Star Cutter and Flash led the Young Six to the spot where a group of Crystal Ponies had found the bodies of Shining Armor and Cadence. The royal couple were now in coffins ready to be given a proper funeral sometime later. The area showed signs of damage, there were overturned trees from the path the rhino creature had torn up.
“There has to be something to tell us which way this monster went,” Star Cutter said. “Lets look around.”
The guards and Young Six fanned out. Gallus, along with Ocellus, Smolder, and Silverstream took to the air to see if they could spot anything. Gallus turned in the direction of the artic mountain overlooking the empire. Then an idea occurred to him.
“That rhino wouldn’t be stupid enough to go to a place where he would leave tracks would he?” Gallus wondered aloud.
He flew in that direction, flying low over the now. Sure enough, he found what he was looking for. A path of humongous foot prints that were unmistakably that of a rhinos.
“Aha!” Gallus said, turning his front talons to fists in his excitement. “This hawk has spotted the trail of his prey!”
He flew back in the direction he’d come, quickly spotting his fellow flyers in the air along with Flash and other Pegasus members of the royal guard.
“Guys! I found some rhino footprints in the snow over there!” Gallus called out.
“Good work kid!” Flash said with a grin.
They regrouped on the ground with Starcutter, Yona, Sandbar, and the walking guards.
“Captain Star Cutter! Gallus found a trail of footprints in the snow!” Flash said.
Star Cutter looked at the griffin. “You sure they were rhino footprints?”
“No doubt about it!” Gallus told him. “Come on and see!”
They set off on foot. It took them over ten minutes to walk to the spot where Gallus had found the prints.
“Hmm…” Star Cutter inspected the footprints, stepping inside. “Definitely the tracks of something very large. Good work griffin. Now, lets see if these tracks can lead us to our target.”
The guards lead the Young Six up the mountain path. As they continued climbing, Ocellus began to shiver.
“Its so cold,” she said.
“What are you talking about? I’m not cold!” Smolder retorted.
“Neither am I!” Gallus said.
“Nor I!” Silverstream said enthusiastically.
“Well, I don’t have fire in my body or fur like the rest of you!” Ocellus said. “Oh wait!”
She transformed into a copy of Harry, Fluttershy’s bear.
“Much better,” she said.
They continued to follow the tracks up the mountain to a cave.
Star Cutter drew his sword, then looked at one of the unicorn guards. He pointed with his hoof to the entrance. In response to his silent command, the unicorn guard lit up his horn with magic and lead the way into the cave. Star Cutter and Flash followed, with Gallus and his friends in tow.
“This was a good find, Griffin. You might make a good recruit. But for now, I want you to stay back and let us handle this,” Star Cutter said.
“Uh, sure…” Gallus said.
“I certainly don’t mind that,” Ocellus said.
The sword pony looked at her. “Actually you could be really useful up front changeling.”
“Me?” Ocellus questioned.
Star Cutter nodded. “We ponies can’t hope to match the strength of such a large creature, but you could if you transform into a copy of it.”
“Oh, um… okay.” Ocellus said.
She moved up in front of Gallus. They walked through the cave, guided by the light on the lead unicorn guard’s horn. They made it to the interior of the of the cave which turned into a large open spaced cavern. The right from the horn was not bright enough to penetrate this amount of darkness.
“Ooh, its spooky,” Silverstream commented. “I like spooky!”
This caused the other members of (not quite so) Young Six to laugh. Flash Sentry and some of the other guards cracked smiles. Silverstream was like their element of laughter among the younger protectors of Equestria, bringing cheer when things looked darkest.
Star Cutter hadn’t smiled, but said, “Stay close. I don’t want you kids to get hurt.”
“We’re not kids!” Smolder retorted. “And we’ve done more than you guards ever have! For someponies who are supposed to be an army, you never really do much. The only time you ever did anything was when Cozy Glow took over the school and you blocked her off!”
“Well its high time we change that. No more relying on kids to save the day and take all the glory. Not that I care about that,” Star Cutter snapped.
“You didn’t become a guard for glory?” Smolder asked.
“Of course not. Glory is the prize of selfish warriors who only care about themselves. I fight to protect my kingdom and its ponies. That is my purpose in life.”
“Um… Captain, I think we might want to be quiet for a while,” Flash said in a whisper.
“Yes, you’re right lieutenant. We don’t want our enemy to know we are-
Then suddenly something gold shined in the back, illuminating the cave. The walls lit up with markings as well, markings showing what looked like stars or planets.
“So intruders come to my cave huh? Well I smash you just like I did other ponies! Gaze upon me, for I am Rhynor, and I will ram you!”
Rhynor stomped the ground, scraping dirt back behind it. Ocellus shivered at the sight of it.
“Come on changeling! Change!” Star Cutter ordered.
Ocellus merely trembled at the sigh. She had to transform herself into such a monstrous creature that had actually taken a life? No, she couldn’t do it. It would be like turning into Chrysalis when the tree of harmony had tested her.
“I can’t!” she stammered.
“What?”
“Didn’t you say you wanted guards to handle things without the aid of kids?” Smolder pointed out.
“No time to argue!” Star Cutter snapped.
He took a step forward, gazing at Rhynor with fierce eyes devoid of any fear despite of the huge difference in size.
Rhynor laughed. “You think you can hurt me with puny pony blade? My hide thick! It break your sword!”
“You’ll pay for what you did to the Prince and Princess!” Star Cutter said as he charged forward.
Rhynor stomped the ground hard, creating a tremor that caused all of the smaller creatures to lose their footing. Star Cutter fell down, but managed to keep hold of his blade.
“All Pegasi and winged creatures into the air!” Flash Sentry commanded. “He can’t knock us down if we’re airborne!”
Gallus, Silverstream, and the others flapped their wings. Gallus managed to lift Sandbar up, while Smolder and Occellus struggled to lift Yona. The young Yak was heavier than she had been during their early days at the school of friendship.
They could barely get her off the ground! Noticing this, Rhynor charged at them, ready to trample them like he had his previous victims.
“Arrgh!” Yona screamed. “Yona scared!”
Star Cutter came to the rescue. He attacked Rhynor from the side, plunging his blade into the Rhinos thick red skin. The blade was too small to do any really damage against such a large opponent, but it did cause Rhynor to bellow out in pain and miss the group as he stepped off to the side. Starcutter held onto his sword as Rhynor flailed, eventually managing to throw the brown earth pony off. He then slid his body against a wall and got the sword out. His wound, bleeding a bit, suddenly closed.
“That’s not good!” Gallus said as he noticed this.
“Attack!” Flash Sentry ordered.
The Pegasus guards threw their javelins at Rhynor. This time the rhino jumped, creating a shock wave that caused the projectiles to rebound and nearly hit their own throwers. It also caused the pegasi and other flyers to drop from the sky. Gallus and Sandbar hit the ground with a thud.
Gallus grunted as he looked up and saw Rhynor stepping toward Star Cutter, who lay on the ground apparent knocked out. The rhino raised an enormous foot to finish the swordpony off.
“Hey!” Gallus shouted.
The rhino gave no indication of hearing him. But he lowered his foot nonetheless. Gallus growled, he hated being ignored.
“Leave that swordpony alone!” he yelled.
Rhynor looked at him now.
“Oh a little birdy! How cute!”
Galus got to his feet and talons.
“You going to try and take me down too?” Rhynor asked.
“I won’t try, I will!”
“Oh, are you going to use a sword like that pony did? Or spears like those others did?” Rhynor taunted.
“No,” Gallus stated as he looked around. “I’m going to use something much more powerful than a sword or spear!”
His friends were getting back onto their feet. Hearing his words they nodded and came to stand by him. The six of them began to glow and rise up into the air, Rhynor covered his eyes against the bright light.
“The magic of friendship!” Gallus said. “Taught to me by the mare whose brother and sister in law you killed!”
The not so Young Six all unleashed a powerful rainbow blast upon their enemy.
“Arrgh!” Rhynor screamed. “This can’t be- Ma-“
His words were drowned out as he was destroyed.
The royal guards got to their hooves slowly. Star Cutter regained consciousness.
“What happened?”
“These kids just did what we couldn’t, again.” Flash stated.
Star Cutter looked at Gallus and his friends, before offering a small smile.
“Well done, kids. You might make a good guard after all Gallus. But still, I’m going to try and make it so we don’t have to rely on kids to save the day all the time.”
“Well, with the magic of friendship here to lighten things up you might have a better chance,” Gallus said, smirking.
“Right, well… you best get back to Canterlot recruit. Tell the princess her family has been avenged.”
“I will,” Gallus promised.
With their enemy defeated, the Young Six exited the cave. Flash and the other guards began to follow. Flash looked over his shoulder and noticed that Star Cutter was not walking behind them.
“You go on. I want to take a look in this cave to make there’s nothing else here,” Star Cutter said as he picked up his sword.
Flash nodded and gave a salute.
Star Cutter traveled to the back of the cave. Coming to a smaller that was too small for the rhino to have gone through. But there was someone there. Someone who wore a cloak to cover his body.
Star Cutter approached the figure whose back was turned to him. He then sank into a bow.
“Master.”
The figure turned and removed his hood, revealing the face of a blue goat with red eyes.
“So, they managed to defeat my first new monster?” Grogar said.
“Yes,” Star Cutter stated. “And it only took a few kids to do so. We guards are so pathetic.”
“Yes. Very pathetic, though you have some fight in you I know.”
Grogar’s eyes glowed a brighter red as he looked into the captains eyes.
“Return to your station. I will have further use for your sword later. Though it will take much more time.”