MLP: Seeds of the Past
Chapter 8 - A Royal Capture, Part 1
Author's Note: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" belongs to DHX Media and Hasbro.
Also, thanks again to FanficFan920 for helping me greatly with this chapter!
Nighttime was approaching in Canterlot, and after waiting for the arriving passangers to leave the Friendship Express, Twilight and Spike, along with Shining Armor, climbed aboard the train, with the little dragon saying, "Well, at least we know that the culprit is a pony… which is a good thing, right?"
Nodding her head, the young alicorn replied, "There's also a connection that I'm starting to notice, as well… I just hope we can figure it out before anypony else gets captured."
A few hours later
Canterlot Palace... the most protected place in all of Equestria, home of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna… and, boy, does it look amazing in moonlight.
After leaving the train station, the cloaked pony was now sitting on the edge of a mountaintop above the palace, watching the moon's glow fall on the capital city of Equestria, as well as the palace, and with a heavy sigh, he played his recording device one more time.
"Hi sweetheart, your father and I just wanted to thank you for the flowers for our anniversary yesterday. You are an amazing stallion and I can't believe how much you've grown up. Hold on, your father wants to say something."
"Hey Champ. Thanks for the flowers. I hope we can get the chance to spend some time together soon. We barely see you anymore, what with work and all. Your mother and I both love you. See you soon."
Once he listened to the message from his parents, he pocketed the recording device, stared at the castle in an analyti manner, and reached inside his cloak to pull out his grappling gear.
"I'm about to kidnap royalty," he said to himself, reminding himself of what he liked to call his 'Mission: Impossible' phase. "Well, here goes nothing."
He placed the grappling end of the rope, along with the rope spindle, into the dirt, tugging on it to make sure it was stable, and tied himself to the other end of the rope while mentally singing a familiar tune for the situation.
Dun-dun-dun, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun!
Moments later, the cloaked pony was making his way down the cliff, aiming for one of the castle's many balconies, the night being his protection from detection.
However, what he didn't plan on was the rope starting to give way about halfway down.
Holy [BEEP], thought the cloaked pony as he fell, but fortunately, the rope only had enough length to just reach the balcony he intended.
However, when he opened his eyes, having closed them for fear he would go splat, he noticed his body was hanging parallel to the balcony foor, barely an inch above it.
'Whew,' the cloaked pony thought to himself, wiping away the sweat on his forehead before carefully unhooking himself from the rope, and then, he placed it around a torch on the castle's wall.
Alright, then… it's show time!
Preparing his darts and tube, he began his careful trek through the castle halls that would lead him to the quarters of Princess Luna.
However, once he turned a corner, the cloaked pony noticed two guards slowly walking in the direction that would lead them to him.
Well, at least this castle 'has' guards, unlike the one owned by a certain purple alicorn...
So, after readying his tube and two darts, the cloaked pony hid in the shadows, and once the two guard ponies had passed, he fired a dart into their flanks, incapacitating them.
Bullseye!
Then, he dragged them behind some curtains, in hopes that other guards that passed through here wouldn't notice them until he was long gone… though he wasn't counting on that, and sometime later, the cloaked pony repeated this process on two more guards he found guarding Luna's door.
'Now, for the tricky part,' the cloaked pony thought as he cracked open the door.
Luckily for him, Luna seemed to be asleep, but he knew that she was "lucid dreaming", due to the fact that it was her duty as princess of the night to step into ponies' dreams, with his little colt having been one of those ponies.
But I'll go down memory lane later… I have a job to do...
After making sure that no one else was around except for himself, the cloaked pony crept into the royal bedroom, keeping his ears peeled for any sounds, whether it be from a waking Luna or from castle guards.
Luckily, he managed to reach the Princesses' side without hearing anything but his own four hooves.
However, little did he know, Luna was a bit busy with a certain sleeping pegasus at the moment.
[Fluttershy's Dream]
All of the cages that had contained her friends were now gone, leaving Fluttershy in the darkened room, caged up and all by herself.
Please, somepony, anypony… help me!
"Fluttershy?"
The yellow pegasus lifted her head up, and found herself looking at Princess Luna, whose bright aura of white light was removing most of the darkness in the room.
"Oh, Princess Luna, thank goodness you're here," cried Fluttershy, with a sense of hope inside her. "Something terrible has happened!"
Luna looked around the dark room, with a somewhat confused expression, and replied, "Yes, my friend, I can tell… but what exactly is happening in this dream?"
Wiping the tears away from her eyes, Fluttershy replied, "It's the same that is happening in real life, Princess Luna… somepony captured me and a whole lot of other ponies that-"
"Ow!"
Suddenly, she was interrupted by the sound of pain that came from the royal alicorn, who began rubbing the right side of her flank.
"What in Equestria was... that… and… why do I… feel..."
It took a moment for Fluttershy to understand what was happening, and she cried, "Oh, dear… t-that means you're about to- Princess Luna!"
To her horror, the princess of the night collapsed to the floor, and started shaking her head after she saw Luna begin to fade away.
"Why is this happening?!"
Once the cloaked pony heard Luna's breathing slow down again after he inserted the dart into her flank manually, he removed the sheets completely from the princess' bed.
Wow, so it doesn't work on just tables!
Then, while gently pulling her by the tail with his mouth, he carefully put Luna into his trusty burlap sack, and at first, he found himself letting out a sigh of relief.
Once he lifted the sack again, however, he realized that the halfway-completed task would be another physically demanding one.
'Good grief, this is going be like last night all over again,' the cloaked pony thought, remembering how he had to capture Twilight's parents and five Canterlot friends, and the physical demand it took for him to do so.
Ignoring the physical stress he was enduring, the cloaked pony looked out the window to get a glimpse of his next target's balcony. Seeing as how he wanted to avoid as many guards as possible, the cloaked pony pulled out another grappling gun, placed the burlap sack containing the unconscious Luna onto the balcony floor, and after taking aim, he fired.
Whoosh!
The hook took flight into the night air, and after a few seconds of air time, it managed to get caught on the balcony of Celestia's quarters.
After a quick tug to make sure it was stable, the cloaked pony tied his end of the rope around the balcony of Luna's quarters, and made haste in tying a knot around the opening of the tack.
Then, a few minutes later, he made it so that he (and the sack, on its own) could safely travel between the two balconies.
So, after he transported the sack with Luna inside, the cloaked pony took a deep breath, and said, "Alright, then… it's my turn now."
Just as he did on his descent to the castle, the cloaked pony slipped into a harness and was about to swing from one side to the other when he found himself remembering a certain occasion he had in his younger days.
Back then, the young cloaked pony (though obviously not wearing a cloak in this case) and a beautiful mare that would eventually be his future wife, whose name was Twinkle Star, used to have regular triple dates with some other couples that they had become friends with, and one of them was Carrot Cake and Chiffon Swirl, while the other was Bright Mac and Buttercup.
While the Apple couple had only gotten married recently, the other two couples had only been dating for a few months.
The cloaked pony relished those times, when he was young, stupid and had thought he was invincible.
How I wish that I could have those days back.
Anyway, on one such occassion, the six of them were enjoying a wonderful picnic when Twinkle Star suddenly said something unexpected.
[Flashback]
"Did I ever mention that Mr. Gardener over here used to have a crush on Princess Celestia?"
Everyone turned their heads to look over at Twinkle's boyfriend, whose face started to turn red with embarassment. "Um… I don't know what she-"
"Wait an apple pickin' minute," said Bright Mac,confused and surprised. "You had a crush on the ruler of Equestria?"
Before her special somepony could respond, Twinkle replied, "Yep! I mean, I used to like Wind Rider, from the Wonderbolts, but when I learned that his crush was-"
"Alright, I think they get it," muttered Twinkle's boyfriend, now feeling embarrassed. "Thank you, sweetheart."
Carrot began to chuckle, and he said, "Um, not to offend you, buddy, but isn't she at a much higher age than you?"
"Yes, I was aware of that," replied Twinkle's special somepony. "But somepony like me could still dream, righ - oof!"
The cloaked pony came out of his nostalgic reverie when he noticed he had finally reached the other end of his rope.
Well, that was a good thing, actually… the less I think of those two, the better.
After a tedious untying process, he crept over to the sleeping Princess of the Sun, and made ready with his special knock-out dart.
He pulled the sheets back to reveal the royal pony's flank, but just as he was about to send the dart into it, a paper suddenly materialized in front of the royal, waking her up from her slumber.
'Shit!' the cloaked pony mentally cursed as he hid under the Princess' bed.
"What?" Celestia said sleepily as she gazed at the scroll. Once she was able to make out the words however, she was wide awake.
"This is terrible! Don't worry, Twilight, I'll be sure to tell Luna, as well," she said quietly, to herself. "She should be awake right now…"
'Shit! Shit! Shit!' the cloaked pony cursed. He pulled out his tube, seeing as how he would definitely need it since Celestia was now rushing towards her balcony door to fly to her sister's room.
However, once she noticed her door was open, she became confused. "I could have sworn that I closed this… and why is there a rope-"
Whoosh!
Before she had time to react, she felt a prick on her flank, and although she had just woken up, the Princess of the Sun immediately fell into an unconscious state of sleep.
"That was close," muttered the cloaked pony, but just as Celestia fell, two guards burst in to inspect the commotion. Well, that's just great!
"Hold it right there!" They both said, seeing the cloaked pony and immediately charging for him, spears in hand.
However, the cloaked pony was faster, and they quickly recieved darts to the neck, which eventually led to them being knocked out.
Turning back to the fallen Princess of the Sun before him, the cloaked pony remembered what he'd thought about earlier, and quickly pecked her on the cheek before placing her with her sister in the burlap sack.
"Not exactly how I always dreamed of doing that, but hey, I'll take it," he muttered as he did so, with a growing smile appearing on his face, but that ended up going away because the cloaked pony knew he had to move quickly.
No doubt that guards would be on me faster than Pinkie Pie to a party.
So, he hoisted the burlap sack onto his back, holding the opening in his mouth and made a break for it, but now that was holding two full-grown alicorns in his bag, the grappling hook between the balconies was moving at a much slower pace.
'I really need to stop putting multiple ponies in here,' the cloaked pony thought to himself.
"Freeze!" he heard as a multitude of guards stepped into his way, and the cloaked pony skidded to a stop, right before he could leave from Celestia's balcony.
Again, this is just what I need right now!
"Lower the sack!" the guards ordered, and the cloaked pony complied.
Insert "Ferry Dust Up" from the SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING soundtrack
"Get down on your knees!" the guard ordered.
"Yeaaaaaaaaahhh," the cloaked pony drew out, in a heavily sarcastic tone. "That is obviously not happening, so-"
Whoosh!
He took out his small tube and several darts, and shot them one-by-one in rapid succession into the necks of a few guards.
"Get him!" One of the guards screamed before the rest of the guards, who weren't incapacitated, charged towards the cloaked pony.
Time to go into Plan B!
He picked up the burlap sack in his mouth once more, stowing the tube and darts for later, and charged as well.
Using all the strength he had, the cloaked pony used the sack like a wrecking ball, knocking away a few guards that dared to get close.
After getting tired of that, the cloaked pony made a leap towards the wall. Using his back left hoof, he propelled himself off the wall into some more guards, delivering swift punches to the head using nothing but his hooves while simultaneously swinging the sack around to cause more damage.
Who would've thought that working out so much would actually come in handy one day?
After incapacitating one guard in particular, he took his spear into his hooves and used that to incapacitate a few more guards, even gravelly injuring some from behind, in front, and to the side while using it.
Out of the corner of his eye, he found another guard charging at him from behind. Thusly, the cloaked pony gave him a good buck to the face, sending him flying into some more guards.
After doing that, and swinging the burlap sack around again, which knocked down a few more guards for the count, the cloaked pony raced towards the wall again, jumped, banked off it and landed on the heads and/or backs of a few more guards, knocking them to the ground.
However, just as he landed, a guard body slammed into the cloaked pony, which led him to slam against a wall quite hard, but he still managed to shake it off quickly as he swung the sack around once again, and again, to take out some more guards.
Does anypony not know the meaning of 'leave me alone', or what?
Once the sack made another full swing, he jumped up as high as he could and banked off the wall with his back right hoof, and held out his front right one so that he could deliver another hard punch on another guard.
Then, he snatched up his spear and used it to incapacitate some more guards, stabbing it into openings in their armor. He hated having to injure some of them, but he had a plan to accomplish and to him, that meant to do whatever it took to see it through.
One guard actually managed to pull off the hood of his cloak, revealing the stallion's green fur and black mane, but this did nothing to deter him, and so, the cloaked pony quickly punished him for this transgression by hitting him upside the head with his hoof.
The fight had already progressed down several yards of hallway, and because it was so many,Beck saw the balcony he entered through out of the corner of his eye.
Now, things are starting to turn my way again!
Once he made it there, he placed the burlap sack down, and a guard yelled, "He's put the sack down! Get the Princesses!"
Several guards immediately charged, but the cloaked pony, with hood down, quickly responded by using his handy tube and darts that were on stand-by.
Once again using the wall as banking, the cloaked pony plowed into some more guards, and he was either punching them in the face with his hooves, or smashing two guards into each other through various means, whether it be bucking or with his hooves.
He noticed a guard or two got passed him to go for the sack, so he quickly turned and fired a dart into their flank, incapacitating them, while simultaneously bucking two guards in the face.
After a few more minutes of fighting like this, there were only a few guards left. One of which had actually managed to get passed the cloaked pony, eliciting him to turn, fill his tube with a dart, and shoot it.
Of course, it hit its mark on the guard's flank and he promptly fell with the other nine guards that had managed to get by him over the course of the fight.
Never caring about the pile of knocked out bodies, the cloaked pony once again grabbed a discarded spear and swung it upside a guard's head, sending him onto one of his fallen brethren.
Right then, I'd better get - aw, damn it!
He had reached for his darts to make sure that the guards would stay down… only to find none, which meant that he had used up all the darts he brought with him.
"Well, this is definitely not how I wanted this day to turn out," he rasped.
He finally had a chance to look over himself, amd noticed that he had a few tears in his cloak that gave way to some lacerations in his midsection.
He knew he had a splitting headache, probably from a few headshots some guards managed to get in, and more than a few bruises. He also inspected his legs to find them littered in lacerations as well, and…
'Was that a dislocation?' he thought to himself, as he tried to move normally.
"Holy mother of… yep, definitely a dislocation," the cloaked pony said, returning his hood over his face, sheltering it from the world. He'd have to inspect his face when he returned to his lair, no doubt it was probably messed up as well.
He limped his way toward the burlap sack, untouched since he put it down. Taking the sack's opening in his mouth, he tied a rope around the opening of the sack and attached it to the grappling rope.
Once he retrieved his own support from the torch he placed it on earlier, and made sure he positioned the sack where his hooves were beneath it, he pressed a button that caused the spindle of rope at the top of the cliff to rotate, bringing the cloaked pony, and the unconscious princesses, up the cliff.
"Alright, your majesties, let's blow this popsicle stand," the cloaked pony said as he began the ascent.
A few hours later
Once he made it back the lair, the ponies and one draconequs he'd already captured looked at him, eyes widening at his condition.
"Well, look what the cat dragged in," Rainbow taunted.
"I'd very much appreciate it if you'd shut it, Pinky," growled the cloaked pony "I had a rough night, and I need to patch myself up."
Before Rainbow could respond to that, Pinkie Pie said, "Hey, that isn't right… I'm Pinkie!"
"We know that, darling," replied Rarity, letting out a sigh. "It's because that he changed her from blue to-"
"In the meantime," interrupted the cloaked pony. "Say hello to your new roommates."
Eyes widened and muzzles fell open as the eleven prisoners saw none other than Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, respectively, being put in separate cages… not to mention the fact that it looked like the two royals had several bruises.
'Hmmmmm, guess I was swinging harder than I thought,' the cloaked pony thought to himself, upon seeing the princesses' wounds.
The currently awake prisoners looked at the cloaked pony, with all of them astounded, yet frightened.
He had pony-napped two princesses, and took on the royal guard alone, and won.
"What can I say? The guards certainly tried their best," the cloaked pony commented, chuckling. He began limping away so that he could patch himself up, maybe even relocate that dislocation he felt back at the castle.
"Who…. are you?" Rainbow asked, voice wavering.
The cloaked pony stopped, and without looking back, he said, "Somepony that lost everything… and I'm going to make sure that the same happens to Twilight Sparkle."
Before the young pegasus could respond to him, a frowning Applejack exclaimed, "Wait an apple-picking minute! Just what in the day do you got against Twilight and the rest of us?"
Why does that sound familiar to me? wondered the cloaked pony, but then, Pinkie gave another unexpected response before he could give his.
"Heeeeeyyyy… you aren't that Rowan pony who turned us into statues, are you?"
"Huh?" said Moondancer, not knowing what she was talking about.
Pinkie let out a chuckle, and she replied, "Well, it all started on a trip to the Crystal Empire, and we were talking to Starlight about how she liked Sunburst-"
"Oh, great…" muttered Twilight's pupil, as the pink earth pony continued her story.
An hour later
"... and before I talk to Casey more, we were visited by a gold earth pony who wore a cloa- ohhhh, are you Stardust?"
The cloaked pony looked at Pinkie, and he said, "First of all, my name is Beck, not Rowan or...and second, you saw my face already. Now, do I look like a monster pony, or someone that has a name of what a filly would recieve from her father?"
"Um, who is Stardust?" asked Moondancer.
Pinkie giggled, and she replied, "He's basically what Casey is here, but sort of, though, since Casey isn't actually a human being from another planet.
"Anyway, yeah, he shows up in the library, holding a turtledove necklace that…"
Two hours later
"... so, as it turned out, Omega was actually Casey, which is why he tried to-"
Whoosh!
A few seconds later, Pinkie was fast asleep, and Beck muttered, "I should have done that four hours ago."