//------------------------------// // Consequences // Story: Guarded Emotions: Old Ties // by Alabenson //------------------------------// “Are we really gonna do this?” an olive green pegasus stallion asked as he loaded his saddlebacks with thick ceramic bottles. “I mean, shoving around a bunch of villagers around is one thing, but burning the entire place down?” “I don’t want to hear it, Gust Front,” Freezing Rain snapped. “Lucerne Hammer’s the one paying us and if he says we burn the whole place down then the place is getting burned down. You don’t like it you can go back to roughing up drunks in Las Pegasus. And that goes for the rest of you, too! Lucerne Hammer pays us good bits to get our hooves dirty and he’s giving us a rut-ton more than usual to get this taken care of. You all knew what kind of job this was when signed up for it, so I don’t want to hear any crying about how any of you have suddenly grown a conscience!” “Look, ma’am,” a lean, jet black mare said. “This isn’t just about morality here.” “Then what is it, Squall Line?” Freezing Rain replied irritably. “Just from a practical standpoint, if we do this then there won’t be a town anymore for us to extort, and then what? Frankly I’m not really sure that Lucerne Hammer has thought this whole plan of his through.” Murmurs of agreement started to ripple through the assembled pegasi as Squall Line continued. “Besides, we already know the princesses are going to hear about what we’ve been doing once those guard captains report back. If we do this, they’re going to come after us with everything they’ve go. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t like the idea of being hunted down by every guard they can spare so they can toss me in Nightgate. Personally, I say that if Lucerne Hammer is so afraid of these guards that he wants to cut and run then maybe we should flap off and let him deal with things himself.” Freezing Rain clenched here teeth as she tried to think of a response. Truthfully, she had been questioning Lucerne Hammer’s attempts at leadership for some time, but up until now the pay had been sufficient to assuage any concerns. This time, however, Freezing Rain had to wonder if Squall Line was right about whether they were going to far. “Look, I’ll admit it’s starting to look like Hammer’s coming apart at the seams, but for what he’s paying I can put up with a little crazy. So, we’re going to get this job done, get paid and if things really are screwed up beyond repair then we can talk about cutting our losses. And as for keeping out muzzles clean let me remind you that that cloud flew past a long time ago. Each and every one of you has done more than enough to have earned a nice long stay in the dungeons of wherever the princesses decide to banish you to as is.” Freezing Rain looked out across the desolate ranch towards their target and let out a sigh. “Anyway, I want all of you to finish getting your stuff together so we can get this over with. I want to be airborne before that fog bank over there rolls in.” “What fog – Sweet Celestia!” Gust Front cried out in alarm. What could only be described as a roiling cloud of utter pitch darkness was rapidly approaching the edge of the ranch. “That’s not any fog I’ve ever seen before. What the rut is goin’ on?” “Aw hay, it’s comin’ in fast, everypony brace yourselves!” Squall Line yelled. Sure enough, the black fog swiftly engulfed the ranch house as though it were an avalanche of pure darkness. The guttering lights from the farmhouse somehow were able to keep the wisps of darkness at bay for the moment, but everything even a single hoofstep past the porch railing was shrouded in total darkness. “What in the name of Tartarus is this stuff? It sure as hay isn’t fog.” “Alright, everypony calm down!” Freezing Rain yelled out in an effort to get ahold of the situation. “Whatever’s going on we’re not going to deal with it by running around like a bunch of scared foals.” As she spoke, Freezing Rain approached the cloud of dark and waved her wings into it. “Weird, I can’t feel anything, so it’s definitely not fog. Gust Front, I want you to fly up and see if you can tell how big an area this stuff is covering.” “Are you crazy? I’m not flying out in this stuff. You want recon intel on this tat bad you fly out there!” Gust Front said as he backed away from the porch edge. “My grandmare used to tell me stories about horse apples like this. I mean, this is the sort of stuff you hear the princesses dealing with.” “Oh for Celestia’s sake you worthless gelding, grow a pair and – wait, do you hear that?” Freezing Rain cut her tirade short as she motioned for the rest of her flyers to be silent. Listening carefully, Freezing Rain could just barely make out a stead jangling noise emanating from somewhere out in the darkness as though somepony were rattling chains with each of their hoofsteps. More concerningly, the noise seemed to slowly but steadily drawing nearer to the farmhouse. “Alright fillies and colts, look alive. It sounds like we have a visitor,” Freezing Rain said, hoping that painting their adversary as a mundane enemy would forestall any further panic. Such hopes did not survive for long, however, as the sound of the chains was soon joined by a low, monotone voice. “Hush now, quiet now…It’s time to lay your sleepy head…” “Okay, this has officially jumped straight from weird to full on freaky as all Tartarus,” Squall Line said as she shivered at the sounds of the droning lullaby. “Oh come one, Squall, I think Freezing Rain’s right,” Gust Front said as he moved closer to the edge of the darkness. “I mean, shaking chains and creepy singing? This is just those stupid villagers trying to –“ Gust Front’s bravado abruptly fled a dark blue chain shot out form the darkness and wrapped itself around his neck. Moments later, he was violently pulled into the shadows, crying out in blind panic. While the unnatural darkness made it impossible for the rest of the pegasi to see what was happening to their comrade, his screaming remaining audible for several seconds until it was suddenly cut off and replaced with an eerie silence. “Hush now, quiet now…It’s time to go to bed…” Any remote hope Freezing Rain had that she’d be able to keep control over her subordinates completely vanished at that point. The assembled pegasi promptly attempted to fly off in all directions in a blind panic, despite Freezing Rain’s desperate calls to hold firm. Not helping matters were the jangling sounds of chains lashing out in the dark and the panicked screams of their victims as they were pulled out of the sky to some unknown fate. “Okay, no. This is where I draw the line. There aren’t enough bits in Equestria for me to deal with a creepy lullaby singing chain monster.” With that, Freezing Rain bolted into the sky herself as she twisted and darted through the air in an effort to evade capture. “I’m just going to pick a direction and fly until I find some nice little podunk village where I can lie low until all of this just blows over.” Freezing Rain continued to mutter to herself even as she breached the clouds of darkness to view a magenta-tinged night sky. She had little time to ponder this strange sight before a blue chain shot out of the darkness and wrapped itself around Freezing Rain’s barrel. Moments later Freezing Rain felt herself jerked straight down into the darkness until she slammed into the ground with enough force to knock the air from her lungs. As Freezing Rain struggled to free herself, however, she heard a voice right beside her. “Drifting…off to sleep…the exciting day behind you.” A heavy hoof slammed down onto Freezing Rain’s head, sending her crashing back down to the ground unconscious. “Drifting…off to sleep…let the joy of daylight find you…” ********* A minute or two later, Freezing Rain was levitated out of the cloud of darkness engulfing a substantial portion of the ranch, still unconscious and now tightly bound and gagged. Moments later she was unceremoniously tossed next to a pile of her compatriots, all likewise restrained. “And that makes eight…or is it nine now? I stopped counting after the first five or so. Could somepony get me a headcount on how may of Lucerne’s flunkies we have so far?” Shining Armor asked. “That one makes ten in total, actually,” one of the villagers who had accompanied Shining Armor named Rock Quarry answered. “And I’m fairly certain that last one was Freezing Rain, Lucerne Hammer’s second-in-command.” A moment of quiet passed before Rock Quarry spoke up again. “I hope you don’t take any offense at this, but your friend, Captain Moonwhisper…I’m just really glad he’s on our side, you know?” “Don’t worry, I totally get where you’re coming from,” Shining Armor assured him as he glanced uneasily at the darkness Moonwhisper had conjured. “To be honest, a lot of the time he scares me a little, too.” Even as Shining Armor spoke, his mind drifted back to the conversation he and Moonwhisper had had regarding Moonwhisper’s plan for dealing with Lucerne Hammer’s gang. ********* “You’re going to cast what?” Shining Armor practically screamed in disbelief. “The spell is called ‘Fog of Shadows’, its on early iteration of the spell Twilight described Sombra used against the Crystal Empire when it returned. It won’t have the litany of magical effects the variant he used during that incident did, but it should make for excellent cover,” Moonwhisper said. “Yeah, but – that’s not the point!” Shining Armor sputtered. “Why do you even know a spell like that?” “Honestly, it stems from a suggestion from my therapist, something about taking control of what my heritage means to me,” Moonwhisper said, using an inflection for ‘heritage’ that most ponies would have reserved for terms like ‘projectile vomit’. “The general idea is that if I can wrest some positive value from Sombra’s old spell research it may help with some of my lingering issues. Twilight’s been a huge help in that regard, there are whole sections I wouldn’t have been able to make heads or tails of otherwise. Plus, there is a certain charm to our late-night study sessions…” “Alright! Fine, you’ll use that creepy shadow spell for cover, then what?” Shining Armor cried out as desperately fought to suppress any unwanted mental images. “Once the farmhouse is completely engulfed, you’ll put up a barrier over the ranch to keep in any stragglers that manage to get by me in the initial confusion.” “Are you sure about that? A barrier like what your suggesting isn’t mean to withstand attacks from the inside. Even my strongest wouldn’t be able to hold up to a concentrated assault from the wrong side,” Shining Armor said. “I’m well aware of that, but I wouldn’t need it to withstand any sort of serious attack. All I would need would be for it slow down anypony who slips by me long enough for us to deal with them,” Moonwhisper said. “Okay, well that I can do. Is all this really necessary, though? It just seems like it’s a but much when you could probably just rush in and take down the whole group by yourself,” Shining Armor said. “True, but my main concern is preventing any of our targets from escaping. The last thing we need is for a group of them to evade capture and then return to cause trouble after we’ve gone. To prevent that we’ll keep them disoriented and contained until the operation is complete. With any luck, we should be able to wrap this up without any major issues.” ********* Back in the present, a few of the captured pegasi had started to regain consciousness and none were too happy about their predicament. “You miserable stinking pack of hicks! Do you have any idea what Lucerne Hammer’s going to do to-” The pegasus’ ranting was abruptly cut short as a magenta beam of magical energy struck the dirt next to him, leaving a smoking hole in the ground. “That’s enough out of you!” Shining Armor growled as he stood over the now cowering pegasus. “Your days of harassing these villagers are officially over. And as for Lucerne Hammer…” An earsplitting crash ripped through the air as several large pieces of what was formerly the farmhouse’s porch were launched out of the cloud of darkness, landing several yards away. “He’s still stuck in there with that.” While Shining Armor basked in the raw terror his fellow captain’s display had caused, another pony was watching the scene with grim satisfaction. “I can’t believe it,” Clay Pit said to himself as he peeked out behind a nearby boulder. “They’ve already got half the gang tied up like bales of hay. They…they’re really going to take down Lucerne Hammer.” Clay Pit turned his attention to the cloud of shadows, from which the sounds of panicked yelling and wood being ripped apart could still be heard. “I’ve got to see this for myself. I want to see the look on that piece of scum’s face when he finally realizes he’s going to pay for everything he’s done.” With a snort of determination, Clay Pit crept out from his hiding spot and began making his way into the darkness before him. ********* “What the hay is he doing now?” “Who cares, help me barricade the door before he breaks it down!” The interior of Lucerne Hammer’s hideout was a flurry of panicked activity as his remaining followers realized what was happening. Lucerne Hammer himself was storming through the farmhouse in a rage as he looked for a way out. “How the hay did he manage to take out Freezing Rain and every rutting one of her pegasi?” Lucerne raged. “He snuck up on them with some sort of dark…cloud-” the unfortunate flunky Lucerne Hammer was interrogating found himself interrupted by the sound of glass shattering as tendrils of darkness pushed themselves through the farmhouse’s front windows. “That stuff! And now he’s gonna do to us whatever he did to Freezing Rain!” Lucerne Hammer tossed the panicking pony aside as he quickly assessed the situation. “Alright, I want everypony to pile as much junk in front of the door as we can. It won’t keep that freakshow out forever, but it should slow him down and while he’s busy with that we’ll sneak out the backdoor. He may be dangerous, but that psycho’s still just one pony.” “Um, boss,” a pale unicorn said nervously. “That’s not gonna be possible.” “You wanna run that by me again, Snowblind?” Lucerne Hammer growled. “It’s just, the back door got completely blocked when that guy tore out the supports for the porch. Right now the front door’s the only way in or out.” “Clever son of a nag,” Lucerne Hammer muttered as he glanced out one of the front windows. The wisps of darkness on the porch were just thin enough that a lone figure could be made out pacing back and forth across the porch. “Okay, new plan! I want the lot of you to keep piling whatever you can in front of the door and windows. The stupid freak’s basically told us where he’s coming in, so we’re not gonna make things easy for him. While you’re doing that, I’m gonna head upstairs and get a little surprise ready for our guest, something I’ve been holding onto in case something like this happened.” The assembled gang members chuckled evilly and nudged each other at their leader’s declaration. Of course Lucerne Hammer would already have some underhoofed trick up his sleeve that would turn the tide and eliminate this new threat. In truth, Lucerne Hammer did in fact have a plan to deal with the situation. Namely, sneaking away as fast as he could. “Those halfwits aren’t good for much, but they should at least buy me enough time to put some distance believe and that ting. I just have to climb out one of the back windows on the second floor. Then I’ll head to the barn on the far end of the ranch and wait for my chance to make a break for Klugetown. ********* “Alright, I think I’ve given them just about enough time to stew in terror,” Moonwhisper said to himself. The occasional glance through the front windows had confirmed Moonwhisper’s prediction that Lucerne Hammer’s forces had focused their efforts entirely on reinforcing the font door against his attack. “A sound strategy, given their circumstances,” Moonwhisper though as he encased himself in his armored augmentation spell. “But, ultimately a futile effort.” With that Moonwhisper spun around and delivered a double-hoofed buck to the wall next to the front door, obliterating it in a shower of splintered wood. Moonwhisper quickly turned around to face the chaotic scene inside as he dismissed his augmentation spell. There would be no further need for it, after all. Within the farmhouse, things had descended into complete anarchy as those able to process what had just happened struggled to decide whether to flee or put up some sort of resistance. Snowblind, who had been trying to doing more furniture in from some of the back rooms, frantically tried to rally the gang towards the latter objective. “Come on, you rutting geldings, pile on him. You heard what the boss said, he’s only on pony!” Despite his best efforts, however, Snowblind found his exhortations undercut by the violent crash of one of his fellow gang members being thrown into the wall next to him. “Speaking of your ‘boss’, where is Lucerne Hammer? I was hoping to have a chat with him about his recent business venture,” Moonwhisper said calmly as he made his way across the room. Despite the placidity of the expression on Moonwhisper’s face his horn was flaring with power as the various gang-members present were magically tossed about and smashed into whatever hard surface was closest. Terrified, Snowblind attempted to turn and flee, only to feel something grab one of his back legs and slam him into a wall. “Leaving so soon?” Moonwhisper growled as he continued to press forward. “Not before you answer one, very simple question. Where. Is. Lucerne. Hammer?” ********* “Damn it to rutting Tartarus!” Moonwhisper swore as he rushed out of the farmhouse, dispelling his magically conjured darkness as he went. After interrogating Snowblind Moonwhisper had rushed upstairs to find that Lucerne’s surprise had involved him jumping out a second story window and fleeing into the night. “I don’t know why I’m even remotely surprised, it makes perfect sense that Lucerne Hammer would be a coward in addition to everything else. At lease with Shining Armor’s barrier still intact I know he’s still somewhere on the ranch itself. The only question is, where?” As Moonwhisper scanned the horizon searching for potential hiding spots he heard a brief bout of shouting that was swiftly cut off in a strangled yelp. Moonwhisper bolted towards the sound at top speed, quickly closing in on the source of the yelling, which, as he drew closer was replaced by a series of sobbing cries. Reaching the top of a small hill near a dilapidated barn at the edge of the ranch, Moonwhisper found himself staring down at the source of the commotion. “You stupid little snot-nosed brat! Did you really think I’d let you get away with that?” Lucerne Hammer raged as he savagely brought his front hooves down on a prone Clay Pit. The moment Moonwhisper came into view, however, Lucerne Hammer promptly levitated Clay Pit into the air and hid behind him. “Whoa, hey there Moonwhisper! Long time, no see. What’re you doing way out here, I heard you’d gotten some cushy post guarding a princess.” “Let the colt go and surrender, Hammer. It’s over for you,” Moonwhisper commanded. “You mean the racket I’ve been running around here? Yeah, I figured things were gonna fall apart as soon as I heard you and Shiny were here. How is Prince Rich Colt doing, anyway?” As Moonwhisper started to advance Lucerne Hammer interposed Clay Pit between them and twisted his leg, eliciting a squeal of pain. “Ah ah ah ah, you stay right the hay where you are and be a good little psychopath. If you try and come any closer or fire up that horn of yours, I’ll break the little bastard’s neck.” “If you hurt him then I promise you that you won’t survive long enough to stand trial,” Moonwhisper snarled back. “Yeah, probably, but I’ve always been more of a ‘here and now’ type. And right here, right now? I’m the one with all the leverage. So you’re just going to sit there and I’m going to take the brat here on a little walk.” “Has it occurred to you that even if I were to permit you to run away you’ll get less than one hundred yards before smacking into Shining Armor’s barrier spell? Or should I assume that your visual acuity has degraded to the point that it matches your intellect.?” Moonwhisper added with a sneer. “I’ll tell you what; if you give up now, I’ll only break two of your legs. I’ll even let you pick which ones.” “I’m gonna have to pass on that. And don’t worry about me and the shield. I can bust through anything Pansy Armor could come up with,” Lucerne Hammer said as he continued to back away. Just as Moonwhisper was about to reply, however, a voice called out from the other side of the hill. “Hey, Moonwhisper! What’s going on? I heard a lot of shouting coming from over here.” Moments later, Shining Armor galloped over the hill towards Moonwhisper. “I’m having the villagers tie up what’s left of Lucerne Hammer’s gang, but –” Shining Armor stopped short as he saw what was going on. Moonwhisper, meanwhile, seemed oddly pleased by this turn of events. “Well, Lucerne, I believe I may have an offer for you. You let the colt go, and I’ll stand aside and let Captain Shining Armor apprehend you. If you can overpower him then I’ll stand down and allow you to retreat. If not…well, Shining Armor is at least liable to injure you less severely than I would at any rate.” A wicked grin slowly spread over Lucerne Hammer’s features as he lowered Clay Pit to the ground. “So, you’ll let me go and I get to grind Canterlot’s face in the dirt?” Lucerne Hammer thought for a moment. “And you’re really going to just let me go after I’m done rearranging the Prince’s face?” “I swear on my father’s life that I will allow you to withdraw if, and only if, you manage to completely incapacitate Shining Armor,” Moonwhisper replied after a moment’s pause, much to Shining Armor’s chagrin. “Moonwhisper, are you sure this is a good idea?” Shining Armor asked uneasily. “If you have a better idea as to how to get him to release his hostage then I’d be happy to hear it. If not, then I suggest you get down there and demonstrate why you were able to attain the rank of Captain.” Shining Armor gave Moonwhisper a quizzical look, as though puzzling out what he just said, before letting out sigh of resignation. “Alright, fine. I may as well get this over with,” Shining Armor said as he tromped down the hill towards Lucerne Hammer. “Oh, I am going to enjoy this,” Lucerne Hammer said as he tossed Clay Pit aside. As Clay Pit scampered away to relative safety next to Moonwhisper Lucerne Hammer’s horn flared up as a ball of orange light appeared in front of him. The ball then proceeded to twist and stretch until it had taken the shape of a long pole topped with a vicious-looking Warhammer on one end. “You ready, Canterlot? I’m about to pound you so hard your wife’s gonna be jealous!” “Classy,” Shining Armor snorted as he started to adopt a fighting stance, only to be forced to leap back as Lucerne Hammer swung at him with his conjured weapon. Shining Armor wasn’t quite fast enough, however, and Lucerne Hammer’s attack resulted in a sold blow to the shoulder. Moonwhisper watched impassively as Lucene Hammer continued to press his attack, his wild swings connecting several more times with Shining Armor’s shoulders, withers and flanks. “Now that I think about it, I suppose I can somewhat understand Lucerne Hammer’s confidence going into this,” Moonwhisper said mildly as he watched Lucerne Hammer continue his assault. “After all, Shining Armor has amassed a rather impressive string of defeats over the last couple of years. Chrysalis, Sombra, Tirek, they all managed to overpower him rather easily.” “Wait, what?” Clay Pit practically shrieked in response. “You made a deal like that knowing your friend didn’t stand a chance? You have to do something, otherwise Lucerne Hammer will…” “I said that I wouldn’t interfere with this fight and I intend to keep to that. That being said…Just to remind you, Lucerne, if you try and leave while Shining Armor is still able to stand then I’ll consider it a forfeiture on your part and will have to intervene. The agreement is that you need to completely incapacitate Captain Shining Armor before you’ll be permitted to withdraw.” “Oh, don’t worry about that, I’m having way too much fun to run off,” Lucerne Hammer said as he slammed the haft of his weapon into Shining Armor’s face. “Indeed. Anyway, regarding Shining Armor’s previous opponents, the thing to keep in mind is that all of them found some way to neutralize his ability to use magic. Chrysalis reduced his mind to mush while impersonating Princess Cadance, Sombra sealed his horn and Tirek simply ate his magic. None of those are remotely feasible options for somepony like Lucerne Hammer,” Moonwhisper said. “You know, now that I think about it I should really look into seeing if I can figure out that magic-sealing crystal spell next, it’d be extremely useful to have a way of countering magic like that given the threats Princess Twilight tends to face.” “Well, not being able to cut off his magic doesn’t seem to be bothering Lucerne Hammer one bit!” Clay Pit yelled. In fact, even as they spoke Lucerne Hammer had hooked his weapon underneath Shining Armor’s barrel and with a powerful swing he tossed Shining Armor at the nearby barn. Shining Armor collided with the decrepit structure with enough force to crash right through the wall, leaving a sizable hole. “You see that? Your friend doesn’t stand a chance!” “Tell me, are you familiar with the Royal Guard’s tradition of assigning grandiose nicknames to officers who reach the rank of captain?” Moonwhisper asked nonchalantly as he watched Lucerne Hammer approach the barn with an evil grin practically splitting his face in half. “It’s a holdover from the pre-Classical era Pegasi Legion. Personally, I find the practice to be rather sophomoric, but it continues nonetheless. For an example, my own nickname is the ‘Warhorse of the Apocalypse’. Ridiculous, I know.” As Moonwhisper spoke, Lucerne Hammer began swinging at the side of the barn in wide arcs until its side had been almost completely demolished. “If you’re so amazingly tough, then why don’t you do something?” Clay Pit wailed. “Otherwise, Lucerne Hammer is going to kill your friend, don’t you realize that? Don’t you even care?” “TIMBER!” With a final shuddering groan, the battered barn finally collapsed, burying Shining Armor under the rubble. “To be frank, the title I was give is entirely meaningless in this situation,” Moonwhisper continued as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening. “What is relevant is that Shining Armor is known as – one moment. Lucerne Hammer! Where do you think you’re going?” “I dunno, Klugetown, probably for starters. After that, who knows? As long as it’s far away from you I’ll be happy,” Lucerne Hammer said cheerfully. “As you’re clearly an idiot I will remind you once again that you are not permitted to leave until Captain Shining Armor is completely incapacitated.” Moonwhisper let out a snort of irritation before turning back to Clay Pit. “Now, as I was saying, what’s relevant here is that Shining Armor happens to be known as –” “Hey! What the rut do you mean I’m not finished!” Lucerne Hammer demanded angrily. “What do you expect me to do, dig that useless pampered lump out from…” Lucerne Hammer’s rant trailed off as he noticed the increasingly bright magenta light streaming out from underneath the rubble. Moments later the entire pile burst apart to reveal Shining Armor standing in the center, completely unharmed. “-the ‘Invulnerable Aegis’,” Moonwhisper said with a note of smug satisfaction before turning towards his ally. “Captain Shining Armor, as amusing as this has been would you kindly stop screwing around and please put an end to this farce already?” “Okay, no!” Lucerne Hammer yelled out. “What the hay are you trying to pull here? You do not get to get back up after I dropped a rutting barn on top of you! And how do you not have a mark on you after the beating I just gave you?” “Give it a rest, Lucerne. I’d say you hit like a filly, but that phrase has a whole different meaning in my family,” Shining Armor said with a grin as he levitated the rubble surrounding him out of his path. “Y-you think you’re cute?” Lucerne Hammer fumed through teeth clenched tightly in barely controlled rage. “Well, Flurry Heart doesn’t just take after her mother,” Shining Armor replied innocently. “I don’t understand,” Clay Pit said as he watched the exchange. “After the beating Lucerne Hammer gave him your friend should be half-dead by now, but he doesn’t have a scratch on him.” “Given Captain Shining Armor’s affiliation with multiple alicorn princesses and his well-documented deficiencies as a commanding officer I suppose it’s sometimes easy to overlook his own prodigious magical talent. To put it as simply as I can, Shining Armor is one of the greatest masters of defensive magic ever to draw breath. Throughout this entire encounter Shining Armor has been employing a rather advanced bit of magic known as a personal shield spell, essentially wrapping himself in nearly invisible field of protective energy. There are perhaps five…maybe six unicorns in Equestria, excluding the princesses, who would have a remote hope of breaking through Shining Armor’s shield. Lucerne Hammer is not one of them.” Lucerne Hammer meanwhile let out a primal scream of rage as he swung his polearm at Shining Armor, smashing him directly in the side of his head. Shining Armor, however, didn’t even flinch, merely smiling as the hammer head bounced harmlessly off the side of his face. “Thank you, sir. May I have another?” Shining Armor said smugly. “I don’t care what sort of fancy magic you’re hiding behind, I’m gonna tear you apart!” Lucerne Hammer yelled as he brought his weapon down on Shining Armor once again. This time, however, Shining Armor contemptuously swatted the weapon away with his front hoof, causing it to explode in a crackling burst of pink light. “You want to know why I let you smack me around like that earlier?” Shining Armor asked as Lucerne Hammer screeched in sudden pain, the feedback from the destruction of his weapon having left him with a massive crack in his horn running from tip to base. “It’s a little trick called kinetic absorption. The shield you’ve been wailing on has been storing up all of that energy until I I’m ready to let it back out. I’d say I just used about half of what I had stored in that last attack. And here’s the rest!” Lucerne Hammer, who hadn’t been paying any attention to what Shining Armor had been saying, looked up just in time to see Shining Armor’s hoof hurtling towards his face. “I will say this, that was mildly cathartic to watch,” Moonwhisper said as he watched Lucerne Hammer’s unconscious form land several feet way. “All that’s left now is to inform whoever’s jurisdiction this is that we have a large number of prisoners to be taken into custody. Speaking of which, do you happen to know which garrison this area would fall under? I think Applewood is the closest geographically speaking, but that’s still a fair distance away and as I recall the district maps in Southern Equestria are rather odd…” “How about before that we talk about what the hay you were thinking offering a deal like that to Lucerne Hammer?” Shining Armor demanded as he stormed over. “Were you seriously going to just let him walk away if I couldn’t handle him?” “First of all, my first priority was to secure the release of Lucerne’s hostage and unfortunately I had few other options to accomplish that. Besides which, we both know that Lucerne Hammer posed less of a threat than your daughter would have,” Moonwhisper added. “Fair enough, but even so…giving your word like that to somepony like Lucerne Hammer, even if you though it was a sure thing…” “Shining Armor, do you recall precisely what oath I swore to that imbecile?” Moonwhisper asked pointedly. “Yeah, you swore on your father’s – Oooh,” Shining Armor said as realization dawned on him. “You were never actually planning on letting him get away, were you?” Moonwhisper shrugged. “Granted, I’d be more inclined to uphold an oath sworn on a daffodil sandwich, but honestly I’d have probably given him about fifty yards before I chased him down. I also only said I’d permit him to withdraw, I never specified how long I’d wait before pursuing him.” Shining Armor burst out laughing at this. “Oh man, that is classic you. Anyway, let’s get this wrapped up so we can get headed back to Canterlot. I’m glad we were able to get this sorted out, but I really want to get back to Cadance and Flurry Heart.” Moonwhisper cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that that’s going to be possible. Take a look at your Cutie Mark.” “Yeah, what about it?” Shining Armor asked. “It’s not glowing, and I’m guessing mine isn’t either. That means that whatever issue we’ve been sent to resolve hasn’t been dealt with,” Moonwhisper said. “So, in other words…” Shining Armor replied glumly. “We’re not done yet.”