Acting Captain of the Canterlot Guard Shining Armor continues to twist and turn his way through Discord's distortion of the castle hedge maze, the same machinations that ensured the draconequus could succeed in the corruption of the Element Bearers also preventing Shining from providing any meaningful help. He could not even reach Lieutenant Steelwing, who he had to assume was also lost in the maze or simply cut off from entering it. The only hope was continuing to press forward, hoping to find an exit. Uneasily, he noticed an upward slope in the path that wasn't part of the usual maze design, which added to the pressure of frustration building within him...
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Shining Armor stopped in his tracks when a flash of bright white light, rather like a camera flash, suddenly appeared down one side path. This somewhat surprised him, as he knew all the tourists that normally traversed the maze for entertainment had long ago been evacuated, but there was always the possibility that somepony had been missed, or was otherwise also caught up in Discord's distortions of the maze. He turned down the side path he had seen the flash coming from, calling ahead to see if anypony - or anything - would answer back.
There was no verbal answer, but after a few twists and turns Shining Armor found himself facing an open area with a sun logo in a purple circle on the ground. This gave him some hope, because such areas were close to the center of the maze the Element Bearers were headed for! However, the stallion noticed the normal way out was blocked by a giant stone slab with three diamond-shaped openings carved into it, from which the same white light he saw earlier was streaming from.
The mare Rarity was seen staring into the light, and Shining Armor became greatly alarmed that this was one of Discord's traps! He charged directly toward the scene, encouraged when Rarity turned away from the light and muttering to her under his breath to resist. Just before breaking through into the same open area, however, Shining rebounded off a section of hedge that shot up in his path, sending him tumbling head-over-hooves backwards!
The Guard stallion growled as he tried to return to an upright position, hearing Discord's mocking laughter around him. At this point, Shining was starting to become less and less concerned about decorum, not even bothering to try to move according to his military. Instead, he whirled around once on his hooves, throwing suspicious glances in every direction to try to find some clue of where to go next, or even how to get to Rarity.
"Discord, I swear to Celestia once I get out of this maze I'm going to help my sister and her friends take you apart!" the stallion shouted in rage as he backtracked in an attempt to find another route to the center.
This outburst produced another round of mocking laughter from Discord, this time followed by an image of his head appearing in his path: "I see my marvelous game is getting to your head too. Fortunately, I won't need to afflict you directly, just send you around and around in circles. An amusing branch to the masterplan."
Shining charged in the direction of Discord's image, but it disappeared before he could reach it. Instead, all he heard was the voices of both Rarity and his sister Twilight Sparkle, both of them seeming to be just on the other side of the hedge:
"Rarity! Are we glad to see... Why are you carrying a humongous boulder?"
"What do you mean, 'boulder'?! This big, beautiful, bedazzling rock is a diamond! And it's all mine! Keep your envious little eyes off it! I found it and it's mine fair and square!"
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A desperate Shining now tries to stick his snout into the hedge, maybe hoping to get in far enough to catch a glimpse of what was happening on the other side. Instead, his snout bounces off, as if it was pressing against a solid wall. The stallion then tilts his head down, cautiously pushing his horn forward into the same hedge, only to meet the same resistance as before.
It was at this point that Shining realized that Discord must've had some kind of magic applied to the hedge, so that the stallion could see or hear what was going on but be unable to interfere himself. This increased his frustration level even more and forced him to consider what he called "wall surgery" - deliberately deploying his shielding spell in such a way that a section of wall could be cut out from in front of him. Due to its highly destructive nature, he did this only as a measure of last resort.
The magenta magic on Shining's horn began glowing, directing the "cut" to start above the top of the hedge. As soon as it hit the top of the maze hedge, though, it immediately ran into hard resistance, the "cutting edge" refusing to budge any further down in either direction. Shining gritted his teeth as he tried to force the issue, the top of the hedge showered with sparks of magic energy that he feared would set the entire place aflame. It was all to no avail, and only when the distinct odor of burning leaves hit his nostrils did he finally stop his efforts. The leaves of the hedge smouldered for a minute, then went out, much to Shining's relief.
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The delay caused by Shining's attempt to cut a hole in the hedge surrounding him naturally played into Discord's plan, who took the opportunity to reconfigure the maze to keep him cut off between his own attacks on the Element Bearers. The Acting Guard Captain would continue to wander the maze, with no obvious target or destination, or even a clue where his sister and her friends might be. Amidst mounting frustration, Shining Armor's only relief came when he heard wings overhead.
Alas, this relief was short-lived. He expected Lieutenant Steelwing to be up there, or maybe one of the alicorn princesses who belatedly realized their help was actually needed here. Instead, he only saw Rainbow Dash, streaking away at top speed to a destination he couldn't figure out. Intuition told him that very bad things were about to happen, and he raced ahead down the path, heart thumping heavily in his chest. After a few turns, the ground beneath his hooves opened up with fissures, along with some of the hedge walls disappearing around him!
Shining tried to slide to a stop, but as soon as he hit the fissured area it collapsed completely, the ground opening up in a tunnel that Shining tumbles down into. The tunnel twists in a narrow but steep corkscrew shape, the Guard stallion banging into the sides repeatedly as he passes through it. By the time he reaches the bottom, the blows have not only left him bruised, but unconscious...
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Shining Armor moans as he tries to open his eyes again, blinking dust and dirt out of them. His coat has been extensively muddied as well as his mane and tail disheveled, and several places throb with dull pain from the impacts on the tunnel walls. Two shapes vaguely appear in front of him, one pink and one a grey color, but it takes some blinking to distinguish them clearly: an approaching Princess Cadance, escorted by Lieutenant Steelwing!
"Oh thank goodness, it looks like he was just shaken up!" Steelwing announces as both he and Cadance stop in front of him.
"Ugh, how long was I out for? I can feel those bumps all over..." Shining Armor moans out as Cadance helps him back onto his hooves, the former still somewhat dizzy after his downward twisting tumble.
"Not sure. I went out after we saw part of the maze collapse from the outside. The Element Bearers are gone - don't know where they went - and so is Discord. The Elements of Harmony are still unaccounted for." Cadance answers.
Shining does not initially answer verbally, but his twitching eye and mussed-up mane alarmingly reminds Cadance of Twilight Sparkle's occasional "freak-outs", and she feared the Acting Captain was about to snap in a similar way. She backs up slightly, and Lieutenant Steelwing does the same hastily after seeing Cadance do it.
"In other words, everything I was trying to do was a big waste of time?" Shining asks, cocking his head to one side and making a face similar to one Cadance had seen on Twilight when she was on the verge of one of the aforementioned "freak-outs".
"Um... yes, sir?" Steelwing cautiously answers, feeling unable to stay silent but fearing what would come next.
"Excuse me, then." Shining Armor states, his eye twitching a few times before he completely turns around and takes a few steps away from Cadance and Steelwing.
The latter two exchange worried looks, but then are shocked back into paying attention to Shining when the latter begins shouting skyward, a series of high-volume curses aimed generally at Discord. The language - not fit to be reproduced here - utterly shocks Cadance, who had no idea Shining even knew the words he was now screaming skyward.
"Did you know he was capable of cursing like that?" a mortified Princess Cadance asks Lieutenant Steelwing.
"Only when pushed to his absolute limit. The only time I remember him ever doing anything like this was the time he lost the last Canterlot Guard Trivia Trot tournament by one point." Steelwing answers with a sheepish grin.
"Twilight's held the championship of every Trivia Trot she's been involved in. No wonder he'd snap under that kind of condition!" Cadance comments, biting her lower lip as Shining continues his tirade.
"Do you think we should leave him alone, Your Highness?" Steelwing asks.
"No, he'll tire out soon enough. At least, I hope he does so soon..." Cadance answers, maintaining her mortified expression alongside Steelwing. The two quietly agree to leave Shining alone until he had tired himself out from the raging, then escort him back to the castle proper, realizing there was little else they could do under the current circumstances...