Stone Cold

by M_D_Quill

Chapter 9

The last barrel in the pile lifted and flew through the air. Shining Armor tore the lid off the barrel and peered inside. It was filled to the rim with heads of lettuce and no sign of the creature.

The city was in high alert. All citizens were to stay indoors until the threat was secured… unfortunately they were in Canterlot, where the residents assumed danger would not come near them if they had enough money… Protecting citizens became a lot harder when they walked straight into danger instead of listening to the guards.

Shining turned and made his way out of the warehouse. They were combing throughout the city searching for a dangerous creature that escaped the Statue Prison. The creature was classified as a class S danger and not to be attacked under any circumstances. Their goal was to locate it and notify the Princesses or the Elements of Harmony so they can subdue it.

Shining grumbled to himself. His job was to protect Canterlot, and more specifically, his family from danger… but now he had to send his baby sister into danger because the threat was too dangerous for the guards to deal with. It was not fair… But those were the orders from the Princesses and he was not going to be the one to disobey them because of pride. He knew Twilly was the Element of Magic and had saved Equestria on multiple occasions, but it didn’t feel right to him to send her into danger.

He exited the warehouse and observed multiple squads of guardponies trickled in. From the looks of things they had found nothing, but unfortunately discipline called for reports… Shining groaned on the inside as he prepared himself.

“Fall in!” he roared.

The squads rushed toward him and lined up in a perfect orderly fashion. The squad leaders stood in front and called roll call to be sure every guard had made it back. Even though they moved quickly and efficiently like a well oiled machine, Shining could not but help feeling irritated as valuable minutes that ticked away. After too long they finished their routine and each of the squad leaders stepped forward to state that all every guardpony was present and accounted for..

Shining looked at each of the squad leaders. "Report any findings." he ordered.

The unicorn from the first squad stepped forward. "Captain, the marketplace is clear."

The second squad unicorn stepped forward. "Captain, the smithing district is clear."

The pegasus leader from the third squad jumped forward, "Mane street and streets one through fifteen is clear, Captain."

Before the leader from the fourth squad stepped forward, a bloodcurdling scream shattered the relative silence of the city. The entire unit burst into life and rocketed through the streets looking for the source. It seems like the monster finally decided to strike... and the guards were not prepared. Now a random citizen was got hurt because of that. Shining shouted a curse and began running toward where he thought the scream came from.

"Captain!" One of the pegasus guards called out. "The shout came from the clothing district!"

Shining gave the guard a brief nod. "Understood. All units move out!"

x.X.x

Paradox skipped away from the screaming unicorn. He jumped into a barrel of hats and peeked out to watch the new ‘it’. She just sat there... screaming... The howling grated at his ears and almost managed to ruin his good mood. Getting caught was never fun, but it was the way of the game. You can’t get that mad at being it... it was not fair to the other players, and nobody likes a poor sport.

Then the moderators flew in. Dagnabit! She is going to be taken out of the game for being such a big baby... that means I am still it, doesn’t it.

Oh man... I guess I have find someone else to get... Once the mods clear out the search will begin again.

x.X.x

Shining Armor rushed toward the cringing unicorn mare. Her screams had softened down to quiet sobbing. Shining looked around at his unit with a grim face.

“Lock down and search the area and get a medical team over here ASAP.”

“Yes Captain!” the guardponies called out before rushing off.

Shining turned back to the trembling mare and placed his hoof around her. “Everything is going to be fine.” he soothed, “Can you tell me what happened?”

The mare gazed up at Shining, here magenta eyes filling with tears. “M-Monster a-appeared behind m-me. He said t-tag and... and...” her voice trailed off.

“He what? Did he hurt you?” Shining inquired.

“I-it touched me and... and... my magic is gone!” she wailed flinging her forelegs around Shining and squeezing tightly.

“He did what!” Shining gasped. “He took your magic away?” She responded with a shutter and weak nod. “Sergeant Tall Shield!” the Captain cried. “Go to the Princesses immediately informing her that the Monster has the ability to take away a Unicorn’s magic. We are changing the threat level to Nightmare.” The guard saluted and flew off. Shining turned to another nearby pegasus guard. “Cloud Cover! Inform the squad sergeants one through three that they are to begin evacuating citizens into the shelters at once. Move out!” He turned back toward the unicorn mare. “Don’t worry miss, we have the situation under control.”

Shining glance up from the crying unicorn and noticed a rainbow trail flying toward his location.

x.X.x

Rainbow Dash landed with a loud thump near Twilight’s brother. She glared around the empty street, looking for any sign of the monster. She sighed in aggravation and turned to the large white unicorn next to her.

“Did you see him? Was he here?” she inquired.

Shining Armor growled, “No, he wasn’t here. This unicorn just got injured by falling off one of those barrels.” he spat.

“Then tell her to be more careful! There is a monster running around and we don’t need accident prone ponies running around!” She noticed Shining’s glare. “Oooh... he did this to her...” Rainbow shuffled her hoofs in feeling her face heat up. “Well why didn’t you say so! Where did the ugly monkey go!” She jumped up and hovered above the Captain.

Shining Armor sighed. “I was hoping you knew...”

Rainbow’s face flushed even hotter. Was Twilight’s brother blaming her for losing the monster? “What do you mean by that?”

Shining glanced up at the rainbow maned pegasus, “You are the fastest flyer in Equestria, right?” Rainbow nodded, “Then you should be able to search the city faster than all my guards. I was hoping you at least caught a glimpse of it somewhere.”

Rainbow landed on the pavement with a thump and shouted in frustration. He was right, how could she, the fastest flyer in Equestria, lose a six foot tall pink creature! It was impossible... but it happened. After getting flowers thrown into her face it ran into the alleyways and disappeared.

Rainbow snorted and stormed over to one of the market stands. This was a very dangerous time for somepony to lose her cool, especially the Element of Loyalty. She knew that she was not the best at dealing with stressful situations, but after the Young Fliers competition, Fluttershy gave her some advice on how to deal with the stress. She started taking in deep breaths... in and out... in and out. Next came stretches to loosen up her tense muscles, but that took up too much time. Rainbow glanced at the barrel next to her. It was full hats... nothing breakable. She pulled back her hind legs and stuck the barrel like Applejack strikes her apple trees during applebucking season.

“What in the hoof do you think you are do-” Shouted Shining Armor.

“Ah, that felt good,” Rainbow sighed. "What were you saying?" She glared at Shining and noticed him staring at something behind her. Glancing around, she saw the large monkey creature lying in a pile of hats.

“Oh darn... game over already...” he moaned. The creature turned and faced Shining Armor. “Ok Moddy, I guess it’s time to go, isn’t it?”

The large white stallion’s mouth opened and closed multiple times. After almost half a minute he managed to call out for his unit. The guardponies arrived quickly and surrounded the creature with spears pointing inward at him.

“You are under arrest for threatening the city of Canterlot and the Princesses, attacking one of its citizens, and attempted escape.” Shining Armor stated.

Rainbow watched as the creature shook his head and mutter something about a stick in the mud, but he stood up and began to shuffle away with the ring of guardponies.

“Miss Dash.”

“What do you want Shining?”

“I need you to fly and inform Twilight and the Princesses that the creature has been located and under the watch of the guards. We await further orders... though I am not sure how long we will be able to hold it...” Shining shook his head and turned back to the cringing mare. She was still trembling and staring at the ground, as if she didn’t even realize what just transpired... maybe she didn’t. “I will be joining the guards shortly, once the medics arrive, but the Princesses are the only ones who can deal with that creature.”

“Don’t worry Shining. I can fly to the Princesses and tell them everything in ten seconds flat!” bragged Rainbow Dash. She jumped into the air, but before speeding off she had to ask, “Will she be OK?” she pointed at the mare.

“I hope so...” was all Shining replied.

Rainbow shook her head and sped off for the castle.

_______________________

Authors Notes:

Midnight: Kinda of a short chapter today, but this chapter was really bloody hard to write...

Paradox: Maybe because you are a second rate writer.

Midnight: We also got no questions for Paradox, so he will go back into his box and be a good character.

Paradox: Hold on, what bo--

Midnight: See y'all next week!

Comments

[Neon Icy Wings]

Darn not much hilarity happened. Oh well there's next time.

[Relevant Heavy Metal]

Stone Cold Crazy - As Preformed by Metallica

[gforce]

Good chapter, not much happened, but eh progression is not always interesting. Also if you need to some crazy inspiration, this might do the trick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sByxMsCVdIA&feature=g-hist

Don't worry it's clean, just as insane as the germans can be.

[zorpen]

from the title i was expecting stone cold steve austin in equestria

[M_D_Quill]

744329 Yeah, setup chapters can be a little lacking, but hopefully chapter 10 is full of chuckles! (It's chapter 10, it has to be a big one!)

744345 Rock on Brony!
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744381 As said previously in this comment, I am working to make Chapter 10 a chapter to remember! And we can never have enough crazy, so your video is perfect fuel for future works. (Not to mention I found the monkey band hilarious )

744391 Oh that is funny! I never put two and two together and thought this story would relate to Steve Austin! That is a hilarious image!

[Timber the wood pony]

kick ass

now this is my thing

[M_D_Quill]

744477 Good to see you are enjoying yourself! Glad to have you aboard the Paradox Express!

744484 Reference to Scruffy from Futurama! I did no such thing...
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744512 He should slowly mellow out as he regains his sanity, but the 'games' he plays in the meantime are worth the wait.

[KingOfTheMuffins]

Now he's stuck between a rock and a hard place again.

[Disco Knight]

You need an editor, Lots of small errors

[Amantalado]

Well, this does seem to be the best setup for Screwball to come in and bail his crazy ass out, can't wait to see how the next chapter turns out.
I would suggest corrections to the following as well:
'stepped forward to state that all every guardpony' should be 'stepped forward to state that every guardpony'
'He was right, how can she, the' the tense changed from past 'was' to present 'can' in there, change it to 'He was right, how could she, the'
'What in the hoof do you think' I think there is an extra space between do and you in there.

Those were really the only objective errors, the following ones are more subjective, but I will post anyway and you can decide whether or not to take the suggestions:
'Creature was classified as a grade S danger' I don't think grade is really the proper term that is used for this kind of thing, and it feels like it should start off as 'The creature' I would suggest going with 'The creature was designated as an S class danger' or 'The creature was classified as a class S danger'
'not to be attacked at all cost' that... sounds wrong, it doesn't flow together properly, I would suggest changing it to 'not to be attacked under any circumstances'
There ya go.

[kingtiger666]

I think this could use a Mask reference. Or twelve. References to Jim Carrey movies are always fun, aren't they?

[Boolyboo]

I thought it would be fun if he (stone guy) would skateboard around Canterlot while playing the song Haters gonna hate or at lest troll on the streets of Canterlot while using the song.
Something like this
i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/199/209/953.jpg

[M_D_Quill]

745733 Thank you for the corrections. (story edited) And no worries, Screwball will be showing up shortly... but to save Paradox? I'm not quite sure about that.

[Mossy Mare]

Ugh. Call me back when Paradox stops acting like a complete loon.

[MyLittleBurger]

Lets see now that tag is over, he could try a game of hide and seek if he gets taken back to either the palace or labyrinth garden.

[Crisis]

We shall be watching this with interest...

[Salnax]

748444 Methinks you're reading the wrong story.

[Mossy Mare]

774991
Eh, perhaps. I like HiE stories, but I prefer it when the human is at least a little bit rational after their first few hours of, "Holy crap I'm in Equestria!" hyperventilation. While I find his antics amusing at times, they're mostly annoying. I can only imagine what will happen when he comes into contact with Pinkie Pie.

[Knighthawker]

Silly ponies. Magic cant touch him. The elements have the drawback of using magic.

[The Gargoyle]

Still great

[commander672]

The last barrel in the pile lifted and flew through the air. Shining Armor tore the lid off the barrel and peered inside. It was filled to the rim with heads of lettuce and no sign of the creature.

You missed a perfectly good Avatar reference. I am Dissappoint.

[Paddle Steamer]

not but help feeling irritated as valuable minutes that ticked away.

Remove "that"

Now a random citizen was got hurt because of that.

You could remove the "was" or the "got" I suggest keeping the "was" and removing the "got" though.

He really does sound like Discord. Seems insanity for humans is the same as being the God of Chaos.

Whelp, time to go insane.

But wait, Catch 22: if I know I'm insane than that means I must be sane because only a sane man can know if he's insane. Fuck you Catch 22.

[Allstar13521]

cringing mare

- crying mare

[Zeraligator]

You spelled twily wrong

[Pinklestia]

Tirek tries to take Paradox magic... and he ends with no magic instead!

[Roberto The Stormtrooper]

Shining Armor rushed toward the cringing unicorn mare. Her screams had softened down to quiet sobbing. Shining looked around at his unit with a grim face.

Someone needs to give poor Vinyl a big hug there!