Chapter Five

Fate is a Cruel Mistress

“Okay, gotta lay low. That might be hard seeing how my ears and tail stick out more than anyone else in this town.” Nelsha said as she hops from rooftop to rooftop. Just as she lands on a nearby house, a digital screen appeared in front of the lesser fellpool which took her by surprise. “Wow, that was quick Vi.”

“That’s not what I’m pulling up. Finding a place to hide might be a problem on your end.” Vi said as an image with writing. “This is an alert to all citizens in ponyville. Be on the lookout for a young donkey girl. Be warned that she’s carrying weapons of unknown origins along with spells that should be impossible for her to use. It should also be known that she has a broken translation spell on her that needs to be fixed in order to understand her. If you see her, contact the royal guards at once.”

“Seriously? Why do they think I look like a donkey? Do I even look like one?” She asked as she heard Vi trying not to bust out laughing. “Oh fuck you Vi.”

“Sorry, sorry….just that you do tend to be stubborn at times like a mule. Not to mention that if you take away the long tail, you do resemble that of a donkey due to the ears.”

“Oh screw you ya floating bodiless sound bite!” Nelsha yelled as she quickly jumped into an alleyway and carefully sneaked up towards the corner of the alleyway she was in to scan her surroundings. Looking around, she could see people similar to the group she fought off near the castle walking around without a care in the world. “Hm, I might be able to get by around town for a bit before this planet’s police force hunts me down.” She said before putting her hood over her head, though it didn’t cover the ears.

“True, but with the clothes you have on. You’ll stick out like a sore thumb.”

“Well it’s not like I can get back to the ship to change my attire. I’m kinda stuck here until I can find a means to escape the barrier around this town.” She said before casually making her way out of the alleyway and through the streets of Ponyville. As she walked down the street, she noticed some of the humanoid-like ponies glanced at her, mainly at her attire and weapons she was carrying on herself as they looked away and kept their distance from her. “Hiding my stuff is too risky as well. Especially if someone finds them and reports them to this planet’s police.”

“Nice to see you’re taking this seriously. Which is rare given your character.”

“Okay you’re tempting me to mess with your systems settings if you keep being a smartass.”

“That would be a bad idea on your part. Especially given your current situation.” Vi said as the lesser fellpool was about to reply, only for her stomach to growl causing her focus to turn to this. “It would seem that you’re hungry. Though it would make sense seeing how those girls did distract you from getting something to eat.”

“Yeah, but then again there wasn’t a lot to get form the kitchen seeing how a lot of it was plant based food that I couldn’t eat.” Nelsha said before looking around at her surroundings for anything edible to eat. “Fruits and vegetables will tie me over for a time. But even that won’t help me given my kind of species.”

“It’s not that it’s impossible to survive on nothing more than just fruits and vegetables. But given how you’re a rare breed lesser fellpool, you’ll need a source of high protein to sustain your high metabolism. And I doubt you can find bugs that are the size of a horse, or fish of that size...You might be forced to be forced to eat thugs, murderers, or rapists of the inhabitants.”

“Not against the idea, but wouldn’t that cause problems if we decided to be friends with the people of this planet?”

“Your survival and safety is top priority over anything else. If anything were to happen to me, I need to make sure you have the means to survive on your own in a worse case scenario. You’re pretty much the only official person of the Kronos Military in this section of the galaxy we might be in.”

“You...make a valid point. But let's save the eating inhabitants thing as a last resort. I prefer not to have a hunting party come after me….again.” As Nelsha continued going down the street, she would unknowingly walk by two tall guards busy chatting with each other. Just as she walked by them, the humanoid earth pony noticed Nelsha as she motioned to her fellow royal guard pony at the lesser fellpool.

“Isn’t that the kid that Princess Twilight said she was trying to get?” The earth pony asked as the humanoid pegasus squinted his eyes at her.

“I think so Mayday.” The colt pegasus said before reaching into his pocket to pull out a phone and began to read from it. “Given how she has donkey ears, that has to be the kid that she’s looking for.”

“Well come on Brave Heart. Let get the kid before-”

“We can’t just charge in and yank her up like a fish out of water.” He said before carefully pulling away from the wall he was leaning against and began to follow after the lesser fellpool. “We need to follow her and catch her by surprise so that we can restrain her.”

“So pretty much like the time we caught that thief that was pickpocketing ponies pockets three months ago?”

“Yep, I’ll go high, you go low.” Breve Heart said before taking flight into the air and care hid behind the clouds above. While he was doing that, Mayday casually followed after Nelsha while trying not to look like she’s following her.

“Don’t be alarmed, but you’re being followed by two of those humanoid horse beings. One is in the air above the clouds, and another is behind you but is keeping a good distance.” Vi said as Nelsha groaned in annoyance.

“Didn’t take them long to find me out. Any suggestions on how to lose them?”

“Two options. Find a secluded place so you can knock them both out without the citizens of this town taking notice. Or, you can make a break for it and try to lose them. Pros for both is that you’ll have more time to hide and I can gather more information if they have some kind of phone or device on their person. Cons, they might be stronger than you and could get the citizens to join in on the hunting you down.”

“So most likely option one, taking them both out in a secluded place or area. Know of a place to do that?”

“Head down a bit more and make a left around the corner. I suggest taking out the flyer above first, then take out the other by stunning her with your gauntlet.”

“Increase the voltage of my gauntlet so that I can stun them for a good hour or so, and change my setting to my rifle to stun.” She said before hearing the sound of the gauntlet being calibrated as she turned a corner to her left. Once there she noticed that she was in a secluded area that had houses circling around an area with grass in the center of it. The lesser fellpool smirked as she stopped in the middle of the grass. The guards that were following her stopped upon seeing that she stopped as the earth pony quickly hid back behind the corner, while the pegasus was watching carefully from a nearby cloud.

“Settings set. You may now enter combat mode. Also, the flying one is above you. Three inches to the right to be accurate.” Vi said as Nelsha quickly reached for her rifle and shot at the pegasus above her. Brave Heart let’s out a yelp of pain before crashing to the ground face first as he groans from the pain he felt.

“Brave Heart!” Mayday said as Nelsha quickly took aim at the corner she heard the voice was coming from and fired at the earth pony, only for her to quickly take cover behind the corner she was hiding behind.

“Vi, is the translation device fixed?” Nelsha asked as she kept her sights on the earth pony.

“Fifty-five percent repaired. Your language will sound incomplete sentences.”

“But still able to understand...right.”

“Yes, but it’ll be up to them to understand what you’re saying.” Vi said as Nelsha rolled her eyes and turned her focus on the humanoid earth pony.

“You, woman. Why follow me?” She asked, but got no response. The lesser fellpool snorted before firing off another beam over to where Mayday was hiding. “ANSWER! NOW!”

“Don’t shoot!” She said before moving from behind the corner with her hands up. “I surrender, just don’t kill me.”

“Won’t kill. Weapon stun friend. Answer question. Why after me?” Nelsha said while still keeping her rifle locked onto her.

“W-We got a report of a donkey carrying weapons and spells of unknown origin. We were tasked to bring her in so that we can get an understanding and possibly fix your broken translation spell.”

“I'm no donkey. I’m cabbit.” She said before blinking. “Translation spell, do not have. Device to translate broken.”

“Oh please. Everypony knows that you can’t make a device that can translate different languages to equine. Not even the smartest scientist in Canterlot can make something like that...and Cabbit? Really? What kind of a word is that? If you’re going to lie, at least do a better job at it. But then again, you’re just a kid so it would make sense that-” Before she could finish, she heard Nelsha cock her gun which caused her the flinch back a bit. “But who am I to complain, I’m just a guard pony after all!”

“Leave. Take friend. Stun for hour.” She said before motioning her to move to Brave Heart. “Follow me, I shoot.” With that Nelsha quickly bolted it down the street, leaving Brave Heart and Mayday alone as she helped the pegasus up to his feet.

“You okay?”

“My body is pretty much numb from head to toe. Where on equis did that kid get that weapon? Did she steal them from Canterlot research center or something?”

“Isn’t that place like heavily secured or something? Not everypony can go in and out as they please.”

“Well what do we do now?”

“Send a message to Captain Shining Armor and the others. The kid’s heading north of town hall.”

“Got it.” She said before dropping Brave Heart on the ground causing him groan in pain. “Whoops! Sorry!”

[Canterlot]
[Canterlot Castle, Dining Hall]

Within the castle of Canterlot, the two rulers of Equestria would be within the dining hall trying to enjoy the meal that the castle chef prepared for them sitting across from each other. Normally they would enjoy their meal without a problem, but given how Celestia was playing around with her food. Mainly by having it levitate around herself like a moon circling the earth.

“Sister, are you okay?” Luna asked as Celestia let out a sigh of annoyance and disappointment.

“You should know the answer to that question, Luna. Equestria is currently at war with the dragon nation, ponies within our nation are fighting against each other over wages, food and miscellaneous items. And we still have no means to turn the tide of war into our favor.”

“Not to mention that you’re still recovering from the burns you got from the dragon king in the last fight.”

“Which isn’t helping me win the confidence of some of the royals in this city. Other than Fancy Pants and Filthy Rich, the other royals tend to keep their money to themselves and not support the soldiers.” Celestia said as she used her magic to reveal the scars that she received in the previous battle. “I leave the castle for a good two days, and the next thing I know I come back to find that dragons are attacking the city and ponyville because one of the royals slapped the dragon king’s daughter’s face….what is my life?”

“In fairness the blame is mine. I figure that they would keep their composure long enough until the yearly negotiations were over. You think offering the pony that hurt her daughter would be enough?”

“Given the nature of some dragons, they want more than just that. The reason why we were able to last this long is thanks to the barriers that our departed friend left behind for us. Had he not given us the means to make a lot of this stuff you see today, Equestria would be nothing more than scorched earth as he would refer to.”

“But even with the barriers around populated areas of Equestria, we still have no means of breaking through the dragon’s anti-magic scales that they have. And our weapons can’t put a dent in their armor, skin, or scales. Unless we get a miracle from the sky, Equestria is doomed.” Celestia bit her lip in anger as she was about to say something, only for her phone to vibrate.

“Excuse me for a second Luna.” Celestia said before reaching into her pocket to pull out her phone to see a message on it. “....Sister...could you check your phone? It seems that Twilight has found somepony new in Ponyville.” She said as Luna pulled out her phone to see what she meant, only to blink upon seeing the message and a picture of Nelsha’s face on it. After looking it over for a good couple of seconds, she looks over at Celestia with a somewhat deadpan expression.

“....Celestia….this kid doesn’t look like a donkey. Especially given the child’s tail and rabbit ears....You don’t think she’s another visitor like he was...right?”

“That would depend on what this child has to say if Twilight can get her...Which I have a feeling that would be difficult on her end.”

“Should we assist Princess Twilight? The child might be dangerous if the letter Twilight sent is accurate.”

“Alright, then I shall-”

“No, you’re not going to go down there. Especially with those burn marks on your body.”

“I’m not that injured to hunt down a child….that sounded wrong, but you get what I mean.”

“Just let Twilight and her friends handle this. I’m sure they’ll capture the child in no time. I’ll even send Twilight’s brother to assist her.” Luna said as Celestia sigh in annoyance as she leans back in her seat.

“....I hate being a ruler. Why couldn’t I have been born into a common simple life.”

“You can thank our parents for giving us the responsibility of looking after the country of Equestria before assigning somepony else to do it at the time before their death.”

“Right...thanks parents….you jerks!” Celestia said sarcastically as Luna let out a slight chuckle. “Fine, I’ll leave it to Twilight and the guards. But if there isn’t progress made by tomorrow, then I’m going to but in.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

“Simple my little sister. We’re going to have a little bit of a hunting game between the two of us~?”

Author's Note

What her scars look like. Bare in mind, this is not my art, I'm using it as an example of where the burn marks on her body looks like