private The Mute And the Outcasted (1x1 With The Ceberus)

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"It is hers, isn't it... That means..." Maple didn't want to finish that... She knew how vicious hunters like this could be "Well... We don't know... But I can almost safely assume the hunters took her... I.. I'll go save her. You need to stay here. I dragged your mother into this and now I'm going to get her out. I just want you to stay safe alright? If anyone knocks at the door jsut wait until Uncle Zephyr come home." She was putting her armor on as she spoke to speechless

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

Speechless set the cape on the floor, before picking up the note his mother had left and going to Maple and grabbing her shoulder surprisingly firmly with his wing. He looked Maple right in her eyes and slowly shook his head, then pointing at the "We were followed when we left our apartment". Speechless then went to grab his notebook and wrote "That's exactly what they want us to do." "Besides, she was followed from home, that means they know about my father." "He has more enemies than you think, we are just the bonus." It was obvious that Speechless' mind was a mess from the revelation, his emotions were a mixture of everything from sadness to a pure anger.

Speechless wrote more "I can't stop you, but just know that if you go, I'm not staying here either." and he wasn't bluffing, he wouldn't be able to do much, but he wasn't just going to stand by while all of the ponies he cared for were risking their lifes, especially when only one of them was prepared to fight hunters alone, that being his father. That reminded him, he needed to contact Crimson somehow about this.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple stopped when she read that that's what they were expecting and removed her armor, She hadn't strapped it on quite yet anyways. "You're right... This is exactly what they want and I'm not experienced fighting hunters, especially not like this... For all, I know there's a hunter right outside the door waiting for one of us to race out of the house so he can shoot us. Given how strong those crossbows tend to be it'd punch right through this as well... You're right we should stay here..."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

Speechless looked relieved, he really did't want to lose Maple, especially not in this situation. He sighed and walked back to the bed, grabbing the cape with him, then sitting back on the bed and just staring at the bloody rip in the cape. He felt hopeless and useless, he knew his mother was alive, but it really didn't comfort him, since that didn't mean she was aright, hay, he could see she wasn't aright, there was blood on her cape....and he couldn't do anything about it, no, he would just be in the way, and not only that, this was his fault in the first place, he was the reason why Midnight was there in the first place.

Speechless kept staring at the cape, how could he let his father know, he couldn't send a letter since he didn't know where he was at the moment, not that opening a window or door to do so would have been safe anyways, and he didn't know any other way. Maybe it was better just wait, Crimson would eventually start looking for Midnight, and he would most likely find his way to where Speechless and Maple were, if the hunters didn't leave him a message too. The though made Speechless even more despondent, what would the hunters leave as a message to his father if anything, drop of blood? something worse? like an ear? He tried to push the thought away. 

Edited December 8, 2017 by The Cerberus

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple looked at her weapon, The edge was still sharp from her sharpening before she met Speechless' parents. She sighed and moved closer to snuggle with speechless, He really looked like he needs some support. "We could... Tell my parents they're back... Dad would make sure they never, EVER came back that said if he leveled the place with your mother there... Hehe... Yea... Let's save that until she's safe. For now, let's keep ourselves safe you dad doesn't need more problems to worry about for now. Agreed?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

Speechless dropped the cape when Maple came to comfort him, but he didn't take his eyes away from it right away, though her closeness did stop him from thinking about the worst case scenarios. He didn't really hear word to word what Maple said, but he did get the general point and replied with a sound of agreement, but there was certain amount of hopelessness mixed in. 

Speechless finally took his eyes from the cape, and moved his head in a way that his forehead was leaning on Maple, then, tears started forming on his eyes. He was scared, he wanted to act like things didn't scare him, and that he knew everything was going to be aright, but in this point he couldn't anymore, he wasn't able to hide his fear and hopelessness any longer.

(OOC: sorry for low quality, I wrote this in a car.) 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple noticed him start to cry, only imagining what he was going through currently "Hey... I'm sorry. Don't worry though I'm right here... nothing's going to take me away from you I promise" She smiled to him and hugged him with her hooves "We're safe here. If they broke in here Zephyr would know and Luna would have their heads." She chuckled "Plus. Don't you know they won't take me alive, and they can try all they want but they're not killing me." She sighed happy hoping speechless understood the two were safe, at least for now

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

Speechless let out a silent sound of 'I know', and though Maple's words didn't comfort him that much, he couldn't help but feel better when she hugged him, it felt so calming. Speechless wrapped his wings around Maple, he didn't want her to let go anytime soon, because though it was slightly embarrassing for him to cry like this, he needed it, because all the bottled up worry and fear from everything that had happened since they had met, he couldn't handle it anymore. 

Edited December 10, 2017 by The Cerberus

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple knew exactly how he felt, Being a captain and facing impossible odds she had to seem like she was confident in victory when in almost all outcomes she and all her troops would be harmed or worse. She kept herself composed now, Hopeing to cheer speechless up with her own bravery. Other than doing that she couldn't think of much to do to help him. She just held him tightly and calmly.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

It took some time, but eventually Speechless calmed down, he still wasn't entirely happy and he was still worried, but that wasn't going to change until his mother was safe. He slowly closed his wings, taking them away from around Maple, and moved his head in a way that he was showing affection rather than seeking comfort. 

Edited December 10, 2017 by The Cerberus

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple didn't move out of the hug, she didn't want to now she was worried about Speechless' father... If he ended up getting caught... or worse. That would only leave her and Speechless as targets they know of. "Speechless. I... I don't wanna lose you... Not after all you've done. Promise me, no matter what happens you'll stay here. If you agree to that I will too." She felt herself tearing up at one thought... Losing the only pony in Equestria that saw her as an equal.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

Speechless didn't mind Maple staying in the hug, in fact, it was so nice that he didn't want her to stop. He started thinking about his father, he wasn't worried about him, he trusted him to be able to handle himself, after all, he had been trained to combat hunters since when he first learned to walk, but he was worried how he would react to Midnight getting captured, because Speechless knew that his father was very protective when it came to him and Midnight, and would react very strongly to either of them getting hurt.

Maple speaking broke Speechless out of his thoughts, and he listened well what she had to say. Speechless moved himself in a way that he could look Maple in the eyes, and made an agreeing sound that could easily be understood to be something in the lines of 'I promise', before wrapping his own hooves into a hug around Maple as best as he could, his movement being rather limited due Maple also hugging him. 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple closed her eyes and grinned. "Thank you." She didn't say much for a while, After a bit longer she moved her hooves down, still leaning her head against Speechless "I'll admit. I'm more scared of you getting hurt than I am of getting hurt myself... Then again I have gotten hurt a lot over my career so I'm used to it." She chuckled, Trying to lessen all the tension in the room. She relaxed herself knowing that she was safe, of the house wasn't then she knew Speechless would keep her safe.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

Speechless also moved his hooves down in some point, also leaning his head on Maple. He chuckled a little too as a reply to Maple, if Speechless would have been able to, he would have said the same to Maple, because though he wasn't used to getting injured, he felt like the pain was worth it if it meant that Maple got hurt less, and he simply didn't want to see Maple suffering in any way. Speechless could feel Maple relaxing, and that in turn made him to relax too, he felt like he could forget everything bad happening for a moment, and though he was still very worried about his mother, he felt lot happier than he had been in a while. 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

(Seems to have glitched and double posted due to a 504 error. Refer to bellow post for RP)

Edited December 12, 2017 by Maple Bat

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple sat there for a second not really sure what to do. Midnight was in trouble but Maple had just promised to not go and get in danger. She felt helpless in the situation not being able to help Midnight, but at least Maple, herself, was safe and happy. "So... You wanna learn to fight right?" She asked speechless without moving her head.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

Speechless felt useless, knowing that even if he did go and try to help his mother, he wouldn't be able to do anything, most likely getting captured or killed himself, and that was part of the reason why he didn't want Maple to put herself into a risk, because he knew that he couldn't just stay safe when that happened, and that would cause only more problems to everypony.

When Maple asked about Speechless wanting to learn to fight, he replied with surprisingly strong 'yes' sound, because though he didn't necessary want to, since he preferred non-violent ways to handle things, he knew that he had to, given the situation and the fact that he was most likely to face hunters in the future, even after this situation ended. 

Edited December 12, 2017 by The Cerberus

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple smiled and finally moved away from Speechless, Already feeling less warm inside. She got up and grabbed her weapons taking them into the living room, moving the furniture out of the way so they could have room. Since there could still be someone waiting for them outside she went back to speechless to make sure he was ready to actually train with her or if she should just show him techniques "How bad is the leg? Think you can stand on it?"

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

Speechless moved his leg around a little and pressed it with his other hoof to see if it still hurt, and it didn't, Midnight's salve had helped. He wrote his answer "It doesn't hurt anymore, so it should be fine as long as it doesn't get hit." He then gave a quick smile, before getting up and putting the notebook bag on his neck, but leaving the weapons Midnight had brought next to the bed, since this was only practice and using them didn't really differ from using just his claws. He was still feeling slightly weaker than usual, but he didn't see that as a problem, since it wasn't going to be full blown training session, they were in Zephyr's living room after all.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple rose her naginata defensively "Alright. I need to evaluate how you fight. Come at me full force. I can take it... Then After that, I can show you weak spots in your attacks and areas you can improve on." Maple braced herself for speechless to attack her, her face showed determination and she was ready for whatever Speechless tried.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

Speechless thought about what he could do, he could have tried the same quick style he had used at the castle before going into the passageways, but he figured the he was too weak to do that longer than few seconds, so he wanted to try something less exhausting. After some thought, Speechless decided to go with what he had used against the hunter, and took slightly cat-like pose before charging at Maple. He tried to distract Maple by not giving a clear indication where he aimed, and his objective was to get at least one hit with his wings or snoot, of course without actually using his claws or teeth. 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Maple blocked some Speechless attacks with her spear, however after a few seconds, one of the wings caught the naginata in a way that caused Maple to drop it. Without the weapon, Maple was forced to evade him which she was able to do but it was quite the workout for her after 4 minutes she held up a hoof for him to stop his assault "Alright give me a bit... Need to think about how we can improve that. It's very good which is why I'll need time on this." She was already thinking of several ways that he could've been bested had she been trying and a few came to mind but how to beat them is what she was thinking on

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

Speechless stopped like Maple asked, and sat down on the floor to evaluate his own performance. Mostly he paid attention to what was different now, since in his own opinion, it had went lot better than against the hunters. He came to the conclusion that it was his animalistic tendencies that were the problem, because back when faced with the hunter, Speechless had been taken over by fear and anger, thus making him act by his instincts, that due lot of time used with animals, were highly influenced by animals' attack methods, which in most cases was just straight attack.

But one thing he also noticed was that he got more lot tired from the practice fighting than the actual fight, he figured it was partly because of him still feeling weaker than usual, but he also concluded that it was because of the lack of danger, since when faced with actual threat, pony's fight or flight kicked in, making them last little longer energy-wise.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

After a few minutes of Maple internally examining the way she was attack she came up with some good improvement "Alright so go ahead and face me again and we'll start to improve you style and stance... Go ahead and act like you're going to start to attack me as you sid before but don't actually start to attack me I want to show you something regarding it." Maple had her naginata again and was in a battle stance for a more offensive stance, but she had leather placed over the blade so she wouldn't cut him with it.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,421]

Speechless nodded and got up, stretching his wings a little and checking that the bandage on his leg was still like it should be, after all, all the moving could easily loosen it up bit by bit, causing it eventually start to unravel. After that Speechless took the same pose as he had had just before charging at maple, but stayed there like Maple had instructed.

Edited December 14, 2017 by The Cerberus