Chapters Ponies Will Save the Clans
Snowear let out a little sigh as she watched her kits playing near the entrance to the nursery. They were all strong healthy kits, someday they would make fine warriors. But Snowear didn't want that day to come. Tigerstar had too many warriors already. She didn't want her kits to join their ranks.
Twilight sighed as she walked towards Sweet Apple Acres, she was tired of alternate worlds. Princess Celestia had called her to a meeting yesterday in which Celestia had said that a different world was in dire need and that she and her friends were requested to go and help. Twilight couldn't bring herself to say no, she actually wanted to help them, she was just sick of going places where everything was different.
She found Applejack and Rainbow Dash involved in a good natured banter in the barn while Applejack worked. She didn't want to interrupt them but Celestia had said that they were to go as soon as possible.
"A.J., Rainbow, fetch Rarity and Fluttershy while I get Pinkie and meet me at the library." By 'the library' Twilight meant her castle, but she had lived in the real library for so long that her and her friends had taken to calling it the library.
As she rushed out the barn door to go find Pinkie, Rainbow asked, "Why? What's wrong Twilight?"
"Nothing here." She replied. "I'll tell you at the library."
Stripeclaw hissed as Hawkfrost ordered her to go hunting, but there was nothing she could do about it. If she stood up to him then Tigerstar would harm Dewkit, she was helpless, there was nothing she could do.
At the library with her friends Twilight explained the situation. "Princess Celestia wants us to help a different world. She's unsure of exactly what the problem is, but to me it sounded like some unstoppable tyrant. She also has no clue what this world is like but she wants us to go anyway."
"Unstoppable tyrant? Sounds like something we can handle!" Rainbow interrupted.
Twilight sighed, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "I think that it's going to be harder than that, we have no clue what this world is like and I could be completely wrong about the nature of the problem. But Princess Celestia said that time is of the essence. Also don't forget that our elements may not even work over there, but I still think we can do it girls."
"That's a lot of buts, Twi." Applejack commented. "Let's do it anyway."
"I'm game!" Rainbow shouted.
"Me too!" Pinkie squealed.
"I'll go if you're all going." Rarity said.
"I- Uh, well, I guess…" Fluttershy whispered.
"Okay! Everyone be packed for Canterlot at nine o'clock tomorrow morning." Twilight ended the meeting.
Glassflower scowled as she heard Tigerstar approaching. As far as she knew she hadn't done anything to make him mad for the past few moons. Maybe this was about the herbs she had convinced Jayfeather to purposely mix up.
"Glassflower," Tigerstar said. "What's this I'm hearing about you telling stories to the kits?"
It was about that. "I don't know what you've heard so I can't tell you." She snapped back.
"Breezepelt said that he was going in the nursery to see Snowear and the kits, when he heard the name Firestar mentioned." Tigerstar spat out the name like it was crowfood. "Is this true?"
"Yes." Glassflower answered testily. "I don't see what's wrong with the kits knowing of the past."
"You know you are to say nothing about the past. especially not about Firestar!" Tigerstar managed to calm himself down. "I do not want to hear of anything like this happening ever again. Do you hear me Glassflower?"
"Yes, Tigerstar." She replied reluctantly.
"Good."
"Everypony ready?" Twilight asked when they arrived at the train station. She was answered with a chorus of various positive replies.
"Okay then! All aboard for Canterlot!" Pinkie hollered with the conductor. Everypony laughed and got on the train.
In Canterlot they immediately went to the palace to see Celestia.
"You all agree to help this world in every way you can?" Celestia asked one last time.
"Of course." Twilight assured her.
"Good. I will now perform the spell that will take you there." Celestia said.
"Can't Twilight do it?" Rainbow asked.
"Yes but she would then be left behind as the spell does not affect the pony who casts it."
"Oh."
Celestia cast the spell and the ponies slowly faded out of sight.
Ponies Will Save the Clans
"Uhh, where are we?"
"Ugh! So much mud!"
Rainbow looked around dazed. She couldn't see her friends, just a lot of cats. Wait! Cats! She looved down at her hoves, paws?
"We're cats." Twilight breathed in astonishment.
Rainbow looked around, she saw five other cats. A fluffy white one with blue eyes who rainbow guessed was Rarity judging by the disgusted way she was looking at her paws. There was a ginger cat with green eyes that she supposed was Applejack. A cream cat that could only be Fluttershy, and another ginger cat, though this time with blue eyes, Pinkie. That left the grey cat as Twilight.
She looked at her own paws, they were white. Okay, she was now a white cat in the middle of a muddy forest.
"Twilight," Rarity whined. "you didn't tell us that we would turn into cats or that this place would be so mucky!"
"I didn't know! Twilight defended herself.
Suddenly Raindow felt herself being bowled over by a grey tom. "Intruders, Frostfoot!" The strange cat yowled.
Frostfoot turned when she heard Coldheart's cry. When she entered the clearing a strange sight awaited her. Coldheart was prowling around a group of six she-cats, as if they were going to try to run or something. But these cats seemed to be barely six moons old, and kitty-pets at that, hardly a threat.
"What do you think? Should we take them to Tigerstar to be interrogated?" Coldheart asked.
"What else can we do?" She replied.
"Who've you got there?" Skyflight asked Coldheart as Coldheart herded the strange cats into camp.
"These cats were found on Tigerstar's territory." Coldheart replied. "We're taking them to Tigerstar to be questioned.'
Skyfight blinked sympathetically at the six she-cats, getting questioned by Tigerstar was no fun even if you were actually just getting questioned. He knew this from experience.
Applejack shuddered as she felt the gazes of many cats burn her pelt. As if getting turned into a cat wasn't bad enough, now they were prisoners, possibly of the very cat they were supposed to defeat.
Their captor, Coldheart, the one called Frostfoot had called him as they had walked here, was leading them towards what looked like a small cave in the wall of the ravine with Frostfoot bringing up the rear. As she stared into the dark depths of the cave Applejack almost froze with fear. She knew somehow that what they were about to face could kill them all in less than a minute.
Pinkie practically prances right into the cave. But when she came face to face with a large dark tabby tom, she stopped. This guy was scarier than Chysalis and Sombra combined! Was this the guy that they were supposed to defeat? She hoped not, he was practically insubstantial!
Fluttershy crouched in fear as a large tom started circling them. Then he started questioning them.
"Who are you?" Was his first question. "And what are you doing on TigerClan's territory?"
"I'm Nightpaw." Fluttershy wondered where Twilight had come up with that one when a name suddenly popped into her mind. Birdpaw. How strange.
Twilight couldn't explain the feeling that had compelled her to say that her name was Nightpaw, but the others apparently felt the same, as they started stating their names as well.
"Applepaw." Applejack said with some uncertainty as to whether she was lying or not.
"Cloudpaw!" Rainbow offered.
"Whitepaw." Rarity gently put in when prompted by Rainbow.
"Cherrypaw!" Pinkie jumped almost hitting the roof. "And that's Birdpaw!" Twitching her tail towards Fluttershy.
"And what were you doing on my territory?" The large tabby continued prowling menacingly.
"We got lost." Twilight 'explained', "We were trying to find this place we had heard of, but we forgot to ask for directions."
"And what was this place you were looking for?"
"Uh..." Twilight stuttered, unable to think.
"It was a place with lots of cats and a waterfall!" Rainbow put in.
"In that case, I think you traveled a little too far. Care to explain how you have apprentice names as well?"
"Our parents had heard of TigerClan cats and deciced to give us clan names?" It was a long shot, and Twilight wished it didn't sound so much like a question.
"Hmm..." The dark tabby thought. "I don't suppose you knew a cat by the name of Ravenpaw, did you?" His amber eyes seemed to burn at the name.
"Not personally, but Ravenpaw was a friend, of a friend, of my father's." Twilight made up.
The tabby apparently believed them to some extent because he said, "I'm Tigerstar, leader of TigerClan, you now have two choices, join TigerClan, or die."
Ponies Will Save the Clans
"We'll join." Twilight answered. The rest quickly nodded their accent.
"Smart choice." Tigerstar said. "Hawkfrost! Escort them to their mentors." By the way he said it Applejack knew he was poking fun at something or other.
Another cat that looked just like Tigerstar, instead with ice blue eyes, presumably Hawkfrost, stalked into the cave. As he motioned with his tail for them to follow, Applejack wondered if this Tigerstar guy was who they were supposed to be defeating. If so, she didn't think that they stood much of a chance.
They came to a stop in front of the cat Applejack remembered to be Frostfoot.
"Frostfoot," Hawkfrost addressed her, "This is Applepaw. Make sure she'll become one of our warriors."
"Yes, Hawkfrost." Frostfoot replied. "Come with me, Applepaw." With that she padded away without even looking over her shoulder to see if Applejack was following.
With a nervous glace at her friends, Applejack began after Frostfoot.
As Hawkfrost approached another cat, Rarity fervently hoped that this one was not her mentor. The she-cat she was lead to had black fur with white stripes, hardly a becoming look, not to mention that she had the look of a hardened killer.
"Whitepaw, you're now Stripeclaw's apprentice." Hawkfrost gave a pointed glare at the she-cat, Stripeclaw. She glared straight back at him.
Rarity said in dismay, "There must be some mistake, this cat can't be my mentor!"
"There's no mistake." Stripeclaw replied. "The great Tigerstar doesn't make mistakes."
Hawkfrost noted her sarcasm and hissed, "Don't get any ideas, Stripeclaw."
Stripeclaw just turned and motioned with her tail for Rarity to follow.
This time instead of Hawkfrost approaching another cat, the other cat approached him.
"Hawkfrost, Mudclaw said you wanted to see me?" Asked a voice. It belonged to a light grey tom with a white face.
"Yes, Fernface. Tigerstar wants you to mentor this apprentice. Cherrypaw! Come meet your mentor!" Hawkfrost yelled at Pinkie who was investigating a wilted flower.
"Sir, yes sir!" She replied as she bounced over. "I'm Pinkie P-"
Rainbow nudged her.
"I mean, I'm Cherrypaw!"
"Nice to meet you, Cherrypaw. How about I show you around the territory?" Fernface asked.
"Okay!" Pinkie bounded after him.
"Nightpaw, your mentor's sitting over there." Hawkfrost flicked his tail towards a cat that was sitting near the entrance to the camp. "Go over there and tell him that he'll be mentoring you."
"Yes, sir." Twilight headed towards the cat. As she got closer, she saw that it was Coldheart, the cat that had originally attacked them. He looked up as she approached.
"Um… Hi, I'm Nightpaw." She introduced herself. "Hawkfrost said that you were to be my mentor."
"Great." Coldheart said. "Now I have to train a mousebrained kittypet."
Twilight didn't know what a kittypet was but it didn't take much thinking to figure out what mousebrained meant.
"I'm not mousebrained!" She said indignantly.
"Just stop talking and follow me." He replied coldly, stalking out of camp.
"Come on," Hawkfrost ordered. "Cloudpaw, your mentor should be in here." Hawkfrost padded into a cave in the side of the ravine.
Giving a supporting look at Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash nudged 'Shy in before following herself. She felt bad that Fluttershy had to be the last, which meant she would have to face her mentor on her own. Also… Dash remembered that cats were carnivorous.
"Ugh, really? What? Does he think this will keep me out of trouble? 'Cause if so, he's wrong." As Rainbow's eyes adjusted to the dim light in the cave, she saw Hawkfrost standing next to a light grey she-cat with blue eyes. The cat turned in Rainbow and Fluttershy's directions. "Which one?" She asked with a sigh.
"Cloudpaw." Hawkfrost nudged Rainbow forward from behind her. She jumped mentally. How did he get behind her without her noticing?
"Why me?" the she-cat mumbled under her breath as Hawkfrost herded Fluttershy out of the cave.
"I'm Glassflower, and unfortunately I have to mentor you to please our bossy, self-centered leader." Another sigh.
"Jayfeather," She called over her shoulder, "I'm gonna show Cloudpaw around the territory. Anything you need?"
Then Rainbow finally noticed the grey tom in a far back corner of the cave.
In a grumpy tone he replied, "Nothing except marigold. Then again, we always need that, so no."
"Stop moaning. At least you aren't the one who needs it. Come along, Cloudpaw. If you're curious about anything just ask. I don't have anything against new apprentices."
Fluttershy cowered inwardly as she followed Hawkfrost. Why did she have to be last? She wished that at least one of her friends were here with her. Then at the least, she would have someone there to reassure her.
Snap out of it, Fluttershy. She told herself. You might be in a strange world with carnivorous cats, but it's nothing you haven't handled before.
Most ponies at home thought she was squeamish about anything that had the slightest bit of blood. They even purposely went out of their way to make sure she wouldn't even hear about such simple unpleasant facts. Like bears eat meat, or that manticores sometimes eat ponies. But the truth was that she knew all of this and accepted it. It was the way that nature worked. And if being a cute kitty meant eating a bunny, she also accepted that. The fact that she was fine with this didn't mean that she was any less nervous about meeting a cat that would be in charge of her and would be supposedly teaching her everything that she was supposed to know.
"Birdpaw, this is your mentor, Breezepelt." Hawkfrost interrupted her train of thoughts.
She started. "Um, uh, he-hello, uh, Bree-Breezepelt."
"Terrific," the black tom snarled darkly. "I get a mouse-heart as my apprentice."
"Stop complaining. She's the least trouble out of all of them; I thought you'd be glad." At that Hawkfrost turned and left.
Fluttershy wondered what a mouse-heart was, it didn't sound so bad.
Applejack padded after Frostfoot with out a sound. She had no clue what was going on and being seperated from her friends had put her on edge, she didn't feel like having any sort of conversation with this cat.
She had been gazing at the ground as they walked, but looked up quickly when Frostfoot spoke. "This is the lake."
Applejack saw a lake in front of them, she didn't get it. It was just a lake.
"I'll take you around the lake a different day. For now, all you need to know about it is that no one touches it. Do you understand?" Frostfoot looked at Applejack intensely.
Applejack nodded automatically. Frostfoot turned back around and started walking away from the lake. Applejack stared at the lake for a moment more before following. She shivered as she gave one last glance behind her. She could've sworn she had seen something strange move in it's shadowy depths.
