and Moochick narrowed their eyes at Knightshade, making him realize his wrong choice of words. “I think I´ve just called you irrational and undermined your whole mental capacity.” Knightshade took a brief pause before continuing. “I should probably get out of your sight now.” He bowed to Moochick and ran out the room. Alonzo rolled his eyes. “Take care, Alonzo.” Moochick laud a hoof on his shoulder. “I can´t lose two of my best warriors.” Alonzo nodded with a confident smirk. Meanwhile, the unicorns, Magic Star, Shady and Posey waited at the castle´s gates. They stared at Knightshade, surprised that he came alone. “Where´s Alonzo?” Gusty raised her eyebrow. “Coming.” Knightshade replied after panting for some seconds. “He´s talking with Moochick about something.” “Wouldn´t it make more sense if he talked to ye both?” asked Glory. “Ye´re part of the rescue mission too.” “Is it because you blurted out something out loud that upset sir Moochick?” Magic Star asked Knightshade teasingly. Knightshade clicked his tongue. “Yup.” he admitted. “Don´t worry.” Fizzy put her foreleg around him. “You´re not the only one who does that.” She reassured him. Speaking of Alonzo, everypony perked their ears up when they heard his hoofsteps. They turned around and saw him accompanied by Moochick. “I believe we´re already ready, right?” Lancer asked everypony. “When it comes to packing, I am very detailed and I´ve also revised Fizzy´s packing, so for me, we´re all ready.” Butons answered. “The same goes for me.” Shady showed all kinds of tools, weapons and food she carried on her bag. “Don´t you think that´s too much?” Posey asked her. “For me, it´s never too much. Anything could happen.” “Thank you! Finally somepony who agrees!” Knightshade exclaimed. “Then, let ourselves begin our journey. There´s no time to lose!” Lancer ordered. “Starswirl, Posey, lead the way.” The two ponies nodded their heads. “Why Starswirl?” Shady whispered in Buttons´ ear. “He´s from there.” Buttons whispered back. “Oh…” Before everpony marched, they bowed to Moochick. “We thank you all for your help in the rescuing of our leader.” Gusty said to Moochick. The earth pony nodded as a sign of respect. He entered the castle to go to the balcony in order to watch them depart, getting a clear view of Bridlengton and its inhabitants. The earth ponies praised Knightshade and Alonzo as they passed through the town, although they were also captivated by the unicorns. The stares made them uncomfortable at first, but soon they would realize those stares weren´t hostile. Instead, they were stares of gratitude and intrigue. In addition, they could hear some of their dialogues. “Look mom! That´s the unicorn that moved the clouds! She and her unicorns helped the rebellion to free ourselves!” a colt said to her mother. “Good luck in your journey! Hope you get to rescue your leader!” a family with their foals waved at the unicorns, at Gusty. The latter waved back. “I´ve heard rumours that the white one was the one Katrina was after. Apparently because they say she´s going to overthrow Grogar.” a stallion whispered to a mare. “What? That seems too far-fetched.” the mare disagreed. “But one thing´s clear: she seems not to be messed with.” Though she knew they were admiring all the unicorns, she also noticed that she was the spotlight in their eyes. Most of the times in which she was the centre of attention were of disdain and anger for something she did, even though in her eyes she was doing the right thing. Naturally, Gusty ended up being afraid of stares. She tried to return the smiles, but there came a point, in which she had to avoid eye contact. A familiar ugly sensation in the chest returned, and both her heartbeat and breath fastened. Noticing breezes moving his mane, Starswirl noticed Gusty´s anxiety, so he put a recomforting hoof on her shoulder. “Looks like they admire you.” he teased her. Gusty chuckled and blushed embarassed. They still had to cross the city, but after hearing Starswirl´s words, she felt she was supported and accompanied. And so, while the breezes were still around, they didn´t turn into a hurricane like they usually did. Moochick noticed the earth ponies looking at the unicorns, mostly Gusty. He couldn´t see their faces, but he knew they were admiring her. He decided to trust her and her comrades, but part of him was still afraid. What if by putting his trust in them he brings demise to his kind? What if they are blind followers? So many questions were running wild in his mind. “Don´t fail me. Don´t make me regret my decision.” Moochick thought to himself. Sarama paced around the throne room nervously, waiting for Crunch to come back from his reunion with Grogar while also wondering why the emperor would convene at night. Whatever the reason was, it couldn´t be good. What´s worse, it was morning and Crunch hadn´t arrived yet. The journey to Tambelon´s capital from Trottingham was long, but considering how urgently the emperor needed him, anything could have happened. A knock on the gates got her back to reality. “Come in.” she said to the dog behind gates. Turns out that there were three dogs waiting behind gates. They were Gaueko, Gwyllgi and Cavall. “Hey Sarama!” Gaueko cockily greeted her. “Just came here to inform you that the nocturnal search has been quite fruitful. With the strength of our lashes, there was nopony who resisted to work!” “Good, good.” Sarama said in reply. Sarama´s emotion didn´t match with her words. She seemed to be worried about something. “Is everything alright, Sarama?” Gwyllgi asked her. “You seem tense.” “How couldn´t I be? Grogar called our leader late in the night. That´s weird even for him. Something big must have happened, I just know it.” “Relax! If anything, it´s an advantage to us, I can tell you that.” said Cavall with a sly smirk. Noticing how relaxed the three diamond dogs were, Sarama started suspecting of them. “You know something, do you?” she narrowed her eyes. “Maybe.” answered Gaueko while looking at his claws. “Let´s just say that I was able to track the Wind Warrior and found out about some important news that could cause the emperor to give our dear and greatest leader more support and resources.” “Such as?” They were interrupted by an abrupt blow of the gates. Crunch was responsible of all the noise. “URGENT MEETING!” he cried. “My king!” Sarama exclaimed before vowing. “I´m so glad to see you´re o-” “Get every soldier to the courtyard, Sarama!” Crunch interrupted her. Though somewhat hurt by his coldness, Sarama nodded her head and obeyed. Meanwhile, Gaueko, Gwyllgi and Cavall approached him. “So… How was your meeting?” Gaueko asked him. “You three too! Get the soldiers! GO! GO!” Crunch yelled so loud and strongly, that his breath pushed the three diamond dog´s ears backwards, as if it was one of Gusty´s winds, only with a bad breath included. “We would. We would. But what if I told you we are responsible of Grogar´s sudden decision to call you?” Crunch´s ears perked up. “What do you mean?” the stone dog raised his eyebrow intrigued. “Well… I managed to get something of value from the Wind Warrior.” Gaueko showed Crunch the phoenix feather necklace. “Apart from being an excellent asset to blackmail her, it also served as a great tracker, which led me to Coltlogne.” Crunch leaned towards the necklace intrigued. “Hm…” the dog king scratched his chin. “And then I thought, if we tell you and you transmit this information to Grogar directly, he´s probably accuse you of being incompetent, and we know that you´re the least incompetent creature to roam this land. But perhaps he would take this more seriously if the source of information came from gossip…” Crunch´s grin of satisfaction grew more with each word Gaueko spoke. “Very well thought Gaueko. That´s why I have you three as my main henchdogs. You will be rewarded once the Wind Warrior business is over.” The three diamond dogs bowed to him, Gaueko adapting the most extravagant posture. “NOW GO!” Crunch ordered with an angry yell. The three dogs lifted their shoulders as a response to the yell. Most of the time, Crunch was angry, and the moments where he wasn´t angry were very very brief. Creatures in his environment were used to his mood swings, still, they´re never prepared for the shouting. “Geeze… Ok, ok!” Gwyllgi mumbled to herself while leaving the room. Meanwhile, the soldier dogs waited in the courtyard asking so many questions, whether between themselves or to Sarama. “Is everything alright, Sarama?” “Did something happen?” “Is this code red?” “Should we adapt the code red protocol?” Despite all the chaos, Sarama tried to ease the crowd. “Ok, ok!” Sarama raised her paws up. “We do not know what has happened yet, but we must not panic and take any precipitate decisions. We must wait for Crunch´s explanations and orders. In the meantime, it´s important that we remain calm.” she explained as serene as she could while moving her paws up and down. “And no spreading of speculations!” she pointed at a dog who she noticed was whispering to his comrade´s ear. The dog quickly stopped, hid his hands behind his back and smiled apologetically. Suddenly, the trumpets began to play. “The king of Trottingham, first in his name, Crunch!” Cavall announced. Every dog bowed while Crunch entered the courtyard and went up the platform. “Subjects! I bring you important news. The Wind Warrior has put an end to Katrina´s reign!” he smacked his foot. Every diamond dog gasped shocked. Sarama covered her mouth with her paws. “The prophecy´s true?” thought Sarama. “That brings good and bad news.” Crunch continued his announcement. “The good news is that this shows that dogs are superior to cats!” he put his fist to the air. The dogs barked and applauded in cheer. Sarama and some dogs in the crowd had their reservations, however. How can that be proved if they haven´t faced the Wind Warrior yet? “But that also brings us bad news. That means that the Wind Warrior is a real threat. So, you need to listen attentively to my plan and unleash the wolf inside you! Is that clear?” “Woof!” the soldiers barked as a sign of agreement. “The journey to here from Catnada is three days approximately. If you part right now, it´s more likely a surprise attack is successful.” “But sir.” a dog raised her hand. “Last time we ambushed them, they ended up frozen for a whole day!” “This time will be different. Because we´ll be blackmailing her with this.” Crunch showed them the phoenix feather necklace. “Ooo…” the dogs said in intrigue. “What is that? A talisman?” a male dog asked. “Not exactly.” Gaueko replied. “But it´s an object of value.” Gwyllgi clarified. “We notice she held it in a vulnerable moment.” Cavall pointed out. “Even if it doesn´t have any power, she does clearly have some sort of appreciation to it. If we threaten to destroy it, we could get distract her and catch her.” “Not everything of value has magic, you idiot.” Crunch insulted the dog that asked. “Especially for a punny pony.” “Sorry sir…” the dog apologized, hurt by Crunch´s words. “Is everything clear?” “Yes sir! Only one thing, what about the dogs that don´t form part in the castle? Do we prepare for battle or set a defence?” a female dog asked. “Those dogs will continue with their daily tasks.” Crunch answered. “Whoah, even the slave raptors?” a hesitant Sarama asked. “Yes, even the slave raptors!” “Don´t you think that´s a bit risky?” Crunch widened his eyes surprised. The rest of the dogs looked at their leader with horrified faces, as they knew what was going to happen. “Excuse me?” he asked back estranged. “Well, you know, those five unicorns might plan to infiltrate by disguising as potential targets for enslavers.” Crunch knew Sarama was certainly right. But that didn´t mean he liked it. “Also, I think the idea of having an urgency plan is appropriate. I understand we must follow with our tasks, but it´s also important to be prepared, should anything go wrong.” Sarama continued stating her opinion, despite Crunch´s frown. “Well, that was implicit in the plan, Sarama. Do you consider your comrades stupid perhaps?” Sarama raised her eyebrow. “I never said that.” she shook her head to emphasize her point. “Is that so? Ask them how they feel.” Crunch signed at the crowd. The crowd raised their eyebrows confused and looked at each other, not sure what to do next. “B-but sir.” the last dog that asked stuttered. “I think Sarama has-” “Are you mad or are you not mad?!” Crunch interrupted her. This was not the angriest the dogs had seen their leader, but they could feel the fury building on him. “Yeah! We´re not stupid Sarama!” a dog cried, although from the tone of his voice, Sarama could tell he was doing it so Crunch wouldn´t harm any dog. “Am I right?” The other dogs quickly understood what to do next. They barked in agreement and started `yelling´ at Sarama. “See Sarama? That´s why you should stay silent if I don´t ask you to speak.” Crunch smirked at her. Getting irritated by the noise, he raised his paw. “Alright! Alright! ENOUGH!” he smacked the floor, quieting every dog. “We´ll do as I said. Is everything clear?!” The dogs barked and raised their paws to the level of their foreheads. Sarama was going to leave like the rest but was stopped by Crunch grabbing and squeezing her foreleg. “Don´t you ever humiliate me in front of my subjects again.” he whispered menacingly in her ear. Sarama closed her eyes, supressing a whimper of pain, from Crunch´s squeeze. “I didn´t humiliate you.” she replied after inhaling and expiring. “I just corrected you.” “Oh, you didn´t?” Crunch clapped back once they were alone. “Then why didn´t you do it in private, huh?!” He pressed Sarama´s foreleg. She was starting to feel the sharp edges of his stone fingers penetrating her skin. “I thought we were planning together.” “Yeah right, as if I would believe that! Don´t you know I know what you´re planning? Making me look stupid so the other dogs look up to you and prefer you, a mere subject, to me, their king?! After hearing those words, Sarama felt a rush of adrenaline through her body that allowed her to free herself from Crunch´s grasp. “Not just any subject, your foredog and most important advisor.” she stated sharply. “Who´s the one that came up with all the defences on battles? Who´s the one behind all the military strategies? Who helped you to take decisions? Who-” “I AM THE ONE WHO´S IN CHARGE HERE!” he exclaimed while hitting the wall, leaving a hole on it. Sarama gasped and panted in fear and shock. Unconsciously, she took a few steps back from Crunch. “You´re scared now, aren´t you?” said Crunch. “Good, as it should be. You might think you have power because I chose you as my foredog but never forget that was because I didn´t want to keep fulfilling our parents´ deal. Keep advising me all you want but never correct me in front of others. Remember what your place is, and you and your family will be ok. But if you don´t, there will be consequences.” he said before leaving Sarama alone and closing the courtyard´s gates. Once she was alone, Sarama threw herself on her knees. She sadly looked at the golden ring around her finger and fidgeted with it. “So, to sum up, just when Katrina was about to shoot a sword at you, out of nowhere, you conjured up a crystal?” Starswirl recapped what Glory told him as they travelled to Trottingham. Glory nodded. They weren´t the only ones participating in the conversation. Gusty, Fizzy, Buttons and Lancer were as well. “I swear, I´ve never seen her do such thing. It came out of nowhere!” Lancer raised his foreleg. “Do ye think that could be my talent?” Glory asked Starswirl. “You never knew your special talent?” Starswirl asked genuinely surprised. Glory and Lancer looked at each other while pressing their lips. Feeling they were about to reveal something, Gusty, Fizzy and Buttons raised their eyebrows in intrigue. “No… Ye see....” Glory disassembled the rear parts of her armour, showing Starswirl her flank. “I never got a cutie mark.” With the exception of Lancer, all unicorns widened their eyes in surprise. “You never got a cutie mark?!” Fizzy asked in shock. Glory shook her head. “But, how can that be?” Gusty shook her head confused. “Honestly, I believe the question should be reversed.” Lancer opined. “Knowing how many limitations Grogar puts to our magic, it´s a miracle some of us got a cutie mark.” “From what Majesty and unicorns have told me, they got their cutie mark by accident while playing.” said Glory. “Exactly, that´s something ingrained in our species.” affirmed Starswirl. “As much as Grogar wants to keep us under control, he can´t stop cutie marks and special talents, thus why he forbids using them to the point that some forget them.” “That makes sense.” Buttons thought aloud. “Yes, but I didn´t have that chance. Ponies who can´t afford a roof to live under are in so much risk of being punished, executed or enslaved, so my parents never allowed me to play with magic. I thought I´d get one when I became a nurse at Majesty´s army, alas it never happened.” “You´re not alone. In my time at the monastery, I´ve met unicorns your age who didn´t have a cutie mark but they eventually earned once we gave them space to explore. So if you keep on experimenting with crystals, you might end up getting one.” Glory smiled at Starswirl. “It´s funny. I´ve been many years studying magic and there are still many things I still don´t understand. Like why crystals of all the talents in your case if you haven´t got any connection to crystals.” “Well… I do have some connection… Although my father and I were born in Strotland, my mother wasn´t born there. She came from a land far, far in the north, in which she told me there were many, many crystals. And she told me before she was captured and brought to the capital, she and her family worked with crystals, although neither of them could do the things I know I can do now.” “Huh. That gives me more evidence that crystal manipulation is your talent.” Glory blushed while smiling. Meanwhile, the earth ponies stayed silent. They tried not to interfere, since this was an intimate conversation, as well as they didn´t understand unicorn affairs. That didn´t mean they weren´t listening though, which Gusty noticed, judging by the stares. “You can join in the conversation, you know?” she invited them playfully. “From my understanding, cutie marks also involve earth ponies.” The earth ponies looked away embarassed. “Yeah… Sorry about that.” Alonzo scratched the back of his head. “But I´ll say it´s curious how this issue is prevalent among unicorns. One would think that the magical creatures would have no flaws or issues.” Buttons clicked. “That´s where you get it wrong.” “I never thought we´d have a privilege over unicorns. Never being able to find your purpose nor being able to engage in it sounds awful.” Knightshade reflected. “And if you do, you´re in danger.” stated Magic Star, having lived that in flesh. “Funny how an earth pony shares that experience with unicorns.” she smiled at Gusty, who returned the gesture. “The same goes for me.” Starswirl said to her. “I never imagined that I would identify with an earth pony on fleeing your home for maintaining a tradition alive.” “Is that why you flew Trottingham?” Shady asked him. Starswirl nodded. “For studying magic, yes.” “Speaking of Trottingham, are we there yet?” Fizzy asked. Glory, Gusty, Buttons and Lancer grunted. “Fizzy, don´t begin, eh? Please!” Lancer begged her. “Hey, this is the first time I asked that! And I wasn´t planning on asking that much either like last time.” “What happened last time?” Shady asked curiously. “You don´t want to know, trust me.” Buttons answered her. “Just in case that happens again, I happen to know the recipe for a tranquilizer potion.” Magic Star winked an eye. “That seems a little extreme, doesn´t it?” Gusty asked a bit concerned. “To me it doesn´t. In fact, I see it as extremely necessary.” Lancer disagreed. “Could you prepare one for me, Magic Star?” Knightshade asked her. “I think I might need one, because I´m very nervous.” “You always say that, and it always turns out to be fine.” Alonzo patted Knightshade´s back. “But that was because we knew Katrina. We don´t know anything about Crunch! He could be way worse. I bet he´s the type of guy that has foals for breakfast.” “Ok, you have a point in there.” Alonzo clenched his teeth anxiously. “I haven´t spent much time around him, but from what Katrina told me, Crunch´s always led by his anger.” Posey explained. “Although that might not seem a wise way to lead, his wrath has gained him fear among his subjects and slaves. I´ve heard that if provoked, he turns creatures into stone and crushes them in pieces. That´s why he´s known as The Destroyer.” Lancer, Glory and Starswirl nodded in agreement. The rest shared worried glances. Some, like Knightshade and Shady even gulped. Suddenly, the earth ponies widened their eyes and put themselves on guard. “Something´s coming.” said Magic Star. “What? How do you know that?” Gusty asked them, wondering how they got to such conclusion. “The vibrations from the earth! Don´t you feel them?” answered Knightshade, as if it was something obvious. “Um… No…” Lancer raised his eyebrow, asking for explanations indirectly. “Earth pony thing, I guess.” Alonzo muttered to himself. “And where are they coming from?” asked Fizzy after glancing around. “Underground.” Shady stated. The unicorns quickly understood who was coming. They gasped scared. “Diamond dogs!” Gusty exclaimed. “Fizzy, Buttons! You and I will grab the earth ponies. The rest teleport yourselves to a safe place. We´ll see you there!” she ordered the unicorns. Glory, Lancer and Starswirl nodded before disappearing. Since Posey and Magic Star were the nearest to her, Gusty conjured up a wind to lift them and herself to a tree branch. The two earth ponies whimpered uncomfortably at the sensation of floating. Fizzy took some water from her canteen to grab Alonzo and Knightshade and put them between some tree branches. Due to the nerves and the urgence of the situation, Fizzy didn´t do it carefully with grace, but quick and somewhat violent instead, so much that Knightshade would have fallen from the tree if it hadn´t been for Alonzo grabbing him. “Sorry!” Fizzy apologized once she teleported by their side. “With your permission, mademoiselle.” Buttons hugged Shady before igniting her horn so they could teleport next to Gusty. Shady took a deep breath and panted anxiously once they were safe. “Don´t ever do that again without warning me!” Shady scolded Buttons. Buttons shushed her and pointed downwards, where a hole was opening on the ground. Some dogs came to the surface, but they weren´t Gaueko, Gwyllgi and Cavall. Instead, there were a dalmatian, a golden retriever, a fair brown and white papillon dog and a bulldog. The unicorns didn´t remember seeing any of them at the battle at Starswirl´s house, which was a huge relief. That didn´t mean it was safe though. “Any sign of anypony?” the golden retriever asked. “Nope!” the dalmatian replied after glancing around carefully. “There´s no helpless pony to capture!” Gusty raised her eyebrows. Crunch might seem Majesty and her army as inferior, but `helpless´ is certainly not a word neither he nor his minions would apply to them, considering they had reconquered territories. They had to be talking of somepony else. She tilted her head and raised her ear to listen carefully to every word they said. “Aaaargh! Why is it getting more and more difficult to get slaves for the mines?!” the bulldog dragged his ears down in frustration. “Maybe it´s because we´ve been capturing ponies for so much time that nopony dares to travel to Trottingham because word of what happens to wondering travellers spread around, and the ponies living in surrounding villages left in sought of refuge?” the papillon suggested as an explanation. His comrades stared at him in confusion as to how and why that reflection came to be. “It´s true though.” the papillon said in his defence. “Well, that could be in the unicorns´ case but now that Katrina´s not around anymore, we could go to Marenada and go for earth ponies instead.” the golden retriever suggested. Gusty, Fizzy, Buttons and Shady widened their eyes. “They know already?” they all shared the same thought despite not reading each other’s mind. The rest of ponies weren´t that surprised, as they knew how quickly important information like Katrina´s defeat travelled around kingdoms. Meanwhile, the dogs continued their conversation carefreely. “Yeah! They might be more efficient in finding precious stones than unicorns, due to their connection to the earth.” the bulldog agreed. “I digress, unicorns could be far more efficient if they knew a spell to track precious stones. Alas, Grogar´s against that for some reason!” the dalmatian raised his paws to the air. “Because if they do, they could use that to their advantage.” the papillon informed. “Ok, will you shut up? You don´t have to inform us of everything all the time!” the golden retriever scolded him after punching his head. A tear formed in the papillon´s face and whimpered, both hurt by the hit and those harsh words. Even the ponies felt their sting. “Well, enough with preferences and let´s keep searching instead.” the papillon tried to redirect the conversation as he quickly wiped that tear. “Otherwise, Crunch crunches us. Ha! See what I did there?” “Do you want to get hit again or what?” the dalmatian warned him, as they came back underground again. The ponies waited for the dogs to leave so they could get down the trees. Magic Star climbed down the tree trunk and put her hooves slowly on the ground. The unicorns imitated her, but Magic Star told them to stop by raising her hoof. She waited some seconds to speak again. “They´re far enough. It´s safe now, everypony.” “Oh dear. They know about Katrina. This will make things more difficult for us since it´s likely they´ll be expecting us.” Buttons commented worried. “Not only that, but those three dogs and their legion are searching for us for sure…” Lancer added. “And another teensy detail, we´re a much smaller group now, so it´s not like we can burst up the gates to the city and the castle like last time.” Knightshade pointed out. “There is another way, though.” said Posey. The ponies turned back to her and saw her staring at the hole the dogs left and forgot to close, due to the rush they were in. They all walked to it and looked down with some hesitation. “Oh… I don´t know.” Shady´s ears dropped. “I´m a bit weary of closed and dark spaces.” “About the darkness I wouldn´t worry, since we have light sources.” Buttons pointed at her horn. “But the idea of being in such a tiny space does make me uncomfortable.” “None of us do, but what option do we have?” asked Alonzo. “Tsk, you have a point…” Shady lamented. “It doesn´t seem a bad plan, since we could diverse the diamond dogs easily.” Starswirl scratched his beard. “Yes, but would any of you manage to find your way around underground? Because I certainly wouldn´t.” said Fizzy. “Maybe we can follow them.” Gusty suggested. Everypony stared at Gusty. “And how? We don´t know which way they went.” Magic Star raised an eyebrow estranged. “If you had been paying attention, those dogs were looking for ponies to capture. What if one of us let themselves be captured so the rest can follow the dogs?” Glory widened her eyes and smiled. “Of course! Plus, the pony that volunteers could also infiltrate to free Majesty.” After taking a moment to think, everypony ended up nodding their heads in agreement. “So, which one of us volunteers?” Glory immediately knew the answer when she noticed all the stares. “Oh…” After a while, the dogs resurfaced again and examined their surroundings. In the meantime, the ponies were hiding behind a bush. “Are ye sure about this?” Glory asked everypony nervously. “I don´t know if I´m the most indicated pony for this.” “You are, Glory.” Posey replied firmly. “Diamond dogs are having lots of trouble in finding gemstones and crystals lately. And not everypony gets to be a slave. Once you are captured, you´d better useful, otherwise they´ll end you.” she put her fists together to emphasize her point. “But what happened at Catnada was an accident. What if I can´t do it again? Or what if I end up messing everything up? I still have to find out the hang of this crystal thing I can do.” “You´re telling this to me, who had to endure and escape Grogar´s castle with no knowledge of how my winds work, except that they get out and strong if I´m very nervous.; and almost destroyed Majesty´s life mission.” Gusty smirked playfully. “But we´re still alive, aren´t we? And now you´re more trained in magic, so if the crystal talent fails you, you still have an ace up the sleeve.” “Huh.” Glory said in realization. “I didn´t think of it that way.” Gusty grabbed Glory´s hooves. “Ok, let´s try something. Close your eyes and take a deep breath.” Glory imitated Gusty´s gestures. Gusty opened her eyes once Glory´s were closed. “Very well. Now, I want you to keep on breathing while imagining the water flowing on a crystalline river.” Gusty instructed her. “I don´t think we have time for that, Gusty.” Lancer said to her. “We do, it´s very short, trust me.” Gusty noticed Glory opened one eye, so she closed it for her. “Ok, in every river there are rocks, right?” “Hm.” Glory nodded. “And no matter how hard the water hits them or pushes through, they´re still there, aren´t they?” “Aye.” “Well, when you´re out there, I want to think yourself as that rock. Steady and enduring despite the water. The water being the diamond dogs in this case, of course.” “Ok.” Gusty grabbed Glory by the shoulder, causing her to open her eyes. “We believe in you Glory. You can do this.” Gusty nodded. Glory frowned determined and nodded back to Gusty before getting out of the bush. Since the diamond dogs were some steps away from them, they didn´t notice her presence. Although she had accomplished the first part of the plan, she was hesitant to take the next step. She bit her lip and turned her head back at her comrades, who encouraged her with smiles or gestures. After smiling at them, she looked back at the dogs, took a deep breath, and stretched her forelegs. “Aaaah! What a beautiful and braw morning to take a walk!” she said loud enough so the dogs could hear her. As planned, the dogs noted her presence. They quickly hid in the hole, leaving only the forehead the eyes out to observe Glory. “And of course, to get some crystals!” Glory continued speaking, acting ignorant of the dogs near her. She ignited her horn, closing her eyes to focus better. But no matter how much she had prepared or how much effort she was putting, she didn´t achieve the desired outcome. She stopped when she felt her breath running out, but quickly attempted again. And again, and again… And still no result. Naturally, the situation affected Glory, but her comrades were just as nervous, especially Lancer. The dogs were simply staring estranged, although they also found the situation humorous. After several attempts, Glory ended up losing her cool. “Aaargh! Come out, ye daft crystal!” she yelled before stomping. Suddenly, success. She managed to conjure up a big structure of crystal. At first, Glory jumped on her back, appalled by her abrupt creation. “Oh, finally!” she exclaimed satisfied. The dogs rubbed their eyes, not sure if what they have just witnessed was part of their imagination or real. “Is that-” the dalmatian barely could talk. “Diamond!” the papillon exclaimed. “And of very good quality too!” the bulldog added. “Then, what are we getting for? Let´s get her!” the golden retriever commanded. Immediately, the dogs came back underground, digging their way to Glory. The unicorn closed her eyes, preparing herself to be pulled violently to the underground. However, the dogs took longer than expected, which was odd from their part, since they were usually very quick about it. Glory turned to her comrades to shrug and shake her head. “Did it work or are they setting us a trap?” Fizzy asked confused. “Could be.” answered Lancer. “Which is why we need to-” Just as he was talking, a hole and four paws appeared bellow Glory, which dragged her down before she could scream. Everypony was caught of guard, but only the earth ponies were left in shock, since this was their first experience with diamond dogs. “No, they bit the bait.” Buttons corrected Lancer. Gusty lifted herself up the bush with a small tornado and flew towards the hole, stopping at a point close enough to observe down the hole, but far enough not to be averted by the dogs. “Who are ye? What do ye want? What´s going on?!” Glory asked in fake fear, although her screams seemed to be of pure horror. So much that Gusty began to wonder if the plan was too much for Glory. But Glory confirmed her she had everything in control by winking with a brief smile. The papillon was about to answer but the dalmatian covered his mouth. “Shut up! You´re our property now, and you´ll do as we say!” the golden retriever replied rudely. “You had better obey, otherwise you´ll be punished!” the bulldog advised her threateningly. “And forget your old life behind, because you´re never coming back.” the dalmatian added. “NOOOO!” Glory screamed exaggeratedly as the dogs laughed. Gusty waited for Glory and the dogs to be out of sight to put her hooves back on the ground. She sighed for everypony to come out the bushes. “My goodness. How didn´t she get a cutie mark for acting? Because that scream was surely convincing.” said Buttons while she and Starswirl lifted the bush, opening the way for the rest of the ponies. “I wonder that too.” Starswirl agreed with her. “So… How do we get down there?” asked Alonzo once everypony was out of the pushes. Posey was the first one to take action. She opened her bag and took out a rope. She threw it to her fellow earth ponies. “Take this.” she ordered them. “Whoah, whoah, we didn´t say who would go first.” Knightshade replicated as he and the other earth ponies caught it in the air. Posey tied and secured the rope around her torso. “I don´t mean to throw myself flowers, but I seem a logical choice. I´ve been around diamond dogs many times and I know how they travel underground. It´s a matter following their pattern, trust me.” After hearing her arguments, the ponies changed their minds. They frowned determined and nodded at Posey, who smiled back confidently. “Ok. I´ll jump on the count to three. One, two, three!” She spread her legs while jumping down. Her leap somewhat dragged the earth ponies towards the hole, so the unicorns held them back with magical beams, or a stream of water in Fizzy´s case. “Is everypony alright?” Gusty asked the earth ponies. “Yeah, thanks for asking.” Magic Star answered after sighing in relief. “You good, Posey?” Shady asked in whispers to Posey, since she was the pony closest to her. Posey nodded. She slightly pulled the rope two times, indicating the ponies to let go the rope a little so she could go down. After a while, she pulled one time so they could grab the rope firmly again. time. From there, she began to dig a hole on the left wall until it was big enough for one more pony. As they agreed, after finishing and untying the rope around herself, she waved to the pony behind. “Got it.” Shady winked an eye at Posey. “She´s finished.” she communicated to her teammates. “We need a unicorn now!” “On it!” Fizzy offered herself. She teleported herself to the brink of the hole. After tying the rope to her torso, she jumped to the hole, exclaiming cheerfully. “Weee!” She smiled at Posey once she was in front of her. She helped her to get on to the hole and untie the rope. While Posey was digging to make space for one more pony, Fizzy waved to indicate the next pony to come down. “Ok, I´m going down!” Shady told Fizzy. Despite her statement, she started having second thoughts after looking down, realizing how tall the hole was. “Can´t we change sides?” she asked Magic Star, since she was behind her. Magic Star raised an eyebrow at her. “Ok, ok, I´ll go.” Shady reluctantly obeyed. Magic Star smiled while offering her a band for her eyes. After she tied it to her own eyes while Magic Star tied the rope around her torso, Shady disposed herself to go down the hole. “Ok. Find the courage.” she said to herself while walking to the brinks of the hole. “Do this for your FRIENDS!” Unfortunately, Shady didn´t calculate her steps correctly and kept walking when she should have stopped. Quickly, Magic Star grabbed the rope firmly, preventing Shady from crashing down. When she felt herself hanging, Shady huffed and puffed violently from her nose. She was about to yell after noticing the band on her face moving, but something covered her mouth before she could. Luckily, she was safe. Fizzy was the one untying the band whereas Posey had her hoof on her mouth, shushing her silently. Shady sighed and smiled in relief. Fizzy and Posey aided her to get inside the hole. Meanwhile, Magic Star observed everything from the surface. “Huh. Guess the band wasn´t a good idea after all.” she thought aloud. She shrugged. “Well, I guess I´ll take this into account for future situations. Anyway, I´m going down!” And so, she went down by holding the rope with her front hooves. Once she was in front of Posey, Fizzy and Shady, the first dug for more space. The same process was repeated six more times. The remaining ponies arrived in different manners. Some arrived gracefully, such as Buttons, Lancer and Alonzo, while others not so. For example, Knightshade had some trouble making knots on the rope before going down, so when he arrived, he was upside down with his four hooves tied. Alonzo smirked playfully while looking at him. The only ones that didn´t use the rope were Starswirl and Gusty. Starwirl because he feared the rope breaking after holding so much weight, so he decided to use a levitation spell as he went down, holding his breath until Knightshade and Alonzo offered him their hooves. Gusty, on the other hoof, because she didn´t have any other choice, since there was nopony to hold her. However, even if she could use the rope, she preferred to use her trusted tornado trick. Once Gusty had reached everypony, Fizzy ignited her horn to light the way Posey was going to make. “Ok. Is everypony ready?” Posey asked in whispers. “Hm.” everpony nodded confidently. “I do have one question though, are you sure you can dig all the way out yourself?” Alonzo asked to Posey concerned. “It´s just I don´t feel comfortable leaving all the work to you.” “Don´t worry. I had to dig many times for hours in search of jewels and precious stones while infiltrating for Katrina. I´m used to this.” she reassured her. “I just hope they didn´t change their way while we were going underground.” Lancer said worried. “Nope, they´re still in the same direction!” Magic Star replied. “Ha ha! It´s so clear they haven´t been around earth ponies.” “Um… Hate to be that pony, but how long do you calculate we´ll be here? It´s just I´m starting to get overwhelmed.” Shady looked up in fear. “Not so long. I´m a fast digger.” Posey winked an eye at her. “Even so, the way to Trottingham is long.” Starswirl commented. “I haven´t stepped on this part of the forest in years, and much less underground, but I seem to remember it took me days to-” Starswirl decided to keep quiet when he noticed how much Posey was contradicting his words. After a tiny stretch of her hooves, Posey was at least fifty inches away from everypony. Her hooves dug faster than even the best pick would. The ponies blinked in shock at first, but they quickly advance forward to catch up with her. Starswirl, however, was still too shocked to move. “Does every earth pony do that?” he turned to Gusty. Gusty rolled her eyes playfully. “Just move forward, mister snail.” Gusty pushed him softly with her hoof to make some space between them so she could also move. “Hey, I´m not slow!” he replicated to her while catching up with Posey. “Whatever you say.” Gusty teased him. Starswirl frowned upset as Gusty giggled. > Chapter 20: Rescue mission begins > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Glory felt as if a thousand bees stung her in her forelegs, due to how deep the dog´s claws were tearing into her coat. Despite that pain, she didn´t complain. Pretending to be scared and asking for help was fine until the dogs´ annoyance quickly shifted into real anger, which if not careful, could bring her grave consequences. So, she needed to be silent. Although safer, silence also meant tension, since that would allow the dogs to hear her comrades. Speaking of them, were they able to find a way to execute the plan? Naturally, they wouldn´t take the same trail as the dogs, but she didn´t hear any hoofsteps from neither beneath nor bellow, so the answer could be a yes or no. There was no way she could verify. If there was something Glory hated more than anything was uncertainty. Becoming an orphan at a really young age forced her to face uncertainty and taking actions without too much thinking in order to survive, something that led her to places and experiences she wished not to have had known of. That was why she loved to gather every single detail of information from both the past and her enemies. A rotting smell made brought her back to the present. She stretched her nose and closed her eyes. “We´re here!” the golden retriever informed Glory, although she was too engrossed and disgusted by that smell to hear the information. “What´s that smell?” Glory muttered. “What smell?” the golden retriever asked confused. Glory quickly found out the source of that nasty smell when the dog spoke once more, since he approached his head to her face so she could hear him. She coughed in teary eyes. “Nothing… Must have imagined it.” she lied, not wanting to anger the dog. “She must be talking about the sweat of the slaves in the mine.” the bulldog deduced. “It is really smelly!” “Wait. Mines?” asked Glory. She widened her eyes and left her jaw hanging in shock when she looked at her surroundings. Hundreds of unicorns were scanning the area with their magic, pulling heavy carts non-stop and those who stopped for a moment were whipped at different tunnels and levels. Although this was her first time in this place, she instantly recognized it, as it matched Majesty´s description. What was in front of her eyes were the horrifying Mines of Trottingham, where the inhabitants of the city were used as workforce to obtain as many jewels as possible for the diamond dogs. “What do you think? Beautiful place, huh?” the dalmatian nudged her teasingly. “Indeed, beautiful place.” the papillon dog nodded in agreement. “Did you know the structure is an exact replica of Dimondia´s mines, which is the place where-” The poor excited dog couldn´t finish his sentence due to his teammate hitting the back of his head. Glory widened her eyes surprised, both due to leader tyrannical behaviour and how indifferent the other surrogates were to the mistreatment of one of their own. “Shut up, Argus! Don´t make her fall asleep with your nonsense, we need her working!” the golden retriever scolded him. “Not another word!” the bulldog exclaimed as he and his teammates raised their paws to their foreheads. In a matter of seconds, they removed the anti-magic ring from her horn and put a harness connected to a cart on her back and adjusted it to her body. The harness was so heavy for her that she almost fell to the ground. “Oof!” she exclaimed as she struggled to stretch her legs again. “What are you doing?!” the dalmatian yelled at her. “Start moving!” he kicked her back, making her drop again. Glory frowned upset, but at the same time she was grateful that she was the one to experience this. If it had been any other pony, they would have opened their mouth and possibly blown up the mission. She exhaled tired and slowly got up. “Ok, gentledogs. Where do I go?” she plainly asked. “You tell us. Wherever you find diamonds or crystals!” the bulldog replied. Glory looked at her horn with doubt. This was the part of the plan she feared the most: experimenting with her crystal magic. There were still so many mysteries to uncover to this new discovered talent of hers, especially the limitations, which could cause the mission to fail. Although her fear of diving into the unknown with no guidance was bigger, a tiny part of her was excited, since this was something that she always wanted to do. Plus, improvising could be the answer. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, closed her eyes and ignited her horn. Suddenly, she was able to spot many hidden crystals all around the mines. And that wasn´t it, she could also locate the crystals the diamond dogs were wearing on their clothes, including from the dogs who weren´t in the mines. Particularly, she glimpsed diamonds on a belt with keys belonging to a sleeping guard of the dungeons. Due to how much information she was receiving, Glory stopped igniting her horn, feeling her head going in circles in a thousand miles per hour. She grunted while massaging her temple and closing her eyes quite tightly. “So?” Argus asked inquisitively, tapping his fingers against each other in curiosity. Glory opened her eyes slowly. “There sure are lots of crystals…” she replied while looking up at two tunnels high above, getting a general idea of Majesty´s whereabouts. “Glad to hear that!” the bulldog clapped his paws together excitedly. “Where do we begin?” “I say near we came from. I felt the presence of the shiniest crystals right there.” “Then so be it. Move it you mule!” the golden retriever commanded, whipping Glory´s back. “Oh!” Glory let out a muffled scream before frowning. “Well, Bray would take offense at that word, not me.” she muttered to herself. “This way, lads.” she guided the dogs to their destination making the dogs giggle in an excited and malicious manner. In the meantime, the unicorns and earth ponies were catching up to Glory and the dogs, thanks to Posey´s tremendous speed at digging. But like every living being, she had her limits of energy and resistance, so it was no surprise that she progressively and considerably slowed down and that her tongue was out while panting at that moment. “Guys-” she took a deep breath. “I think-” she took another breath. “You´ll have to excuse me but- I need a moment.” she let herself drop. “No problem, you need it.” Fizzy offered her some water from her canteen. “Yes, take a break Posey.” Shady implored her. “Plus, we´re not that far away. They´re gentle but I can feel many vibrations, which I suppose come from all the slaves in the mines, and that´s great because I´m starting to feel trapped, although I´ll just focus on the beautiful crystals around.” she laughed nervously while a few drops of sweat ran through her forehead. Starswirl sighed both sadly and nervously. “Are you alright?” Gusty asked him, putting a comforting hoof on his shoulder. “Yes, don´t worry. It´s just… I had hoped I would never have to see that place again.” The unicorns widened their eyes, surprised they didn´t pick on the fact that Starswirl being from Trottingham meant he must have been a slave before being adopted by the monastery. Sadly, that was also expected. But not for the earth ponies. “Wait. You worked in the mines in Trottingham?” Knightshade asked shocked. “Of course. Crunch doesn´t discriminate between ages to choose slaves. Plus, how do you think my parents got sick?” “The more reason to put him down.” Gusty said to cheer him up while empathising with him. Starswirl chuckled and tapped her hoof to thank her. “Speaking of which, do you guys know how to defeat him?” Alonzo asked. “Because your magic can destroy stone, right?” Gusty, Fizzy and Buttons widened their eyes. “Oh my. We didn´t think about that detail, did we?” Buttons said to the unicorns with worry. “We didn´t; but that´s because firstly, we haven´t had much time to discuss that; and secondly, Majesty was supposed to explain this to you, but you know what happened.” responded Lancer. “Coming back to the question, the answer´s probably not. Not much is known about how Crunch came to be what he is now, but we believe that the stone that´s now his flesh and skin could have magical properties, which means that the stone could act as a magical barrier.” “It does.” Starswirl confirmed. “Back at the monastery, we studied countless cases of ponies using black magic to grant themselves powers or abilities they don’t have. To our knowledge, diamond dogs have no magic as such, leading us to the hypothesis of Crunch obtaining that ability through dark magic.” “Dark magic again, seriously?” Magic Star wondered aloud in frustration. “Did they all read the same manual on how to be a tyrant or what?” “Apparently, yes.” Starswirl said to Magic Star with the same level of frustration. “Following that premise, we decided to inspect all about Crunch´s stone magic; and we observed that indeed, the stone in all his body does act like a magical barrier. However, there is word of the spell not going according to plan and leaving one spot in his body vulnerable.” “Exactly, that´s what Majesty told us!” Lancer pointed out to Starswirl. “Really? Where is it?” Gusty asked full of hope. Both Starswirl and Lancer pressed their lips and shared disillusioned faces, suggesting Gusty and everypony else that they weren´t going to like the answer. “Unfortunately, Crunch has been able to hide this flaw really well from everypony and even from his followers. And those who discovered it haven´t lived to tell the tale.” Starswirl told everypony. “But there´s got to be somepony or dog that knows, right?” suggested Fizzy. “I mean, if there´s something I have learnt with this whole deal is that even the best kept secrets end up leaking, no matter how well you hide them.” Lancer scratched his chin in thought. “I can´t believe I´m saying this to you of all ponies, Fizzy; but those are very wise words.” “Why, thank you.” Fizzy smiled with honour at first, but her emotions shifted dramatically when she processed the first part of his sentence. “Wait. Did you just call me stupid?” Despite her questions, Lancer continued talking as if nothing had happened. “Tell you what.” he clapped his hooves. “Apart from dealing with the guards, you could also take time to interrogate them about this.” he insinuated to the earth ponies, since they were the ones assigned with this task. “You know, so we hopefully don´t have to figure it out while battling Crunch.” They all stared at each other and nodded in agreement. “We think that´s a good idea.” Magic Star informed him in everypony´s name. “Eh? Wasn´t I supposed to do that?” Fizzy asked confused. “No, Fizzy.” Lancer said a bit frustrated after sighing. “Just stick with us at all times and you´ll see what your job is.” “Ok, I can do that!” Fizzy confirmed excitedly. “Now that we´re revising what each of us has to do, did Glory say what the starting signal would be?” asked Knightshade. “Or better question, how is she going to do that?” “When she does, we´ll know it. She´ll let us know somehow.” Lancer replied confidently. “Hopefully.” he nervously muttered the last part, though he spoke loud enough for everypony else to hear. Suddenly, the earth ponies felt something in their hooves. “Hey! Somepony´s coming.” Alonzo notified everypony. “Who, Glory? Does that mean we take on the next step?” Gusty asked him. Alonzo shushed her, but he pointed at the ground and placed his ear above the ground, like every earth pony else. Apart from steps, they heard voices and a conversation. Although the sound was distorted, they were able to understand the words the mysterious comers were saying and even identify one of them by her voice. Not so far below, Glory guided the diamond dogs to a spot in which she detected diamonds previously. She saw a stick nearby and took it to mark the place the diamonds where in. However, she forgot the detail that dogs had quite the special affinity with sticks. So, as soon as she raised the stick; all the dogs, with the exception of the golden retriever, put their paws together, bent them, and wagged their tails in excitement, barking joyfully or sticking their tongue out. “Stop it, you idiots!” the golden retriever scolded them. “It´s just a stick…” the golden retriever´s pupils widened in interest, slowly falling into hypnosis. But he was stronger than his subordinates, so in a moment of realization, he shook his head to refocus and covered his eyes. “Put that thing down, mule!” he ordered Glory. “Aye. Just give me a second…” Glory sticked her tongue out while drawing an x on the ground with the stick. Once she was finished, she hid it behind her back. “Ok, you may now, lads.” To make the other dogs come back to reality, the golden retriever swept his paw across their cheeks, making Glory widen her eyes. Though his other paw was still on his eyes, he didn´t miss any cheek, which made Glory doubt whether this fact was more surprising than his decision to slap his comrades. “You heard her! Let´s dig!” he ordered them. “Yes sir!” the dogs obeyed. The golden retriever stood next to Glory, watching how they were digging. Noting he was distracted, Glory leveraged that to carry on with her part of the plan. She puffed softly and closed her eyes to scan the area. Like before, she saw too many crystals in too many places, but after putting her mind into it, she managed to reduce the vision to just their surroundings. She noticed some beneath her, most specifically, in front of the tunnel her comrades built. Then, she focused on them to make them glim. Though very weakly and slowly, the crystals in the tunnel the rest of the ponies were in began flickering which caught Posey´s eye. “Look!” she pointed at them. When they noticed the flickering crystals, Buttons and Fizzy started cheering for Glory. “Woohoo, it worked!” Fizzy exclaimed enthusiastically. “She did it!” stated Buttons just as excited. While the unicorns were happy, the earth ponies were in shock. “Indeed, she did.” was all Magic Star could articulate. “Seriously, who gave them this much advantage?” she asked while looking at a hypothetical receptor. Gusty, Starswirl and Lancer sighed in relief. “Attagirl.” he muttered proudly. “Alright, go, go, go!” he told everypony. Thus, everypony got on the move. Back below, Glory sweated to keep the crystals flickering, both due to the enormous mental effort and the anxiety of getting caught. She stopped once she heard the golden retriever´s voice. “Boy, you were right! There sure was a gold mine here! Or should I say diamond mine!” he and his colleagues laughed at his pun. “What´s the next stop?” “Hm…” Glory looked back in thought, tapping her chin. Lancer dug a tiny hole high on the wall to get a good vision of the mines, though the sight of exploited and suffering unicorns was far from good. Noticing his expression of anguish, Gusty decided to join him. “Excuse me guys…” she said while creeping on them. “It´s just one second.” Despite her feeling the weight of her hooves like a bag of a thousand potatoes, neither Buttons, Fizzy nor Starswirl said a word. Lancer did, however. “Hey!” he grumbled when Gusty stepped on his nose. “What are you doing?” “Lending you a hoof, mister.” Gusty clenched her teeth due to the effort she was making to get to the hole, not caring if she had to restrain Lancer´s head against the ground. Once she had reached it, she focused on just scanning the ground, spotting Glory igniting her horn in the process. “There she is!” “So?” the golden retriever asked Glory, down below the five unicorns. “Well, I remember noticing some really shining crystals up there.” Glory pointed with her hoof at a tunnel high above. Gusty observed that gesture thoroughly. “At the tunnel?” the bulldog asked confused. “Aye. But let me check again just in case.” After igniting her horn, some crystals in the carts that multiple unicorns were pushing gave out a small sparkle that reflected on Gusty´s eyes. She gasped in realization. “The tunnel! We have to go through the tunnel!” she informed every unicorn. “Wait, not yet!” Lancer struggled to speak, since Gusty was pressing his head against the ground very hard. Despite his speech not being very clear, Gusty could hear him. “What?” More aggressively than he intended, Lancer pushed Gusty backwards to get her hoof off his head, making each unicorn fall on the next one, like a domino. “I said not yet!” he repeated. He bit his lip when he realized what he had caused. “Oops… Sorry.” he apologized embarrassed. The unicorns grunted in pain. “None taken.” Fizzy rose up her hoof. “Ah, this is because we are in such a tiny space.” Buttons complained. “We will leave soon, but we have a problem.” Lancer announced them. “Which is…” Gusty started speaking. “Sarama, the foredog.” said Lancer while looking down at the dog. Sarama paced around the mines, making sure and hoping there were no new slaves. Although Crunch authorized the slave raptors to keep capturing ponies, Sarama thought it would be best to do otherwise. She would have ordered them to stop sooner, but there were other duties she needed to attend first. Plus, some of the slave raptors were not present at Crunch´s communiqué, which meant they could have inadvertently brought rebels. Remembering every slave´s name and aspect was practically impossible, but Sarama could identify each of them by their smell. Having spent almost every day in the mines allowed her to register and recognize every new and old smell. At first, there were only familiar smells, but then she noticed a different one. “Oh no.” she mumbled worried. She turned to the direction of the smell and followed its trail with her eyes, leading her to Glory and the four slave raptors. She narrowed her eyes full of suspicion. “Aye. They´re there.” Glory reaffirmed herself after `checking´ if there were crystals in the tunnels. “Underground more specifically.” “Then move, you beast burden!” the golden retriever hit her back once more. Getting tired of the name calling and her back being beaten, Glory rolled her eyes. “None of you are moving until I say so.” a voice behind her said, causing Glory to perk her ears up. She turned her head back and saw a black bakharwal dog with brown spots in her eyebrows, muzzle and legs. Glory gulped subtly. This was the first time she saw this big dog, but she had a pretty good idea of who she was. Long before meeting Gusty, when she was Majesty´s army´s nurse, there were times they bumped with escaped unicorns from many places, including Trottingham. Those who came from there narrated the only reason they were able to escape was because Crunch´s foredog, Sarama, wasn´t around. They described her as a very serious, intuitive, and cunning dog. Her intellect, along her powerful sense of smell, allowed her to figure anything out in seconds. Some even said she could smell lies. Glory tried not to show too much fear, otherwise Sarama would suspect of her. She simply dropped her ears and shrunk. To her surprise, the dogs seemed to be more intimated than she was. “Eey, Sarama…” the golden retriever waved his paw as a greeting. “Did we do something wrong?” “That depends. Were you on Crunch´s communiqué?” “Wait, there was a communiqué?” Argus asked nervously and confused. “What happened?” Sarama knew the little dog was the most reliable one, which meant they weren´t around when the news spread. However, she also knew it wasn´t wise to explain everything in front of the slaves, especially those recently captured, such as the white unicorn she had in front of her. “I´ll inform you later. But all I can say is that our great king Crunch has given you from today on a vacation from capturing slaves.” The four dogs widened their eyes excited. “Really?!” they asked in unison. “But.” Sarama raised her index. “This doesn´t mean you are free from supervising the slaves in the mines.” “Ooh….” the dogs´ thrill extinguished as fast as a candle after being blown out. “Well, at least we don´t have to do the hardest part of the job.” the bulldog crossed his arms. Meanwhile, in her mind, Glory had more and more clear that destiny was definitely by their side. Had they bumped with the four dogs later, they would have been captured or killed. And reviewing the events from the day they left with Majesty, things could have easily ended awfully for them, yet they didn´t. Whether it was Lucena´s spirit protecting them or just a domino effect of Grogar´s actions, there had to be a major force on their favour. Sarama´s gaze upon her forced Glory to get out of her mind. “Well, well. You must be the new one.” she said to her while examining her. “What´s your name?” “Glory, ma´am.” “Well, Glory. Let me tell you something: you´d better not have any secrets plan to escape because I´ll be watching you very closely, and if I catch you doing something out of pocket, I´ll make sure you don´t get to see the light of day! Understand?” Though aware that Sarama was threatening her, Glory wasn´t focused on her speech. Instead, what had her attention was what was happening in the background. At one of the lower entrances to the mines, Shady fell from the ceiling due to a cave in and landed on a guard. Surprisingly, the sound of the metal armour hitting the floor didn´t seem to mind Sarama probably due to how common loud noises were in the mines, but Glory not paying attention did. “Hello, are you listening to me?!” she waved her paw in front of her. “Mhm.” Glory smiled briefly and nodded. She repeatedly rubbed her nose and her foreleg to indicate Shady to rub dust on herself so Sarama wouldn´t catch her smell. Shady narrowed her eyes confused at first but she quickly understood the message. She took a hoofful of dust and threw it to herself. Since the dust entered in her eyes, nose and mouth; Shady closed her eyes and covered her mouth to cough. “Perfect.” Sarama examined the crystals she had on her waggon in the meantime. “I see you found good quality crystals.” “Mhm.” Glory pressed her lips while noticing that the dog Shady fell on didn´t move after she touched him with the tip of her hoof. “Yes, her unicorn magic allows her to find the best ones.” Argus enthusiastically informed Sarama while behind them the earth ponies leveraged the hole Shady had made to look at her. Panicked, Shady covered her mouth and stared at them. Magic Star moved her forelegs forward and aback. “Mhm.” Glory nodded her head repeatedly, agreeing with both Argus and Magic Star. Shady started pushing the dog but since he was twice her size, her attempt was in vain. In order to make her stop, Magic Star threw a pebble at her forehead. Every earth pony widened their eyes. After massaging her forehead, she frowned at Magic Star and pointed at her forehead repeatedly. In response, Magic Star pointed at herself and her comrades and then at the guard. “I see…” Sarama raised her eyebrow in intrigue. “You have potential.” she said to Glory, who was watching how the earth ponies used the rope to get down and help Shady after spreading dust on themselves. “Crunch will certainly be happy with you. Well, he never bothers to get to know his slaves, but perhaps with you he can make an exception.” As she spoke, the earth ponies struggled to move the guard towards the wall. “Hm….” Glory faked intrigue. “Still, that doesn´t mean I´m going to go easy on you. None of your kind has ever gained my respect and I doubt you ever will.” “Mhm.” “Are you teasing me? I feel like you´re just nodding along as if I was stupid.” “Huh? No, it´s just that I´m quiet.” Glory answered while observing the earth ponies. Finally, they had managed to put the guard against the wall. They laid his paws on his chest and lowered his helmet, as if he was taking a nap. Between pants and with a tired smile, they made the ok gesture with their tails. Then, they dug another hole to go underground. “Perfect. Then let´s waste no more time. Where were you planning to move?” “To that tunnel, ma´am.” “Good, but you´ll search for more crystal gems along the way. Let´s go!” Sarama made a sign to everyone. Before catching up with them, Glory took a moment to puff and grab her chest in relief once Sarama´s and the other dogs´ backs were facing her. While they were leaving, the earth ponies made their way underground to a small crack on the floor, which would allow them to watch Glory. “Next time, watch very closely where you´re stepping!” Magic Star scolded Shady. “You almost gave me a heart attack.” “Same.” Knightshade nodded in agreement. “But my heart almost stopped when I was carrying that dog. It was so heavy!” “I´m sorry, everypony, but it wasn´t my fault.” Shady said in her defence. “How was I supposed to know where to put each hoof so I wouldn´t fall, huh? Besides, I´m the one who fell in the dog, how do you think that made me feel?! Do you think landing on an armour is like landing on a pillow!” Seeing Shady was getting too tense, Alonzo intervened to avoid another incident. “Okay, okay, everypony, she´s right, it was an accident.” he put his hooves on the air. “It could have happened to any of us.” “Thank you!” “Now, forget about what just happened and focus on right now, ok? It´s over, you´re on firm soil and safe.” Alonzo instructed her as he helped her to breathe slowly. “Yes…” Shady inhaled. “You´re right.” she said while exhaling. Magic Star´s and Knightshade´s expressions of anger turned into ones of remorse. “Of course you didn´t do anything wrong, Shady.” Magic Star apologized. “But you´ve been so brave these last few days to the point of risking your own life! I´m afraid something might happen to you.” “Well, the only heroic act I´ve done was injuring myself to attract a dark spirit, and to be honest, I drank some cider before that. And I´m still afraid of many things. Such as being in this tiny almost lightless space…” “But being brave is about doing things despite being afraid.” Knightshade told her. “Do you think I go into battle without any fear? Absolutely not! And before you tell me that tiny dark spaces is something only cowards fear, let me tell you, I am terrified of mice! Yes, those things much smaller than me make me scream like a little filly!” “It´s true. I´ve seen it.” Alonzo confirmed. “I also feel like I´ll run out of breath in here, Shady.” said Posey. Although she had stayed quiet during the whole conversation due to looking through the crack, she listened to every word. “But we won´t be here forever. We just have to wait for the perfect moment.” A few yards ahead the mines, at Trottingham´s castle, a guard went down a dark staircase underground, carrying a tray of food. Once the guard was passing the corridor, the prisoners started begging him for food, water, or just mercy to breathe fresh air or see the sunlight. Coldy, he ignored their painful pleas. It was a scene he had witnessed many times, so he was desensitized to the environment of despair and illness in the dungeons. He stopped at a specific door, crossed his mace through the rails and opened a door for trays. “Wakey, wakey! Breakfast is ready!” he yelled while kicking the tray inside the dungeon. Before he could close the door for trays, the tray was kicked back to the guard. “Oooh… Not of your taste?” he faked concern for one of the prisoners behind the door. “Don´t worry, I´ll change it for some scones and morning tea, is that better?” he laughed meaningly. However, his laughter would soon be interrupted when he felt his pants soaked and cold. He looked down and realized that the same prisoner, or one of her cellmates, had used their water to throw it at him. He frowned upset since it was a cold day and he didn´t have enough time to change up. “Still playing dignified and unbreakable huh? Well, let me inform you that Crunch has been called by Grogar to court, so I imagine he´ll take the chance to tell him about your unfortunate, or fortunate for our leader´s case, capture. Soon enough, or maybe even today, you will be taken from this cell and return to Tambelon to trial and well… you know the rest. Pity, I´ll miss humiliating you. Your Majesty.” he mockingly bowed before leaving. Although the slot for the bars was too tall for the ponies to reach, they could see the devilish eyes of the guard. Nonetheless, Majesty maintained her composure, as she has ever since she and her soldiers were captured, despite the humiliation, confinement, and torture. Her mane was messy, loose and completely uncovered, contrary to the slightly mane-revealing veil she wore along her crown. And like her companions, she didn´t have her armour anymore, but some linen white rags, a dress in her case, and a shirt for her companions. Despite so, she had a royal and challenging expression in her face. The soldiers tried to take example form their leader, but the news the dog had just delivered concerned them deeply, which Majesty noted from their shared glances. “Worry not, it could be a lie to intimidate us.” she told them. “I´m not so sure, my queen. Doesn´t sound like a threat this time to me, but more like a statement.” a soldier respectfully disagreed. “Even if we were taken to Tambelon, we still have a chance to escape. More than here, I would dare to say, if the cards are played right.” “But how?” another soldier asked desperate. “We have no weapons, our magic is restricted, and all of us have at least one limb broken.” “Or our horns…” lamented a younger soldier, with lifeless eyes due to his situation. Majesty looked down, feeling pain that somepony so young had to endure that. He was right, there was nothing they could do. However, that didn´t mean it was the end. There was still hope in something else. “Our fates may not be on our hooves, but perhaps Glory reached Lancer, the Wind Warrior and other soldiers in time, before they could get captured.” As much as they wanted to believe it, they also thought it was better to accept what was about to come. They shook their heads while sighing in lament. “Sorry my queen, but that sounds too good to be true.” said the eldest soldier. “This whole mission sounded too good to be true in the first place! And yet you accepted!” Majesty replicated. “And secondly, we haven´t heard of them being captured or killed. Maybe they´re coming to rescue us.” “That´s certainly possible, but if that was the case, they would be here already. It doesn´t take that long to get to Trottingham!” a freckled soldier refuted. “You don´t think they´re dead, do you?” the soldier nearest to him asked terrified. “Could be…” Both soldiers gulped. “Hopefully that´s not the case.” Majesty said to calm them, but also to reassure herself. “Bear in mind they´re in a smaller group now, with monsters roaming around free, and two tyrants after her. Let´s not forget Trottingham is near Katrina´s territories.” “So that means it would take a miracle for them to arrive soon if they are alive? Yeah, we´re the ones who need a miracle.” Suddenly, they heard the gates to the dungeons opening. The ones who could, crept in front of the queen to protect her, the others hugged each other in fear. Luckily for them, the guards weren´t coming for them. Instead, they were bringing somepony. Or better said, a cat. A tuxedo female cat, to be precise. The poor cat tried to scratch the two guards, who were cruelly terrorizing her with her barks and laughing at her expense. They were two twin Dobermans, one with a red collar and the other with a blue one. “I think we´re gonna have fun with this one, bud!” the guard with the red collar said to the other. “Yeah, look at how easily scared she gets!” the other guard agreed. “Boo!” he said to the cat. “GAH!” the poor cat´s fur and tail stood on end. She frowned when the two guards shared laughs. “Let me go, you- you mutts!” “Careful with the names, kitty!” the red collar guard said while the other was opening the door to a dungeon. “Right now, you are our prisoner and possibly future slave, so I´d advise to keep your mouth shut!” he said before thrusting the cat into the dungeon. She tried to prevent the door getting close, but she was unmatched against the strength of two big dogs pushing the door against her direction. They laughed as they locked the door. “Oh, how I waited the day of Katrina´s fall so we could torture the cats.” the blue-collar guard said. Majesty and her soldiers widened their eyes. This could be related to the miracle they were hoping for. They listened intrigued. “I wouldn´t laugh if I were you. If Katrina can fall, then so can Crunch.” she wisely advised as she grabbed the bars. “The Wind Warrior and her crew are not to be messed with; I warn you.” Those words left the unicorns´ jaws hanging wide open. Gusty, Lancer, Glory, Buttons and Fizzy defeated Katrina on their own? How? Meanwhile, the dogs and the cat continued with their conversation. “It might be, but that´s because cats are weak. Dogs, on the other paw, are superior.” the red collar guard put a claw under her chin. “Yeah, they´re totally getting defeated.” the cat said to an invisible listener. “Who are you talking to?!” the blue-collar dog asked the cat paranoid. “No one!” the cat smiled nervously. “Leave her alone.” the red collar dog put a paw on his friend´s shoulder. “She knows she´s going to be alone for so much time, so she´s getting it into her head.” the two dogs shared laughs. “Have fun, kitty under the rain.” The dogs chuckled as they left the dungeons. After hearing the gates to the dungeons closing, the unicorns talked to each other to process the news better. “Did you all hear what I heard?” the freckled soldier asked everypony. “Yes, yes.” the youngest soldier responded, confirming that what they had witnessed was not a hallucination. While naturally shocked like everypony else, Majesty´s predominant emotion was relief. For the first time in days, she felt like she could breathe again. If they organize themselves correctly and are careful enough not to make mistakes, something they proved with the news of Katrina´s defeat, they´ll be able to get to Trottigham´s castle in time and free them. She knew Lancer would manage, but the rest of unicorns´ capacity surprised her pleasantly, especially Gusty´s. Although less than before, Gusty was still defiant to her orders and blinded by her emotions, which in war, those ingredients created the recipe for disaster. But perhaps during this time, she finally learnt to work in a team. Noticing she was getting too deep in her head, she cut her train of thought to return to the conversation. “But how on earth did they manage to do that?” the eldest pony wondered aloud. “They were only five unicorns! No matter how strong their magic is nor the fact that Katrina´s subjects are magicless, they´re still outnumbered!” “How they achieved that is not important.” Majesty raised her hoof. “What matters now is that they´re most likely coming to our rescue.” “Then they´d better come soon. Time is running out.” a soldier stated. “Uh… Why is your time running out?” a voice asked curiously. The ponies arched their eyebrows confused at first, but they quickly realized they had heard this voice before. Seconds ago, in fact. “Tell me that´s not the cat, please.” Majesty began massaging her forehead. “Hello, can you hear me?” the cat insisted on an answer. Majesty didn´t get a verbal response, but as the saying goes, sometimes silence speaks more than a thousand words. And their faces as well. Majesty sighed frustrated and looked up at the small sunlight that the window allowed to enter. “Come on, warriors. You can do it.” she encouraged them.