//------------------------------// // Chaos in Canterlot // Story: Guardians of Magic // by Shire Folk //------------------------------// Season 2 finale…epic beyond words. I don’t think I needed to tell you all that, but it had to be said. Also, The Avengers comes out this week! Boo-yah! Disclaimer: If I owned it, ‘Love is in Bloom’ and ‘B.B.B.F.F.’ would never have been born, so it’s a good thing I don’t. Awesome I may be in the eyes of some, but I’m definitely not that awesome. -G-M- Guardians of Magic Chapter 5: Chaos in Canterlot         Twilight raised a hoof and knocked on the front door of a house in one of Canterlot’s lesser districts, although that was a relative term. In the Royal City, even if your family wasn’t from upstanding nobility with great lineage, very few families had homes of the humbler sort that even the wealthy in Ponyville enjoyed. She could hear Riku shuffling around behind her, and Twilight felt a bit anxious herself. She hadn’t seen her parents Twilight Velvet and Cobalt Bracer in three months. Twilight always tried to visit whenever she had to go to Canterlot, but circumstances sometimes kept her from fulfilling that wish.         Now she wasn’t sure if this would be the last time she’d ever see them.         “Let’s hurry and get inside,” Riku muttered from behind her, “all these other ponies are starting to freak me out.”         Twilight couldn’t entirely say that she disagreed. While she supposed she could understand what Riku was going through, a little, she had certainly felt uncomfortable with all of the looks she and Riku had been receiving as they walked down the street together. Rarity had certainly been right and Twilight had the sense not to try and deny it: Riku was a gorgeous stallion; fit and strong, a shining silver mane and lustrous turquoise coat underneath bright aquamarine eyes. It was no wonder that several young mares had shot her jealous looks and whispered dark words under their breaths when they’d incorrectly judged her to have snagged a fine catch.         She almost facehoofed. Dating? Her? Not for a while yet, that was for sure. Her studies and her friends had to come first, and she knew that she didn’t have room in her schedule for a coltfriend to be pencilled in.         The door opened and revealed a female unicorn at the door. Her coat was white and her mane purple and cream, three lilac stars were her cutie mark. Cyan eyes glittered excitedly as she saw who was at the door, and the unicorn mare hugged the slightly smaller mare. “Oh Sparkle, it’s wonderful to see you.”         “Great to see you too, Mom,” Twilight Sparkle replied. They stepped back from each other and Twilight Velvet glanced at Riku for a second before returning her gaze to her daughter.         “Well, why don’t you and your friend here come in? Your brother’s here too, so we’ll have the whole family here.”         Twilight felt her eyes widen at the news. “Shining Armor’s here?” A pleasant feeling of surprise filled her and she entered the house. Twilight Velvet stepped back a couple of paces and Riku followed her in.         “Twilie!”         Twilight gasped at the sound of her brother’s voice and smiled. On the second floor landing she could see her older brother starting to come down towards her. Behind him was their father Cobalt Bracer, a cobalt blue unicorn with a navy mane and golden eyes. On his flank was a golden crescent moon and star. Shining Armor, though, was as white as his mother, with a mane mainly of the blue of his father’s with an electric blue highlight, and eyes just like his mother’s. His cutie mark was of a magenta star like Twilight’s, except overtop a blue shield. Three cyan stars were plastered above the shield.         “I’m so glad to see you, Twilight,” Shining Armor. “It’s great that you could make it, especially considering what’s been going on recently. Aren’t you excited?”         Twilight looked at her brother in confusion. “Excited for what?”         Now Shining Armor cocked his head in bewilderment. “Didn’t you get my letter?”         “I did,” she answered, “but I never got to read it. My friend Rainbow Dash kept interrupting me and things kinda spiralled out of hoof after that.” Her mother, father, and brother all laughed. “What is it?”         “Oh Twilight, I’m so proud of you,” Shining Armor said, coming up and patting his sister on the head. “You said, ‘my friend’.” Twilight blushed a little and bowed her head. She was conscious that Riku was still behind them and paying attention to every word.         “Shining Armor…”         “What do you mean by that?” Riku asked, stepping forward slightly. Shining Armor laughed.         “Not only is my little sister here a smarty-pants egghead apprenticed to Princess Celestia, but before she went to Ponyville she never had any friends besides me,” he told Riku. “And now she’s got a whole bunch of friends from what we hear; and a secret coltfriend by the looks of it.”         Twilight was sure her face had gone as pink as Pinkie’s mane at the implication. It was bad enough that her brother was embarrassing her by telling Riku that she’d never had friends before, but to imply that she was dating him? When she’d only just met him this morning and he wasn’t even a pony for pony’s sake!? Ponies on the street she could handle even if it was a little embarrassing, but her own family too?         Before she could even answer to contradict him, Riku laughed. “Unfortunately for your imagination, no. Twilight Sparkle and I just met today. While she is important to me and my friends, she’s not my girl—marefriend and I’m not looking for one.”         “Dang,” Shining Armor replied. “And here I was, hoping that she’d have a date for my wedding.”         Twilight felt something in her snap. “Wait, what? What wedding!?”         Cobalt Bracer smiled, humoured, at his second and youngest child. “Your brother’s getting married, Sparkle, didn’t you know?”         “NO!” she retorted. “And when did you decide this?”         “Just two days ago,” her brother answered. “I wanted to let you all know as soon as possible. That’s what was in the letter I sent to you, Twilight. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and I are getting married.”         Twilight smiled. “Well then, I suppose congratulations are in order, except for one teensy-weensy thing.”         “And what’s that?” Twilight Velvet asked of her daughter.         “Who the hay is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza!? Why haven’t I heard of her before?” Twilight only felt her ire grow when her family started to laugh, and it increased exponentially when Riku chuckled slightly behind her. The jerk. He had to be even more in the dark than she was and yet he found this whole thing funny?         “You should know her better than almost any of us, Sparkle,” Cobalt Bracer told her. “She was your foalsitter after all.”         Shock coursed into Twilight and she stuttered over her next few words. “M—my foalsitter? N—no, Cadance was my foalsitter, not this Mi Amore Cadenz—”         Cadenza, Cadance… Cadance, Cadenza…         Shining Armor smiled when he saw the huge grin erupt onto his sister’s face. “I think it clicked.”         “You’re marrying Cadance!” she exclaimed, “as in, Cadance, the best foalsitter in the history of foalsitters?”         “You tell us dear,” Twilight Velvet said, “she was your foalsitter after all.”         Twilight couldn’t help but burst as the memories of her fillyhood foalsitter rushed back. “Oh my gosh! Woo-hoo! You’re marrying Cadance! You’re marrying Cadance! You’re marrying Cadance!”         “Alright, alright, settle down Twilie,” Shining Armor said in what Twilight assumed to be an attempt to get her to stop bouncing up and down in a circle around him. “I don’t think you’ve introduced us to your not-coltfriend here.” Being reminded of Riku’s presence in her family’s home sobered her up quickly.         “Right,” she said, coming down from the cloud she’d briefly visited with her brother’s news. “Everypony, this is Riku. Riku, this is my mom, Twilight Velvet, my dad, Cobalt Bracer, and my brother, Shining Armor.”         Riku nodded to each in turn, and Cobalt Bracer took a step forward. “So, why don’t you tell us how you know our little Sparkle here?”         Riku smiled. “You really want to know?”         “Of course,” Twilight Velvet answered.         “Yeah, we won’t judge you here,” Shining Armor added.         Twilight laughed nervously and went to stand next to Riku. She leaned up to whisper into his ear. “Maybe that’s not such a good idea. My brother’s a Captain of the Royal Guard.”         “Even more reason,” Riku whispered back. “I first saw her when I woke up behind bars in the castle dungeon this morning,” he answered pleasantly. “Princess Celestia thought that we were connected to the…Shadows that had been appearing, and she was right.”         Twilight glanced between her family members anxiously. Her mother and father looked at each other in shock, but Shining Armor was suddenly glaring at Riku, a glare that was being met with a confident smirk. Her brother’s horn began glowing with magenta light and his voice was even as he said, “Twilight, get behind me, now.”         Twilight threw her hooves out in front of her as she stood on her hind legs. “No! Wait! You’ve got it wrong, brother! Riku’s one of the good guys!” She dropped back down and pointed at Riku’s flank. “See his cutie mark? That’s a Keyblade. It’s a weapon he and his friends carry that can defeat the Heartless, and apparently I’m supposed to be one of these mystical wielders too and a pony who somehow keeps all of the magic in existence flowing and balanced.”         Shining Armor relented and his horn ceased glowing, but his glare at the younger stallion stayed. “Start explaining.”         “Your sister is a Guardian of Magic,” Riku answered plainly, “technically known as a Keeper of the Art. She’s one of six beings that uphold the flow of all magic in existence through their own existence. When together with the other five, they can find and potentially summon any magical item existing and can perform feats of magic few could even dream of.” He looked at Twilight now, and she shied away slightly at his gaze. She could feel everypony’s eyes on her, and it was making her feel like she’d been asked a question she didn’t have the answer to back in Magic Kindergarten. “Also, Twilight, don’t call it a cutie mark. It makes me feel emasculated.”         She chuckled dryly, trying to find humor in what he said despite the unwanted attention she was getting. Special was one thing, but this was a bit too special. “What are you talking about, Riku? That’s what it is. No sense calling it something that it’s not.”         “You could at least drop the ‘cutie’ part from it and just say ‘marking’ or ‘crest’ or ‘sigil’ or even just call it a ‘tattoo’. Just thinking ‘cutie mark’ and me in the same sentence makes me want to hurl.”         “Why’s that?” Twilight Velvet asked.         “Let’s just say that I come from a place where my societal gender stereotype brainwashing tells me that the phrase ‘cutie mark’ belongs solely to little six year old fillies, not grown stallions,” he answered. Twilight saw him smirk again at her older brother. “Shining Armor, I’m not lying. If I really were allied with the Heartless, I wouldn’t have come with Twilight to help her explain to you all that she’s going to have to leave Equestria with my friends and me.”         Twilight felt her heart wrench at the looks on her family’s faces. “But Riku,” her mother asked, “why? Sparkle, what is he saying?” Riku only looked at Twilight Sparkle. Feeling the pit in her stomach deepen, the lavender unicorn opened her mouth to speak. She could feel the beginnings of tears in her eyes. Her brother was going to get married, and she was probably going to miss the most important day of his life because some villain was hunting her due to a power she’d never even known existed.         “I—”         A scream from outside cut her off before she could even start. Riku’s ears perked up beside her, and he quickly spun around. Through the window Twilight was able to see a grey earth pony run by, screaming. A second later Heartless that appeared to be more of the Shadows that had been attacking Trixie; along with some others that looked like them, only in helmets, boots, and blue bodysuits with a strange heart-shaped emblem on the front, ran past in pursuit.         “That’s my cue,” Riku growled. -G-M-         Rainbow Dash felt her jaw drop in what she knew to be a bit of fear when one of the Draco Ursas roared loudly into Sora’s face. Spike, Pinkie, and Peewee all fled from where the Heartless were gathering in the centre of the room and quickly joined the others near her and Coltinster. “What are those things?” Rainbow Dash asked, pointing a hoof between the smaller Heartless and the massive bear-dragon ones.         “Meet the Heartless,” Sora replied, the chocolate-maned pegasus crouching lower and snorting at the throng that had appeared in the room with them.         “And they don’t seem too happy to see us,” Kairi added, and Rainbow Dash was sure that she almost sounded eager about it despite the panic she’d displayed earlier. Flashes of light came from the mouths of both pegasi, revealing their Keyblades within. Rainbow could only watch as the pair charged towards the Soldiers and two Draco Ursas, and suddenly they were upon them. With a fast jerk of his neck to the right, Sora sent the Oblivion flying out of his mouth, the onyx Keyblade spinning like a circular saw as it cut through the air to chop right through a Soldier Heartless’ helmeted head. Kairi attacked from Sora’s left, her angelic white Keyblade transferring into her scarlet tail from her mouth in another flash of light before she spun around on her hooves so her back was turned to the Soldier she’d charged. The Oathkeeper rose and descended in her tail’s grasp, slicing through the Heartless’ front in one swipe. Both Soldiers burst apart into clouds of darkness, and pink crystal hearts rose up into the sky from out of their bodies.         “Ooh,” Pinkie Pie said, looking at the rising hearts.         “Well?” a voice snapped from the side, and Rainbow turned her head to see the bearded old unicorn Coltinster staring at her and her friends. “Aren’t ye going to do anything, or are the Elements of Harmony going to let two ponies they hardly know defend Equestria without the help of those who were born and bred here?”         “But we don’t have the Elements here with us,” Rarity said. “Princess Celestia said that arming ourselves with the Elements could wait until after we’d questioned Riku and them.”         “And besides, they won’t work if we’re not all here,” Applejack added. She glanced around quickly, and Rainbow Dash watched Sora make short work of another two Soldiers with a single slash, the brown pegasus leaping through the air with his Keyblade clutched tightly in his mouth. “Ah don’t see Twilight anywhere. Did anypony see where she went?”         “Oh, I saw her!” Pinkie announced. “She left with Riku a while ago, but I’m not sure what about.”         “Then, what are we going to do?” Spike asked. Fluttershy shook her head. “I don’t know. Without the Elements, how can we—?”         The unicorn’s reprimand had lit a fire in Rainbow Dash’s belly, a fire that the fearful presence of the two Heartless that were each twice her size couldn’t smother. Sora and Kairi were fighting so well, so strongly, even if their movements were somewhat awkward from never having fought as ponies before. Rainbow spoke before Spike could finish his sentence. “Easy,” she answered loudly, flapping her wings to take her into the air and clapping her forehooves together, “we do this the hard way. I don’t know everything about this Keybladey stuff, but I am not going to let myself get shown up! Are you guys with me?”         “Let’s do it!” Applejack crowed. “Come on y’all, and let’s show these two how ponies wrassle.”         Rainbow Dash needed no further encouragement. So long as Applejack was game, she was sure they had this in the bag. Bolting forward, Rainbow Dash tackled one of the Soldiers that had been about to swipe at Kairi’s chest, the pink pegasus having turned her head to watch where her tail-grasped Keyblade was swinging. She snorted right in the Soldier’s face as she pinned it to the ground, its golden eyes watching her unblinkingly. Rainbow smashed her hooves down, and suddenly the weight beneath her vanished as the Soldier became nothing more than a dark cloud. A shudder went through her unbidden at the cold feeling of the dark wisps that made up the Heartless against her skin and coat, but it quickly passed.         “Thanks Rainbow Dash,” Kairi said, “that was pretty good.”         Rainbow Dash perked up a little and rubbed a hoof against the back of her head. “Well, uh, you’re welcome.” She ducked her head as fire suddenly lanced out from the mouth of one of the Draco Ursas. The smell of burnt hair filled her nostrils and Rainbow Dash gulped as she stared into the leering yellow eyes of the large Heartless. Suddenly her view was blocked as Sora stood in front of her; out of the corner of her eye she could see Applejack striking down a Soldier with a well-placed buck from her two back hooves.         “You deal with the little ones,” Sora told her firmly, “Kairi and I will handle the ugly ones.”         “Ye seem to be doing a poor job of it,” Coltinster commented dryly from behind. “For Keyblade Wielders, your skills are far behind those I’ve met many years ago.”         “Forgive us,” Kairi snapped, jumping away from a massive claw that one of the two Draco Ursas was swiping at her, “but we haven’t gotten the whole, fighting as ponies with swords thing down yet!” Rainbow Dash heard the old pony grumble something about excuses and the young, but concentrated instead on the Soldier clacking about in front of her. Its red-coloured claw darted towards her snout. Rainbow ascended on her strong wings, dodging the swipe, and kicked the earthbound Heartless on the head. It staggered backwards, shaking its head while appearing to be in a daze, and was then blasted halfway across the room to smash into a pillar, a trail of confetti and streamers behind it. Pinkie Pie stood just shy of where it had been, her party cannon held in front of her.         “I guess these Heartless just don’t know how to party,” she told Rainbow Dash with a warm smile. Her face contorted in pain and Pinkie jumped up, yelping, “OW!” after a Soldier’s iron-shod foot connected with her flank.         The Heartless barely had time to regret it. As it turned around it met the violent cyan eyes of a usually soft-spoken yellow pegasus. “I don’t care who or what you are, mister,” Fluttershy told it. “So what if you and everything like you are made up of scary darkness, you do not, you do not, hurt my friends!”         Rainbow Dash smiled as the Soldier went completely slack, absently gazing at Fluttershy as the Stare Master paralyzed it in fear of her stare. She was right about to dive down and smash the creature’s head into the dust when a crackling bolt of lightning suddenly jolted into the Heartless’ stomach. The Soldier flew only a couple hooves before bursting apart in a dark cloud. Rainbow shook her head in surprise and saw Coltinster’s horn sparking with lightning.         A yelp of surprise and pain touched Rainbow’s ears and she saw Sora tumbling across the marble floor of the ballroom, his coat singing from where a red bolt had exited one Draco Ursa’s horn and struck him on the flank. Kairi’s shout of his name overpowered several others’ but hers quickly turned into one of momentary pain as a claw from the second one swatted her twelve hooves back. The pink pegasus crashed into Rarity, and the two ponies slid until they were only a short distance away from another pillar. Both Draco Ursas were the only Heartless left in the room; one was sporting a shallow wound near the shoulder that was oozing black wisps, and neither of them looked too happy at the moment.         Rainbow Dash gulped as both of them roared loud enough that she was sure Ponyville could hear them, and muttered, “This isn’t going to be good.”         “I think this farce has gone on long enough,” a disgruntled voice said behind her. Coltinster’s horn sparked again and another bolt of lightning, this one as thick as one of Applejack’s legs, zapped out of his horn and struck the closest Draco Ursa. The beast roared in pain, and the lightning arced off of its body and struck the second one too, only the bolt wasn’t quite so thick as it had been. The first Draco Ursa burst apart in a large cloud of black smoke that slowly dissipated, while the second one now had a smoking hole in its cheek leaking darkness to go with the cut on its shoulder. It emitted a low yowl.         “It’s hurt bad,” Fluttershy said shakily.         Rainbow Dash smirked and yelled, flying towards the Draco Ursa with one hoof extended. She kicked the beast hard on its wounded cheek, and then spun around and delivered a second hit with her right forehoof chopping across. The Heartless staggered from the blows, and sharply turned its head towards her, displaying rows of glistening, sharp teeth and a forked tongue. Rainbow could see fire welling up within its mouth, and she gulped. This won’t end well.         The fire never spewed out. She only heard a muffled, “Urf,” and the Heartless sagged for a moment before breaking apart with a pink crystalline heart rising up into the air. Sora was panting beneath Rainbow Dash, the Oblivion digging back into his mouth after he’d stabbed his foe with the weapon. His eyes were beyond wide and he started to heave, the pony’s weapon lodged behind his back teeth and rubbing against his throat.         “Oh gods, Sora!” Kairi gasped, getting back onto her hooves and galloping to her coltfriend. The Oblivion vanished from his mouth and Sora began hacking loudly and painfully. “Are you okay?”         He winced slightly, but responded, “Yeah, I’m okay Kairi.”         “That was pitiful.”         All heads turned towards Coltinster, the old unicorn giving the two Keyblade-Wielding ponies looks of disapproval.         “Hey!” Rainbow Dash started, “Who the hay do you think you are to—”         “No, Rainbow Dash,” Sora said quietly, “he’s right.”         “Ye wouldn’t last four seconds against any of the fourteen of your predecessors I have known in my lifetime,” Coltinster continued. “I have known all to be beyond exceptional fighters, and none of them would have displayed the sloppy work that you two did just now.”         “We would if we were human,” Kairi muttered under her breath.         Coltinster stamped a hoof down hard. “No excuses! Human or not, ye Wielders are the front line guardians of balance in the Realm of Light. While fighting with the Keyblade in different animal forms may not be instinctual, ye are always given a way to do so. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, what did ye notice about how they fought?”         “Are yah sure this is really the best time to be doin’ this?” Applejack asked.         “I agree with Applejack,” Rarity concurred, fixing her rumpled mane with her nose. “They should both get looked at after the—” She stopped as Coltinster fixed her with a stare equal to Fluttershy’s. He glanced up at Rainbow Dash as she hovered over them all.         A jolt of fear touched the proud pegasus’ heart and she instantly began answering. Forget the Heartless or dragons, this pony was downright the scariest thing she’d ever met. “Well, if I had to say anything, it was that they weren’t using their wings to fly around, or holding their swords in their hooves.”         “We can do that?” Kairi asked, glancing at Sora in confusion before looking at her hoof.         “Well, sure,” Applejack answered. “My sister Apple Bloom was able to hold a foil in her hoof with no problem when she had Cutie Pox that one time.”         “And Mulia Mild had a good couple of hooves on that ninjat ō when she sliced up the MMM,” Pinkie added.         “You remember that that was me, Fluttershy, and Rarity, not Mulia, right?” Rainbow reminded Pinkie.         “Oh, right, silly me.”         Sora looked sceptical, and glanced at his right forehoof. The Oblivion appeared there in a flash of light, and Sora looked surprised when he was able to hold it firmly in his hoof instead of it falling off. “You know, logically biology should tell me that this is impossible, but I’m willing to overlook it if it means I can fight.” His Keyblade vanished, and he looked at Applejack. “What were these things we’ve heard mentioned a few times? The Elements of Harmony?”         “Oh, they’re these necklaces and a crown thingy that Twilight’s got that represent friendship,” the cowpony replied. “Fer instance, I represent the Element of Honesty.”         “Laughter!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, giggling immediately afterwards.         “Generosity,” said Rarity.         “Kindness,” Fluttershy added.         “Loyalty,” Rainbow Dash said proudly, dropping onto the floor next to Sora. “I’d never leave my friends hanging.”         “And Twilight’s the Element of Magic,” Spike concluded. “They’ve used the Elements of Harmony to save all of Equestria a couple times.”         Rainbow Dash saw Sora and Kairi looking at her and her friends with mild annoyance. “You mean to say that you’ve got magical weapons, powered by the friendship you have within your hearts, that you’ve used to save your world a few times, but you don’t have them with you?”         Rainbow rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “Eh he he, yeah.”         “So where are they?” Kairi asked.         “In a special hall in the castle,” Rarity answered. “But we can’t get at them anyway. Princess Celestia keeps them in a vault that’s locked up with a spell only she can undo.”         Rainbow could see the smirks appear on the two off-world pegasi’s faces. “Locked, huh?” Sora asked. “Take us to them.” -G-M- Well, there’s something of a battle at any rate. Coltinster proves himself as being badass number one in the room with his use of the Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning spells. Now if only he’d cast Polymorph on those two to briefly make them human again… May the Grace of the Valar Protect You Shire Folk