Chapter 9: Ponynapping!

Chapter 9: Ponynapping!

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=== Golden Oaks Library, 4 days later ===

“Spike, have you seen Link, I haven’t seen him in a while,” Twilight asks with a worried look on her face, Spike walks out of the Library’s kitchen wiping flour off his hands on his chef’s apron.

“I haven’t seen him since he came home after the Stampede, he took some snacks up to his room when he returned,” Spike stands near the door to the kitchen to keep an ear out for the timer he set on breakfast biscuits. “I tried to get him to come to breakfast yesterday after you went help preparations for today’s party for Applejack, but his door was locked,”

“Maybe I should talk to him so he doesn’t miss the party,” Spike nods and heads back into the kitchen while Twilight heads upstairs. She arrives at Michael’s door unsurprisingly it’s locked, she puts her ear to the door but can’t hear anything, “Link, are you awake?” She knocks on the door, after a few moments of silence, she knocks again, “Link, today’s the party for Applejack you don’t want to miss it, and Spike’s making breakfast,” another few moments of silence, not even a peep from the room. “I know I shouldn’t do this but, I’m worried about him,” She uses her magic to unlock the door and she opens it to find Michael, not in the room, the window open, and the room in shambles symbolizing a struggle took place, [The Master Sword] isn’t in its scabbard on the ground & [Hylian Sheild] is upside down on the ground.

Twilight not liking the look of things rushes over to the window to look for any signs of Michael, she spots what looks like heavy boot prints, much larger than Michael’s with what looks like drag marks off to the side of them leading into the Everfree Forest, “Oh no, this isn’t good,” She rushes out of the room and downstairs scaring Spike with her speed, “Spike, we need to send a letter to Celestia, I think Link was Ponynapped!” Spike tries to calm her down,

“Woah, maybe he’s just taking a walk or something,” Twilight quickly writes down a letter to Celestia describing the situation and hands it to Spike.

“Spike, his room is wrecked and there are clear signs of Ponynapping, his sword and shield are just lying on the ground, quickly send this to Celestia,” She runs back upstairs to collect gear to search for Michael, when she gets back downstairs Spike coughs up a letter from Princess Celestia, Spike hands it to Twilight so he can finish making breakfast and put it into to-go baggies for the search.

“To my faithful student Twilight Sparkle, This news is unfortunate but due to some royal business I will not be able to assist in the search but I will be sending a few Royal guards to help they shall be there in a few minutes, they are highly trained and will help however they can, You can do this, Your Loving Mentor Princess Celestia,” Spike walk out of the kitchen with several bags of freshly baked biscuits.

“Here take these for the others, I’ll stay here just in case he returns before you find him,” Spike hands her the bags and she places them in her saddlebag, “Please be careful, and find him,” Twilight nods and heads out the door,

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=== Somewhere in the EverFree Forest... ===

Dark figures are dragging a tied-up Michael through the Forest, with every heavy step Michael continues to struggle against his bonds to no avail. One of his captors chuckles with a deep voice, “Stupid Hylian, Those ropes are tied tight You never getting out,” The others laugh at Michael as they continue down a path, Michael Slips the rope out of his mouth to speak,

“Where the hell are you taking me!” The one pulling him stops and proceeds to kick Michael in the gut knocking the wind out of him. The Figure laughs and continues down the path.

“Keep quiet Hylian, you’ll find out when we get there,” They all continue to walk down the path coming to a wide river, “This might hurt a bit Hylian,” Michael lets out a huh, before screaming as the figure Throws him across the river when he lands he bounces off the hard ground and rolls into a tree stopping him. The figures all melt into the ground with dark magic and appear on the side of the river that Michael was just thrown to.

One of the figures speaks up, “Goredon, we are almost there sir,” The biggest figure laughs and starts dragging Michael again,

“Good, let’s get this Hylian into the base and lock him up, after that, we have to summon a replacement for Skully,” The smaller figure salutes and they start walking towards their ‘base’.

“I hope you bastards know you’ve made a huge mistake kidnapping me!” Michael’s outburst earned him another kick to the gut but this time the Figure grabs him by his head and holds him up to eye level revealing his captors to be Stalfos from Zelda Ocarina of time.

“I thought I told you to keep quiet Hylian!” The Stalfos Named Goreson tosses Michael back to the ground, “The next word out of you will earn you a lot worse than a kick to the gut,” Michael grits his teeth, Goreson grabs the rope and starts dragging again.

Tael whispers to Michael quiet enough to not be heard by the Stalfos, “Master, you’ve taken critical damage, I’m healing as fast as I can, I would advise keeping your frustration in check before they escalate the damage anymore,” She continues healing Michael’s injuries. Michael nods and keeps his mouth shut as they continue down the path.

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=== At the Everfree Entrance ===

Twilight gathered all her friends minus Applejack to help with the search, Applejack was too busy to help and she looked like he hasn’t slept in days, so they started the search without her, 3 of Celestia’s Royal guards arrived to assist carrying Spears and Supplies, One of each race, Earth Pony, Unicorn, and Pegasus.

“Alright, These tracks lead into the Forest, let’s hope whatever took Link hasn’t gone too far!” Twilight turns to the others, “Here’s the plan, Rainbow and the Pegasus Guard will fly ahead following the tracks and fly back if they catch a glimpse of the Ponynappers, The rest of us will follow the tracks on hoof and confront the offenders when we’ve found them,” The others nod with Fluttershy shaking in place, “Fluttershy you’re here to calm any hostile animals that cross the path,” She slowly nods but still shakes in place. “Is everypony ready?” Everypony shouts a yes with Fluttershy whispering it.

“Alright miss Dash, Let’s head in,” The Pegasus Guard and Rainbow fly in following the tracks at high speeds, everyone else starts speed walking conserving their energy,

“I’ll watch our backs,” the Earth Pony Guard salutes and stays a few feet behind the group as they enter the Everfree Forest.

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=== A few minutes into the search at the River ===

Rainbow and the Pegasus Guard arrive at the River and the apparent end of the tracks, “Damn the tracks end here,” The guard looks around the bank of the river and spots some suspicious black patches of grass, “What the hay is that?” they crouch near the dark grass,

“It just looks like dark grass to me,” Rainbow pokes the grass revealing dark ooze under the grass once she makes contact with the grass she loses all feeling in her wings, “Ah, what the hay, why can’t I feel my wings any more?!” The dark ooze starts to burn her hand, she flails her hand sending the dark ooze flying through the air towards the river, “Ah, that burned, what is this stuff,” When the ooze flew off her finger feeling in her wings came back, The Guard looks to the river where the ooze landed to see it sizzling out of existence in the water.

“Whatever it is it’s highly acidic and can block magic,” He grabs a baggy from his saddlebag and carefully collects a sample of the ooze using his spear, “I’m going to send this to a lab to get this identified after we rescue our charge,” He puts the bag away and looks around the bank on the other side of the river, Thanks to enhanced Pegasus eyesight he spots more tracks on the other side of the river, “There, more tracks,” He points, Rainbow looks and also spots the tracks, “Go, I’ll catch up, I’m going to leave a note to stay away from the black substance and cross the river,” Rainbow salutes and shoots over the river.

“When I find the jerks who ponynapped you, Link, I’ll teach them a lesson,” She follows the tracks deeper into the forest. After a few minutes into her speedy flight, she arrives at the bridge to the Castle of the two Pony sisters, The tracks lead right over the bridge and into the front gate, “So here’s where they are,” The guard shows up a few seconds later,

“Man, you’re a fast flier, Miss Dash, So they’re in the Old Castle huh?” The Guard looks around the entrance to find any enemy guards and can’t find any, “Looks like they aren’t guarding the entrance, Should we head back and alert the others or stand guard and see if anything changes,” Rainbow thinks for a moment then responds,

“I’ll head back you stay and keep scouting,” The guard Salutes and sneakily scouts out the area, Rainbow starts flying back to the others.

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=== Old Castle Dungeons ===

Michael is thrown into a cell by Goreson, “Stay here Hylian, we’ll be back to ‘talk’ in a while,” He laughs and slams the cell door, he turns to the nearest Stalfos, “Guard this cell and don’t let anyone let him out,” The guard salutes and stands in front of the cell door, “And before you think about stealing the key off your guard,” Goreson Pulls a cell key out of his pocket, “I have the key, we aren’t as stupid as you Hylians,” He places the key back in his pocket and walks out of the dungeons.

Michael sits up against the back wall of the cell and whispers to Tael, “Tael any ideas to get me out of here?” She appears next to Michael,

“Let me see if I undo those ropes tied around your hands and feet,” She attempts to untie the ropes to no avail, “They’re too tight for me to undo, I’m sorry,” Michael shakes his head,

“It’s not your fault Tael, you tried, I just hope someone notices I’m gone and searches for me,” Tael lands on Michael’s shoulder, “I can’t believe they jumped me while I was training,”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get Twilight to help If they saw me they would have separated us,” Michael hangs his head defeated, “I just wonder when they came to this world and who is leading them,”

“Let’s just hope they’re not from the Twilight, I don’t know how I’d be able to cleanse Twilight from Equestria,” Michael slowly stands up using the wall as leverage and hops over to the bed in the cell, “Might as well get some rest, gain a little stamina back from the large amount of training I’ve done these past days, damn bear,” He lies down and closes his eyes to rest,

“I’ll wake you up if anything important happens, get some rest,” Tael disappears from view, after a few minutes Michael Falls asleep.

End of Chapter!