Chapter 3
--Earlier--
"Spiiiike! Have you finished re-shelving the books yet?" Twilight asked from upstairs. Her brother was coming to visit today, and she wanted the library to be presentable.
"Yes, Twilight!" Spike shouted upstairs. This was the third time today that Spike had to re-shelf the books, but knowing how Twilight is, he didn't argue.
Suddenly, a knocking sound came from the door. Spike opened the door to see Twilight's older brother outside.
"Spike!" Shining greeted in his usual surfer-pony way.
"Hey Shining. Twilight is upstairs," Spike said with a tired look.
"Did she have you re-shelve the books five or six times today or something?" Shining asked, noting Spike's expression.
"Three actually. I'm actually surprised myself, but I'm not going to complain," Spike shrugged.
"I know how she can be. Just-" Shining started to say before being cut off by several rapid knocks on the door. Answering the door, Spike was surprised to see the CMC outside with panicked expressions.
"Woah! What happened?" Spike asked.
"M-Monsters were trying to eat us!"they shouted in unison. "We were just watching them, when a timber wolf attacked one of them. The other monster raised this weird blue and yellow stick into the air and all of the wolves behind the one that attacked the first monster were frozen in blocks of ice! The first monster then scared off the remaining wolf by talking to it!"
"Wait, they can talk? What did they look like?" asked Spike.
"They were standing on their hind legs, had claws sticking out of their front hooves, and were dressed up in this spiky metal armor," Sweetie Belle explained, calming down, but still a little panicked.
"Ah heard it talkin' mahself," Applebloom said.
"Where did Shining Armor go?" asked Scootaloo.
True to her word, Shining Armor was nowhere to be seen. After hearing that they tried to eat the fillies and could talk, we went outside to the carriage that he arrived in. He retrieved his armor from a chest inside of the passenger area of the carriage, which he always keeps there for emergencies. After donning his armor, he found a few guards around, and told them to get ready for battle. Seeing the royal guard prepping for battle, the ponies of the town took shelter inside of the surrounding buildings. The guards prepared to confront the creatures when they saw them. They are definitely soldiers of some kind, but WHAT are they? Shining Armor thought to himself.
"Where is everyone?" asked the warrior with the spikes.
They were planning on hurting everypony here!? This must stop! Shining thought with a scowl. "Halt! In the name of the princess!" Shining shouted at them.
"What exactly have we done wrong?" asked the same warrior calmly.
"Attempting to eat three fillies!" Shining yelled back.
"We didn't try to eat them though! They were spying on us, and we called them out!" yelled the warrior with the weird stick in outrage.
"We'll see what the court has to say about that," Shining stated with a determined look.
The warrior with the spiky armor put his weapons away, making Shining relax. He tensed up when he heard the warrior mutter something and shoot lightning between his hands. The other warrior got into a stance, and repeated what the first warrior did. Taking this as a sign of aggression, the guards readied themselves to take down the beasts. All of the sudden, the one with the stick raised said stick into the air, freezing two platoons of guards, minus the pegasi, who flew out of the way. The pegasi then proceeded to attempt to dive-bomb the creature in an attempt to subdue it quickly. The creature managed to barely get out of the way. Another platoon of guards began to attack said creature while the pegasi distracted it.
"Mini! I figured out their combat styles! The Pegasi are like archers, the regular ones are melee, and the unicorns must be mages!" shouted the creature with spikes to the creature that they assumed was named 'Mini'.
"I noticed!" Mini shouted back in-between the pegasus' strikes.
Seeing that the still-unnamed warrior was distracted, Shining began to charge up a stunning spell. The warrior began to mutter again, and this time, a symbol of a hat and arrow materialized above its head. Ignoring this, Shining fired the blast, only to have it rebound and render him unconscious.
--Back at the Library--
"Spike, what are those fillies doing here? Where's Shining? Is everything clean?" Twilight quickly asked.
"To answer your questions in order, they were almost eaten by monsters, dealing with said monsters, and for the third time today, yes."
Twilight's eyes widened, while her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. She opened and closed her jaw a couple times, but eventually bolted out the door. Upon leaving the library, she saw the monsters surrounded by several frozen guards, a few unconscious ones, and her brother.
Without thinking, she charged.