Ghost Of Equestria

Early the next morning, Spike, Fluttershy, and Capper sat down by a table and were enjoying a cup of tea and breakfast. They were quiet for the most part but they kept glancing at one another as if they were about to do something.

Why they were so on edge was because they had been woken up somewhere between five and six in the morning. It was Umbrums, they were plummeting the houses, apartments, stores, anything they could get their hands on and they weren’t quiet about it either. The screams of the victims had filled their ears, filling them with dread and worry.

Capper had been terrified, he had hidden in a corner of his house and waited for it to stop. He had been in a crouched position, hugging his knees and rocking back and forth. His green eyes had been comically huge, filled with horror.

Fluttershy had done her best to comfort him, convinced that he was truly not working with the Umbrums.

Spike had stood by one of the smaller windows, glancing as he saw the Umbrums run with their weapons drawn and ready to kill.

He had wanted to attack them in stealth, but Fluttershy had pointed out the other Umbrums. There were too many of them for him to handle alone, and some creature needed to watch after Capper.

With a heavy heart, Spike allowed the Umbrums to continue their savageness. He didn’t like it one bit, but he didn’t have a choice. He’d be able to hold his own, but eventually, he would run out of stamina, making him sloppier and giving the Umbrums a large chance to finish him off.

And that led to them having breakfast. The Umbrums had left hours ago, leaving blood and bodies all over the place. How Spike managed to not chase after the would remain a mystery.

“I’m sorry for my cowardice …” Capper said slowly, staring into his reflection through the tea. The two comrades glanced at one another.

“Capper, It’s not your fault. You have bad memories right?” Fluttershy gently asked, placing her hoof on his free paw. The gesture made the cat feel warm but he still felt like a coward, just being in the corner, praying to deities that it would all be over.

“Yes,” He admitted with a sigh and took a sip of his tea.

“Would you like to tell us how the Badlands was invaded?” She gently asked with her hoof still on his paw to show comfort.

Capper sighed deeply, knowing that a question like that would arise eventually. At first, he didn’t want to answer, but as the second started to pass, he felt the temptation take over him.

Finally, he decided to tell them.

“Okay, but be aware, this isn’t a kindergarten story with a happy ending.” Capper sarcastically said with closed eyes. Both Spike and Fluttershy nodded knowing it wasn’t the case.

“Okay, well … It all began about a year ago…

Badlands, 1 year ago.

Capper was walking down the busy streets of Klugetown where business was going on like usual. The mobsters had their power struggles, the thugs were stealing and committing all kinds of mischief.

He could go on and on, but the list was too long to remember.

Capper himself wasn’t far off. He was also looking for something of value to steal to make a quick bit. Besides, he was in the Badlands, what was expected of them? To be law-abiding citizens?

The thought was ridiculous.

The Badlands was made from the creatures who committed crimes and were banished to never return. Klugetown and the many other towns and cities had a very high crime rate because of the non-authoritarian regimes that ruled.

Yes, there was the Storm King, but he was a pest more than anything else. There wasn’t exactly a ruling that the Storm King gave them, just to show loyalty to him and everything would be fine.

None of them had an ounce of loyalty.

Capper couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought that they would be faithful to anyone but themselves. It was called the Badlands for a reason. This is where all the bad stuff happens, the criminality, the dark magic, the creature trafficking. Anything a creature could think of happens there.

This, of course, was something that Capper suspected that the Storm King knew about but never said anything about. At least, he didn’t leave any signs of knowing about it.

Shaking away the thoughts about the wannabe King, he walked down an alley that was dimly lit because of the small “roof” overhead. The walls had multiple cracks covering the sides of the houses that lined up relatively well.

They weren’t falling apart, so that was a good sign.

Halfway through the alley, Capper came across an opening to a large area to the right of him. Stopping a few feet away from the corner, he wondered if something would happen there.

He knew it was a bad idea to walk through the alley. It had a reputation for holding meetings between mobsters who wanted some privacy. And to make sure that there aren’t many places for cover in case one of them is tricked.

This led to wars between mobsters in the middle of the day, causing many creatures to stay in their homes so they aren’t in the crossfire. Capper had even witnessed one himself; one of the mobsters was a unicorn who’d used a dark magic spell on a Kirin who had tried attacking with the magic of its own. The kirin failed.

Capper will not forget the tortured screams of the poor Kirin who cried for his comrades for help.

He shuddered as he walked with a quicker pace out of the alley. When he reached the end, he glanced to the left and walked away as fast as possible.

He wore his signature red overcoat with a sense of style that always made him seem unique and stand out. Not that many creatures cared; they were only there to make money, nothing else.

And that is what Capper was trying to do; earn money so he could, hopefully, get out of the town that was extremely high in crime. He wanted to become rich, so rich that he would never need to work a day for the rest of his life.

He grinned at the prospect. He was working hard every day to ensure that the possibility never diminished. He’s had to make many sacrifices in the past, and in the end, it has worked out well for him.

At the moment.

He had to be fair; it was a large possibility that something goes horribly wrong which could lead to him either getting killed or worse.

Shuddering he left the line of thought and continued to his destination.

That day, he was planning on robbing a store that sold weapons. Not the normal, typical weapons a royal guard has, but something much more sinister. They had the technology—thanks to the Storm King—to create weapons that could shoot something metallic.

If he was being honest, he didn’t know what it was, but it sounded very dangerous and useful. He was hoping to steal a crates-worth of that weapon and the small metallic things that go with it.

“All I need to do is find the store,” Capper thought as he rounded another corner and saw many different small stores that sold illegal stuff that you couldn’t find anywhere else. When he got closer, he could smell the horrible stench that came from small paper stuff that some creatures smoked.

He had tried it, but it was disgusting, to say the least.

However, he needed to find the store and so, he set forth to the location he had heard the rumours of.

Just as he was about to look around, he felt slightly cooler than he did a second ago. He looked up and to his surprise, he saw the Storm King’s battleship, only that this wasn’t the battleship of the Storm King. It was some creature else's.

Abruptly, Capper felt a chill rise up his spine. Who were those creatures? What were they doing in Klugetown?

So many questions, and no answers. Did he want answers? He probably didn’t, considering that Klugetown did not take friendly terms with a creature who asked questions.

Looking around him, he noticed that the other creatures had stopped to look up and witnessed the ship that gave a different aura than the Storm King. A more sinister one. Some of the creatures mocked the ships, believing it to be the Storm King.

It wasn’t unusual for some of the creatures to show disrespect to the Storm King for his “failed” attempt at seizing the Badlands. The punishment for this was either hard labour unless the creature managed to beat up the soldiers that felt infinite.

There had been attempts at overthrowing the King, but none had worked. But this looked promising.

If this wasn’t the Storm King’s ship then it was clear some creature was planning a coup against the Badlands or at the very least, taking Klugetown. But they would soon realise that it would all be a waste of time.

Klugetown had no interest in any kind of authority. They would just waste their time, possibly stay for a week, and then leave.

If only they knew …

As they watched the ship descend from the skies, Capper noticed that there was more than one ship. The Storm King usually only had about three ships that flew overhead every day and night. But whoever this creature was, either had a very large army or wanted to look impressive.

But Capper got the feeling that it wasn’t an impression this creature or creatures wanted. Rather, show them that they could take on their destroyed town. Capper took a few steps back as the rope was thrown overboard, making a way down for the creatures that were on board.

The other creatures nearby looked curious as to what would happen while some others didn’t seem the least impressed by the display. Who were these creatures trying to impress? This was a town that was unsuccessfully being “ruled” by the mob. Or so the mobsters claim with no backup evidence to show for it.

Capper took another few steps back as creatures started descending from the ships by the ropes they had previously thrown overboard. They were nothing like Capper expected them to be.

These creatures wore armour that covered them from head to claw or hoof. Their helmets blocked out their eyes so Capper couldn’t tell whether they were male or female. Nor if there was anything inside for that matter.

The creatures looked around with erratic movement that made Capper and the other creatures slightly jump. It was unexpected and slightly frightening. The creatures looked at Capper. He gulped.

“An tusa an ceannaire?” One of them spoke in a low, gruff voice like it hadn’t been used in ages. The only problem was; that Capper did not understand what language the creature was speaking.

“Uh,” He didn’t want to offend this creature, but at the same time, he had to be a little bit rude to solve the problem. “I don’t know what you're saying,” he let out.

Neither of the armoured creatures that either stood or came down endlessly from the ropes looked at one another. They continued to stare—that is what Capper assumed anyways—until one of them spoke, this time, in Equestrian.

“Are you the leader?” Their Equestrian sounded broken like they hadn’t spoken it in a long time.

The creatures looked at each other, confused. Did these newcomers not know that they were in the Badlands? That there was no ruler here?

Capper sweatdropped. What would happen if he said that he wasn’t the leader? Actually, what would happen if he said that he was the leader? Would they torture him? Strike a deal? Or something much worse?

“I’m not the leader, sorry,” he decided that honesty was key here. Besides, he didn’t want to get into trouble with the mob later on.

This time, the newcomers looked at each other and nodded before turning back to face them. Capper felt unnerved by them. They didn’t seem to be all that bothered that they didn’t have a government of sorts. But Capper couldn’t tell because of the helmets.

“You have no government? That is fine with us.” One of them spoke with an only fibre of amusement. They then pulled out their weapons, ranging from swords, knives, bows and arrows, spears, and the larger creatures carried something aching to what Capper was going to steal earlier, only it was much larger.

The creatures of Klugetown were shocked by the drastic turn of events and dropped what they were doing to defend their town. They pulled out weapons of their own while some families ran for their homes, seeking shelter.

Some creatures even went to any mobsters that were in the area for protection but it would all be in vain.

“ATTACK!!” The newcomers shouted in a battle cry and his comrades rushed to the creatures of Klugetown, engaging in battle.

Capper took that as his cue to run away as fast as possible. He may have wanted to leave the town, but deep down he loved it here, he could do whatever he wanted and no authority could question him.

It was why it hurt him to leave the other creatures behind to fight. He knew some of them personally, doing business with them over the years ranging from artefacts to rare metals and so forth.

He knew some of them could handle themselves but it didn’t take away the fact that he was running through alleys, trying to get away from whoever those creatures were. He had to admit, that was the first time he’d seen any creature try to seize Klugetown by force.

Most creatures that had tried just gave a speech, hoping that they would choose them, when they didn’t they left angrily to never be seen or heard from again.

Capper hated to admit it, but he respected whoever it was that was invading Klugetown. They had a plan which most creatures don’t, and the ones that do have very bad ones. Just a setup for failure.

But that did not mean that Capper would bow down to whoever the creature was. No, he would try to flee Klugetown and escape to one of the neighbouring towns. Or try to get as far away from the Badlands as possible.

Running into another alley, he jumped over a few trash cans that were knocked over on the ground, dirtying the stone worse than it usually was.

He took a left then he took a right, zigzagging as much as possible in case he was being chased by one of the newcomers. He wasn’t, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

When he saw his house in the distance, he felt a sense of relief wash over him like pouring water. From what he could see, the newcomers hadn’t made it very far yet.

Rushing inside of his house, he slammed the door shut behind him with a loud thud before he made his way to the nearest window.

He had no weapons to speak of, but he was sure that he could either sweet-talk his way out of any situation, or he could run away, which sounded very attractive at that moment. However, he had a feeling that it would be better if he stayed.

Why he believed that he wasn’t sure, but he stayed.

Turning away from the window, he ran to his bed and checked under the mattress, hoping to find something that he could bribe the newcomers with if it became worse. But he found nothing, he only had a collection of expensive items that he planned on either selling or keeping for good fortune.

Now, he wished he bought or stolen the weapons earlier. If he hadn’t insisted on himself getting a cup of tea, then he would be armed right at the moment and would be able to fend off the invaders.

Looking around frantically, he started to hear screaming in the distance not far from him. He panicked and started to cover the windows and anything that could be used as something to look outside or inside of.

He dashed from one side of his house to the next, his running effectively being blocked out by the screams of creatures either being killed or tortured.

The thought made him shudder.

He faintly heard some explosions as he began to climb the walls of his house, hoping to hide in the ceiling. He almost lost his grip when he heard the first one but quickly regained composure and finished the climb within a few small seconds.

Badlands, present time.

“... and so I stayed in that position for a few long minutes. The Umbrums came and went, but they never opened my door or even tried to. Don’t know why. And I've stayed here ever since.” Capper finished retelling what happened to the Badlands to his two guests and they were stunned.

Spike more so, because he didn’t think that their world could hold the weapons his sister Sunset Shimmer lived in. Even if it was possible, he felt like it would take another thousand years or so.

Abruptly, his eyes widened in horror. The Umbrums had the same style of weapons. That could change the war drastically if they didn’t do something and were about to ask Capper if they’d ever used them when Fluttershy asked a question of her own.

“But, why didn’t the other creatures continue to rebel? You can work together as you just told us whether you realised it or not. You also seem to have better-advanced weaponry than Equestria which could be an unknown contribution of the Storm King, so by all means, you were ahead of the Umbrums in many regards.” Fluttershy explained with an excellent argument made.

Capper just stared at her with no clear emotion visible on his face. He didn’t seem to confirm nor deny the claim.

But while Fluttershy’s argument was astounding, they also had to realise that they weren’t in a functioning kingdom with rulers. Their version of working together could be not stabbing each other in the back and paying for the protection later on while in Equestria, they protected each other without payment of any sort.

The silence was becoming unbearable and Spike was about to break it when Capper opened his mouth to respond.

“Because they killed them all off ..” his voice held sorrow and his eyes looked to be holding back tears. “They killed any creature who put up a fight, they killed children in front of parents, cutting their …” he couldn’t finish the sentence.

Fluttershy looked ready to cry herself while Spike was ready to murder the Umbrums who did it. He felt his anger ignite up like pouring gasoline on a fire, spreading more. But it wasn’t gasoline, this was something far worse, it was pure emotions that looked ready to explode.

He took large, deep breaths to calm himself.

“I was a coward …” Capper cried on the table, his hands on his forehead as he shook violently at his sobs. “I was an absolute coward!” He said loudly, almost shouting. “I shouldn’t have run away, I should have stayed and fought for our rights, protecting the young ones from the horrible King Sombra,”

His voice almost dropped to a deadly whisper as he said those last few words. Capper looked up, his eyes were red from crying so hard, his voice hiccuped as he tried to speak but couldn’t find the words.

Spike waited patiently while Fluttershy comforted him with her hoof which he gently took.

“But not anymore,” he stated with eyes looking determined. He glanced at Spike and Fluttershy. “What is it that you need?”

The question threw them off-guard. What did he mean by that?

“What do you mean?” Spike and Fluttershy said at the same time.

“As I said; what do you need? Do you need somewhere to sleep? Use my house. Need weapons? I know many creatures in Klugetown that sell all kinds of weapons. Need to find information? I can ask around.”
The two guests looked at Capper, stunned by what he said. He couldn’t mean that, did he? He didn't want to endanger himself …

Before they could question him as to why he made his statements, he let out a tired sigh.

“I will not allow another creature to get hurt when I know I can do something.” He stated with anger. “I may not have the same honour as some creature who lives in Equestria, but hurting innocent civilians is something I refuse to do.”

Spike and Fluttershy glanced at each other and smiled sadly before looking back to Capper who was now standing up and looking out the window behind the two of them.

“Honour died on the beach,” Spike said, making Capper look at him.

“What?” He asked.

“Honour died on the beach,” He repeated. “My ancestor once used that quote when the Mongols invaded his home, Hoofshima. His uncle and he got into a fight about honour, and my ancestor used the quote I just told you.”

For the first time in a very long time, Capper smiled.