//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10 
// Story: A Unicorn and an Alicorn Walk Into a Library 
// by Damaged 
//------------------------------//

"The wedding is tomorrow, so we have plenty of time to help out and get everything set," Lyra said, serving a breakfast of honeyed oats to Sweetie and Scootaloo. "Got any plans today, Scoots?"

"Spending the day with the girls. We're going to be helping Apple Bloom do some work on the clubhouse." It wasn't that Scootaloo inhaled the oats. One moment there were oats in her bowl, the next moment her spoon was clanking into the bottom of said now empty bowl.

A knock at the door halted Lyra before she had a chance to sit down and have her own breakfast. "I'll get it." As she walked past Sweetie, she gave her wife a little nuzzle and found herself prancing a little more. When she opened the door, it was to see Derpy. "Hey! How are you today, Derpy?"

Doing a happy little dance with her forehooves, Derpy smiled as wide as she could. "I'm doing great, Lyra! I got all Matilda's invites done and sent in time, and my new job at the post office is going super well! Dinky said she'd be at the castle tomorrow for her lessons. I still can't believe she's going to the princess' school in two more months."

The letter Derpy passed Lyra looked completely normal in every way—except for the stamp of the E.U.P. Guard as the origin. "Time flies so much, and she's practically shooting up in height every single day. I can't wait to hear how she does at Celestia's school. It's a truly great place to learn about all aspects of magic." 

The letter was addressed to herself and Sweetie, so Lyra casually opened it and then froze at the purple-colored paper within. 

"Anything important?" Derpy asked, recognizing a change in Lyra.

"Oh, you know how it is with the Guard, every day is an adventure." Wanting to change the topic, Lyra picked the one thing Derpy could and would talk about all day. "Is Dinky ready for the interview day?"

"I wanted to ask you for help with that, actually." Looking down and rubbing her hoof against the ground, Derpy felt nervous about asking her friend for another favor. "The letter said both parents need to be present. I—Can you come and explain things?"

"I sure can. Just tell me what day you need me and I'll make time to come." Lyra was ready for the hug, and returned it. "Are you coming to the wedding tomorrow?"

"T-Tomorrow?" Derpy's eyes widened in shock. "Ohmygosh, I need to find Matilda!"

Lyra was almost sucked out the door by the back-draft Derpy made when she took off at full speed. She did have to exert more magic to hold onto the letter, which made her close the door quickly when she realized it made her wings appear.

"Stupid wings." Even as she said it, Lyra had a smile on her lips. The wings couldn't do anything as they were, but whenever she used the modified spell she made to manifest them, they really came to life. "Sweetie, I got a coded letter from the Guard."

Poking her head out of the kitchen, Sweetie Drops had to bite her lower lip. The bright, golden wings of Lyra's made butterflies go wild in her chest. "What's it say?" She couldn't look away from Lyra's wings, and when Lyra flared her magic to work the spell needed to unlock the message, they got brighter still and more defined.

When Lyra started reading and froze—dropping the letter—Sweetie could see panic and terror on her face. "What?"

"The bugbear leader was seen a day's hard gallop from here. He brought a warband of twenty bugbears with him. The Guard have harried them, but the damn things are moving too fast for any but pegasi to stop." Lyra stared at her wife as her blood ran cold. "They'll be here today or tomorrow."

"But all those bugbears would—We have to stop them!" Sweetie was already in motion toward the house's armory. "Can you get Firelance to help?"

Shaking her head, Lyra finally got to the end of the missive. "There are four squads of Monster Hunters outside town. They're coordinating with a squad of Wonderbolts to intercept the bulk of their forces. They want us to be ready in case one gets through."

Walking down the stairs, her hoof-claws and armor on, Scootaloo raised an eyebrow at them when both Lyra and Sweetie looked at her. "Come on, you don't think I'd back out on this? Plus, you need to go talk to Twilight. She is your commander."

"If you were in my chain of command already, Scoots," Lyra said, her tone threatening, "I'd have promoted you for that. Come on, you can help Bonny with her armor." Giving it her best effort, Lyra managed to fold the golden, ethereal wings to her sides. 

Ten minutes later they were all dressed for a fight and mentally prepared. Stepping out of the house into the warming air of spring, Scootaloo took to the air and took a stock of the skies above Ponyville. "A few pegasi around, can't see anything out of the ordinary," she said when she got back to the ground. 

"Good report. Thanks. Let's head over to the castle and pretend nothing at all is wrong," Sweetie said, absolutely not feeling like nothing was wrong. They all had their eyes peeled, keeping a lookout for anything big, buzzing, and furious. When the castle was in sight, though, all three let out a sigh of relief.

As soon as he hooves set on the stones of the castle, Lyra felt a strong connection with it. The magic of the castle spiraled around and buzzed through her, reassuring Lyra and promising support. "Thanks," she said, eyes closed, simply welcoming the support. "Okay, we should—"

"There you are!" Firelance called when he saw Lyra, Sweetie, and Scootaloo from down the hall. "Come on, Twilight and her friends are waiting for you!"

"And her friends?" Lyra asked, getting closer to Firelance and then leading the way into the map room with Sweetie. When Scootaloo chose to wait outside with Firelance, Lyra wasn't going to quibble.

"Here they are. Come on, Twilight, spill the beans," Rainbow Dash said, gesturing to Sweetie and Lyra. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm on weather duty today."

"This is a bit more important than the weather, Rainbow. I got a letter via Princess Celestia that had—Let's just say it had a lot of protection on it so only I could read it. There is a bunch of monsters storming toward Ponyville, and there's one pony in particular they are trying to find and—deal with.

"Eleven bugbears are rushing toward us. There are a lot of elite Guardponies who are primed and ready to stop them, but if any get through, we've been asked to deal with them before they can become a problem." Twilight smiled at Sweetie and then gestured at the map. "And it's not just Princess Celestia and the Guard who have asked."

Lyra looked. Six cutie marks swirled around one spot, and while she figured it was the castle itself, Lyra realized it was actually the town. "Huh."

"Some might try to figure out what other huge problem could require all six of us, but Lyra, I think you can leave this one to us." Walking around the table, Twilight hugged Lyra, carefully. "Isn't that right, girls?"

Even Fluttershy joined in the excited cheer, stomping her hooves in place and ruffling her wings. For a moment, while Twilight continued talking about plans and attack patterns, Fluttershy focused on Lyra and Sweetie. Every other pony in the room had been helped, in some way, by her. She, herself, had a lot of praise for Lyra's uniquely holistic method of connecting ponies who needed help with those who could, Rarity and Applejack's little sisters had both been protected by Lyra when nopony else could help them, she'd even heard that somepony with a lot of rank in the Guard had put in good words for Rainbow with the Wonderbolts. Pinkie, she knew, was a foalhood friend of Lyra's, as was Twilight herself.

The conversations around the map stalled as a sound like droning thunder blasted past the windows. Of the group, three of them turned and said the same word at the same time—"Wonderbolts."

It didn't take the group to race out and to the front gate where they found two ponies wearing Wonderbolts' uniforms guzzling down bottles of drink. 

Stepping up first, Sweetie tried to hide her wince at seeing them drinking the Guard's special stimulant drink. "You have a report?"

Snapping a salute with her wing, Fleetfoot cleared her throat of the sappy-sweet drink. "Captain Sweetie Drops, the Monster Hunters engaged the attacking bugbears but two are missing. We spotted one, their leader, on his way here. We have to depart to track down the second."

"Thank you," Sweetie said, only spotting Fleetfoot's flight suit insignia barely in time, "Sergeant Fleetfoot. Dismissed."

"Alright, Silver, get the blood back in those wings. We have a bugbear to find." Following her own message, Fleetfoot started rolling her wings and getting ready to fly again. "Best of luck, Captain."

"You too." Sweetie turned, letting the wind of two extremely fast fliers buffet the ground around her while she stood perfectly steady. "We have one, maybe two bugbears coming here."

Twilight winced. She'd read the reports Sweetie had filed about how tough the things were during her time training in the Guard. They were reasonably resistant to magic and were tough physical enemies. "We can do this. The Monster Hunters will no doubt come after them once they've dealt with the group they engaged. We just have to keep them busy until then." She nodded to Rainbow. "Can you keep an eye out and report the moment you spot them? Either one. Bugbears can't fly far off the ground, so if they try to engage just get altitude."

All her friends stared at Twilight. 

"Twilight," Rainbow said, "when did you suddenly learn all this—this stuff?"

Lyra snorted. "Come on, Rainbow, where does Twilight learn anything?"

Groaning, Rainbow nodded and jumped off the ground, hovering in place long enough to say, "books," before flying off. 

"Thanks," Twilight said.

"No sweat. That's what your own Royal Guard are for, right?"

"Ahem." Applejack hadn't arched her eyebrow so high before in her life—or at least the last week. "Rainbow might fall for that, but how do you know all this?"

"That's—" Lyra didn't get any further with her next excuse—Pinkie had stuffed an amazingly delicious cupcake in her mouth. She chewed contentedly and shrugged her shoulders at Twilight.

Resigned to admitting her little subterfuge, Twilight looked at her friends. "When I realized I was going to have to get serious about being a princess and protecting Equestria, I asked Lyra to help me train in the E.U.P. Guard. I did the training for unicorns and pegasi, and then I had Sweetie Drops train me in the extra aspects of earth pony magic. I'm not really a leader because of that, but it helps with things like this—and when I had to fight Tirek."

Applejack felt the silence grow and was determined to ruin its reign of terror. "Mighty sensible if you ask me. Knowing how to do the work is the first step toward getting it done." She looked around at everyone present and noticed Rarity had a smirk. "What's so funny?"

"Darling, a seamstress always knows what physical activities her clients partake in." 

"You knew?"

"Of course, dear. I knew the moment Twilight started tearing seams in the same places Lyra and Sweetie Drops tear theirs." Reveling in the small pleasure of gossip, Rarity said, "And, at least personally, I find it a great relief that Twilight has put so much effort into becoming the princess Equestria needs right now."

"I'll say!" Pinkie said. "So, what do we do, captain Twilight?"

Twilight felt relief at her secret being accepted. "I never got past corporal, Pinkie."

"I'm a corporal now?" Pinkie asked.

Reaching up and biting the cupcake in half, Lyra passed the second half to Sweetie. "I'd have to check, but that might actually be legal. Twilight, be careful you don't promote anypony by accident."

Narrowing her eyes at Lyra, Twilight smirked. "Is there a rank above captain?"

"Only princess," Sweetie said. She giggled when Lyra shuddered.

Fishing for a distraction from the topic, Lyra gazed up to see Rainbow Dash in a crash-dive; heading right for their group. "Oh, look, Rainbow's coming back."

Spreading her wings and dumping her speed into a controlled stall, Rainbow made sure there was still enough velocity to make a hard impact with her hooves when she hit the ground. "There's a bugbear racing toward Ponyville. It's not far off now."

"Just one?" Twilight asked.

The inflection of Twilight's question made Rainbow wince. "Yeah, I only saw one. How many are coming?"

"Two. The leader and one of the others. They evaded the Monster Hunters and were last seen coming here. Hopefully they're not together." Twilight wished she'd thought ahead to get her own armor made. "Sweetie, I hate to ask this, but can you work as our backup tackle. Lyra, I'd appreciate you being with us too. If the second bugbear shows up, we'll need all the hooves we've got."

Biting her lip, a little overwhelmed by her family and the literal heroes of Equestria preparing for a fight, Scootaloo stepped up to Lyra and forced herself to say, "This is a bit overwhelming."

"You want to hang back here?" Lyra asked, keeping her tone neutral. "I think we'll have enough already, so it's probably a good idea to keep a fast flier and a trained wizard back here at the castle."

The breath Scootaloo was holding, but didn't realize she had been, rushed out. "Thanks."

"Don't worry, you still might have to deal with some stuff here. Just remember your training and you'll be fine, Scoots." Turning her attention back to where Twilight was discussing tactics with her friends, Lyra walked up and took a position by her flank. When Twilight looked her way, Lyra nodded. "I've given Scootaloo and Firelance instructions to stay here and keep an eye out."

Twilight nodded. "Good thinking. Acting Corporal Scootaloo, Corporal Firelance, if you see anything you think we should know, contact us immediately." 

Straightening up, Scootaloo performed a salute while, beside her and at the same moment, Firelance did another.

With Rainbow leading the way, the group set out to intercept the bugbear she'd spotted. The beast was too big to hide well, particularly from a pegasus' sharp eyes. "It's over there trying to use those trees to hide." Rainbow pointed in its direction.

"Alright, girls." Twilight pointed with her hoof. "Let's do this!"

Sweetie had thought she'd seen everything, but the tag-team of Pinkie Pie (who used illogic to just never be where the bugbear was swinging) and Fluttershy (who seemed to make the bugbear worried about hitting her) was a new one. That the pair could seamlessly melt aside to let Applejack or Rainbow strike, then fade back into position to cover for the strikers was just amazing.

Not that the bugbear didn't try to hurt the ponies—except for Fluttershy. As often as it swung at Pinkie, Fluttershy would shift her position to put herself in the way of the swinging claws—and then nod when it pulled the swing to avoid her.

It defied every convention and doctrine the Guard had, but Sweetie could see that it was working. The bugbear was slowing in its attacks, it was wearing itself out faster than six ponies around it were wearing out, and the one moment when it seemed like it was going to reach Pinkie, Rarity wrapped half a bolt of what looked like fine white canvas around all six of its legs. 

With the bugbear quickly getting cocooned in canvas, Fluttershy walked up to it and glared at the beast. "That wasn't very nice! Why did you even come this far?"

Lyra sighed in relief. Fluttershy being angry was a nightmare—unless the anger was aimed at your enemy. She elbowed Sweetie. "You haven't seen them in action like this much, have you?"

"No. No I can't say I have. Something-something, working my flank off trying to secure dangerous things before fillies, colts, innocents, and not-so-innocents find them. You have your training session in Canterlot coming up, right? Is this the kind of fighting I should expect to see from you?" Sweetie couldn't pull her eyes away from the sight of Fluttershy outlining everything the bugbear did to make her cross—and the bugbear itself looking like it regretted waking up at any time during the current year.

"Bonny, I'm already known for my unique method of flying, that boat has already sailed. Just make sure you don't get stuck trying to train me."

"Oh, I already planned to be busy doing something else—right up until the very moment you're getting tested—so I can come and watch the poor officer set to ensure your skills are up to date." Walking closer to where Fluttershy was now trying to comfort the crying bugbear, Sweetie sighed. "Do we know where the other one is?"

"No." Twilight shook her head. "Fluttershy said this one didn't even know its leader had broken through the Monster Hunters' force."

"Thank you, Twilight." It was a relief to know that even if they didn't use standard tactics, there was a group of ponies that could take down a bugbear without so much as a scratch on either of them. "Hopefully those Wonderbolts will find—"

Sweetie's combat-sharpened instincts drove her into action. The huge bugbear was charging at her and didn't seem to mind that there was an alicorn in the way of its razor-sharp talons and huge stinger. Planting one hoof, she swiveled on it and shoved Twilight aside a moment before the bugbear slammed into her.

Knocked aside easily, Twilight regained her bearings and turned to see Sweetie being forced backward by the bugbear. The beast looked at least twice the size of the one they'd just dealt with, and Twilight was done trying to be nice. 

A roar of magic sprung from Twilight to wrap around the bugbear and seal it inside a sphere.

Backing away a few steps, lest she accidentally ground out Twilight's barrier, Sweetie had a moment to see something around the bugbear's neck flash with green light before the barrier exploded outward. 

"The trick with beating up bugbears, Sweetie Drops, is making yourself look bigger than them!" Pinkie said, landing on Sweetie's back with a particularly energetic pronk. She then had to jump again as a huge paw swiped where she'd been. "Oops, too big! Can't catch me, Mr. Crankybear!"

The bugbear, though, dodged around Pinkie and charged at Sweetie again. When its claws met her armor, the heavy plates screeched as the natural weapons tried to find purchase.

The cry from Sweetie's armor sent a shiver down Lyra's back, and just as her wife kicked the bugbear back, Lyra grabbed the ground underneath it and scooped it up—throwing the bugbear away. "Sweetie, drop your ground!"

It was a call that Sweetie had been working with Lyra on for some time. Hard as it was for Sweetie to purposefully lower her guard, she relaxed and drew her grounding up and let it go. Nodding, she felt Lyra's magic wrap around her and throw. 

Earth ponies were not meant to fly. It was something Sweetie knew from the tip of her nose to the back of her wingless rump. She flailed in the air with no means to control herself, and then a unicorn appeared beside her. "Lyra!" She didn't bother to try to look down to see how the fight was going—she was completely discombobulated by the tumble she was in. "Are they okay?!"

"They literally beat up Tirek! Come on, let's get to the castle!" Juggling altitude and velocity, Lyra kept tossing herself and Sweetie back into the air. Though her magic regenerated fast, Lyra still hadn't a hope of maintaining her reserves when teleporting repeatedly, but they were so vast now she could easily keep going long enough to land them both on the ground out front of the castle with only a small thud at the end. "It was targeting you exclusively, and good as you are, Bonny, you can't evade that thing like Pinkie can."

Sweetie's shoulders slumped in defeat at that. "Is it my armor? Do I need better armor? I can't compete with Pinkie's… Pinkieness." She froze at the kiss on her cheek. Raising her eyebrow at Lyra, she waited for the explanation.

"You know this is when I say something especially sappy, right? Ready for it?"

Nodding, Sweetie said, "Yeah."

"For all that Pinkie is, for what she can do, and the amazing synergy she has with her five friends, Bon Bon, I'll take you by my side every time." Bumping her shoulder against Sweetie's, Lyra kissed her again. "Come on, let's see if we can catch Scoots and Firelance making out."

"Wait, it's that serious now?" Sweetie asked. 

"I'll bet you they are. Loser makes dinner with the winner tonight." Lyra used her magic to open the doors, feeling her regeneration rushing to fill the void of magic left after she'd flown them back.

Sweetie closed the doors behind them with a thump despite not having put too much effort into it—almost like the castle was promising to defend her. As she walked, she took a moment to look at her side where she could feel the plates were dented in slightly. Her face paled a little. "Okay. Any objections I had to being removed from that fight are now null and void. My armor wouldn't have taken a second of those."

"I'll have a word with Sharp Horn. If she needs somepony to provide the magic to create powerful magic armor, well, I'll step up to—I win!" Lyra giggled as she spotted Scootaloo and Firelance hurriedly regain their composure and stand to attention. "We encountered the first bumblebear, then drew back when the main target ambushed us. Twilight and the others are dealing with it now."

"'Bumblebear'?" Firelance asked.

"Ugh! I just need to get a little momentum and people will start using it!" Lyra threw her hooves in the air as she walked into the map room.

"Lyra has, for a long time, been trying to get everypony to call them bumblebears. Nopony is going to call them that." Sweetie followed her into the room and immediately saw why they were here. The six cutie marks of Twilight and her friends were coming toward the castle.

Nodding to Sweetie, Lyra turned. "Corporal Firelance, I order you to call them bumblebears."

"Don't do that, Lyra. You'll wind up encouraging him to become insubordinate because bumblebear is silly."

"Sirs," Firelance said, happy that the argument seemed to be between Sweetie and Lyra. "They're almost halfway here." He very specifically didn't mention the bugbear.

"Scoots, can you fly out and see how far they are a—" Lyra didn't get to finish before Rainbow Dash crashed through the doors.

"Get Sweetie into town. Twilight said the only way to confuse that bugbear is to mingle her scent with lots of other ponies." Actually panting, Rainbow looked around the room for a moment before adding, "Should I try to make that an order or—?"

Focusing her magic down, Lyra teleported Sweetie two feet to the side, leaving her armor behind. She repeated the same for herself. "Come on, Bonny, don't question orders."

Narrowing her eyes, Sweetie said, "We're going to have words about random teleports." She followed Lyra as she walked out of the map room, though, all the way to the front door.

Leaving the castle behind, Rainbow took to the sky and burned magic and stamina to gain a lot of altitude very quickly. Looking over the castle and into the distance, she spotted the huge bugbear approaching. "Move faster! I can see it!" She was glad to see the two of them vanish a moment later. "Well, time to go be a hero, Rainbow Dash."

"What do we do?" Scootaloo asked, looking back at Firelance.

"In my capacity as Princess Twilight's royal guard, I have to say we keep following her order and guard the castle." Firelance used his magic to close the door again.





"How does something so big move so fast?" Rarity was not taking things well. Fighting a bugbear wasn't normally her style, nor was the running they were now doing. The only thing keeping her going was the fact that Twilight, whom was definitely a princess, was doing the running. In Rarity's rating of Things a Lady Should Do, anything a princess does is automatically on the list. So, struggling for breath and desperate to not ruin her mane, she galloped.

Not that Twilight wanted to discourage Rarity, but she had noticed a few things about the bugbear that had her wondering if there was more going on. "Somehow it got some magic items. I bet one of those is helping it do this."

"Want me to try getting a look?" Rainbow asked, flying along easily beside Twilight.

"No. You're one of the best ponies I know to have in a fight, Rainbow. I want you with us when we catch up." That's when Twilight remembered one of Lyra's tricks. "Hey, girls, drop to a canter for a bit. We all need to be on the ground for this."

"What do you me—?" The moment Fluttershy's hooves touched the ground (just behind Rainbow's), she felt the magic swell around her and they were now ahead of where they'd been. "… an? Oh."

Grinning, Twilight repeated the teleport, each time she did so she ensured to keep to only places she could see were clear. More work than a normal single teleport, but it meant they could keep running.

The final teleport brought them to the castle. "Rainbow, can you find it?" Twilight barely finished asking and Rainbow took off in a rush of her namesake. 

"I'll look too." Fluttershy spread her own wings and took to the sky in a rush of not just determination, but joy that she could help.

After several seconds of just staring as Fluttershy disappeared somewhere over Ponyville, Twilight turned to look at her friends. "She's a lot more…" 

"Yes," Rarity said.

"Yup," Applejack said.

"She's really outgoing now!" Pinkie drew the attention of her friends, who all turned to look at her. "What? It's true."

Twilight thought on it. "I don't think that's it exactly, not all the time. She still doesn't deal well with large groups, and she still gets frightened of things, but I just don't think she lets her anxiety and fear dominate anymore."

"Yeah," Pinkie said. "That sounds about right."

"How're we going to deal with the bugbear, Twilight?" Applejack asked. "It's not that I don't think we can, but we haven't had to deal with something this, uh, resistant to your magic before."

"My magic—" Twilight froze, a smile forming on her lips. "But that's only a third of my magic, isn't it?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Rarity asked.

"Rarity, there's an important truth that all unicorns have to come to terms with." As sincerely as she could, and without breaking into a fit of giggles, Twilight said, "Unicorns aren't the only ponies with magic. Pegasi and earth ponies have amazing magic that's all their own and"—she stretched her wings out and stomped one of her hooves—"and my own. This hasn't been working because I was only fighting with a third of my power."

"Uh, how much training have you had with your pegasus and earth pony magic, Twi?" Applejack wore a slightly concerned and slightly skeptical look on her face, though she feared that was becoming her resting face lately.

"Enough, I hope, and if it isn't—I have some great friends to help back me up." Twilight looked around her friends' faces and got a big boost from the smiles they shared with her. "Now, let's—"

"It's this way, Twilight!" Rainbow's voice struggled against the wind of her flight, but she stopped on a dime beside her friends. "Fluttershy's—We need to go help Fluttershy!"

Even Rarity didn't complain about the speed of their gallop toward Ponyville. Twilight teleported them once to the edge of town, but then it was just too tight to risk bowling anypony over. Or it should have been. The streets of Ponyville were almost empty and the town was far quieter than usual. "Where is everypony?"

"Don't you—remember? Cranky and—Matilda's—wedding!" Rarity had given up trying to look her best when Rainbow said Fluttershy was busy with the bugbear.

Twilight, looking down side streets and trying to find her friends, asked, "Isn't that tomorrow?"

"No, silly, it's definitely today! Derpy delivered all the invitations, she was saying, and they were all for today." Pinkie wasn't so much galloping as she was bouncing along. "What are we looking for again?"

"A bugbear," Applejack said.

"Ooooooh. Like the one over there that Fluttershy's fighting?" Pointing her hoof, Pinkie looked over at her friend who seemed to be doing a good job of evading the bugbear's attacks while also glaring at him.

Without any warning Twilight teleported them closer, then rushed up herself to charge the bugbear and drive her shoulder into it. She didn't have Sweetie's solidness, or the combat-sharpened skill with earth pony magic that the earth pony had, but Twilight was an alicorn, and that meant she was potent by default.

Slamming into the side of the bugbear, Twilight knocked it flying away from Fluttershy. Grunting at the impact, Twilight turned her head to glare at the bugbear, pumped her wings and charged again.

Jumping into the fray with her, Twilight's friends were not about to let her make it a one on one fight. She participated in the fight in a new way, sure, she used her magic, but it wasn't her only tool for dealing with things.

The other thing that Twilight did a lot more during the protracted brawl with the bugbear was watch her friends. 

Pinkie Pie was all nervous energy. She distracted the bugbear constantly, always being where it didn't expect her to be—just when somepony else needed its attention off them. Twilight had no doubt that Pinkie could take a hit from the monster, but somehow it just couldn't connect with her.

Applejack was single hoofedly responsible for the few breathers they got. When she cast her lasso, it would hit its mark and quick as could be she'd have a limb tied down. Sadly, the strange magic items the bugbear had would glow and it would somehow rip free of the rope.

Fluttershy was a deadly wasp, flapping around the bugbear's head and, from time to time, making eye contact. It was usually in these moments that Applejack would launch her own attacks. It didn't take Twilight long to realize that Fluttershy was setting up fully half the openings they got to beat on the bugbear.

Rainbow Dash was, without a doubt, relentless. Every time she came down in a sharp dive, it ended with her planting her hooves against the bugbear and delivering all the kinetic energy into it. It was usually her that Pinkie was covering for (to buy her time to get out of reach again), but the work was worth it.

Lastly, and Twilight felt shamed to admit it, Rarity was doing fantastic work given their enemy was immune to direct magic. Rarity couldn't teleport, she couldn't land huge blasts of magic, and she definitely didn't know even the basic set of spells that the Guard taught—but Twilight noticed the little flashes of blue telekinesis everywhere. When Applejack was about to lose her footing while tugging on a rope she'd grabbed the bugbear with, Rarity helped hold her down. When Pinkie mistimed a jump to get away, a blue rush of magic yanked her away from the talons directed at her. Rarity's magic was everywhere at once helping in a thousand little ways.

Twilight almost felt like she was letting her friends down by just charging in and brawling with the bugbear. 

Everyone was starting to get tired, though, but just when the fight seemed like it would never end—Rainbow dove in and, instead of landing a strike, she grabbed the magical collar around the bugbear's neck and pulled back up hard.

An oppressive weight was lifted from Twilight, and the moment it happened she found herself growling in victory. With a flash of purple magic she fitted chained cuffs on the bugbear's limbs and manifested a cage around it.

"Now!" Fluttershy hovered just outside the cage, staring at the bugbear with all her focus. "You and me are going to have a long talk, Mr. Bugbear."

The spells had been so simple—for an alicorn. The problem had been the collar blocking her magic. "Where's Rainbow?"

A whistling sound ended with a rainbow and blue ball of fluff hitting the ground hard. Everyone rushed over as Rainbow stood up, holding the collar around herself and giggling. "Okay, putting it around me while flying was a bad idea, but this thing makes it impossible to get hurt!"

"I'd love to know where the bugbear got it and what it does." Twilight, without thinking, tried to reach out and pick up the collar with her magic—only to have her purple telekinetic field just melt around it. "Oh, right, anti-magic."

"I got it, Twi. Where do you want me to take it?" Standing up, Rainbow was aware of a strange strength flowing into her. Lifting the heavy collar was so easy now.

Thinking fast, Twilight knew one place she didn't want to take the anti-magic item. "Let's not take it to my magical castle. So, uh, let's try to find Lyra and Sweetie."

"Given you asked them to hide, this won't be easy," Rarity said.

"Oh, I've got a pretty good idea where we can find them," Pinkie said, suppressing (badly) a giggle.

"Really?"

Nodding, Pinkie pointed toward the town center and the hall where two ponies wearing sunglasses were doing their best to blend in with a crowd wishing two donkeys all the best. "I bet they're over there."

It was impossible to be angry with Pinkie, or so Twilight reckoned, when she was actually right and just being more observant than everyone else. "Thanks, Pinkie. Okay, girls, let's—" Finishing her sentence wasn't apparently required, given Sweetie and Lyra were both trotting toward them. "Probably has something to do with the huge bugbear in a cage," Twilight mumbled.

As she approached, Sweetie was more than a bit wary of the caged bugbear. When she took her sunglasses off, it grabbed the bars of the cage and started trying to rip them apart. "Is that cage safe?" she asked Lyra.

"The cage is perfectly safe. I am sure it has never harmed anypony. The bugbear inside is about as safe as a bugbear can be, given I can still feel the hum of Twilight's magic buzzing around it." Lyra bumped her shoulder against Sweetie's and sighed. "Did I tell you today how much I love you?"

"Probably some time before I had a bugbear almost rip its way through my armor. But I could stand to hear it again."

"I love you so much I'd even run away from an enraged bugbear with you." Lyra kissed Sweetie's cheek. Turning to face Twilight and her friends as they got closer, Lyra asked, "You got the magic thingy off it?"

"Sure did," Rainbow said, stepping forward and using her wing to hold the heavy collar out to Sweetie. "Uh, you're in charge of dealing with these kinds of things, right?"

Sweetie nodded, taking the collar from Rainbow. At first its nullifying effect was all that touched her, then the strength and toughness reinforcement kicked in and she gasped out loud. "Wow. This is something else. We'll have to get this to Canterlot for study and security."

"What about the bugbear?" Rarity asked. She'd spent the last few minutes correcting her mane and finally felt presentable again.

"I think we'll leave that for the Monster Hunters when they arrive." Twilight, though, figured that the bugbear was going to be pretty worn down already since Fluttershy seemed to be giving it a good talking to. Twilight was glad her friend didn't ever think she needed that kind of talk. "Thanks again, girls, for the help with this."

"Ah shucks, Twilight, it weren't nothing." Along with her other friends, Applejack hugged Twilight until she was sure her message got across. "And you're welcome too, Sweetie Drops. I know we don't cross paths all that much, but if half the things I've heard about your work are true, you're as much a hero as anypony."

Sweetie almost choked at that. At a nudge from Lyra, she turned to look at her wife and saw her mouthing go hug them. Letting out a sigh, she walked forward. "I keep thinking that working in the Guard would get me used to working as part of a greater team, but you girls are the real deal when it comes to best friends overcoming anything. Thank you."

Joining in with her friends in mobbing Sweetie, Twilight hugged her mentor and gave her a good, earth pony sized squeeze. When everyone else had left, she remained behind to speak with Sweetie.

"You wanted a word?" Sweetie asked, knowing the way ponies tended to hang around after an event and what it meant.

"I need more training!" Twilight slumped in place. "This"—she gestured to the smoldering bugbear in its cage—"is a warning. I rely far too much on my unicorn magic. I've trained with it for over a decade! Please, I need to catch up! Is there a summer course? Maybe some kind of night classes I can take?"

"I think a better pony to ask about this is the commander of your guard. She has experience with training both regular ponies and alicorns, she is extremely flexible with the way she attacks problems, and I believe she will be dealing with that exact problem herself in the not-too-distant future." Tilting her head just a little, so that she could catch Lyra in the corner of her eye, Sweetie smirked. "Don't you have that big meeting to prepare for soon?"

"The Grand Equestria Pony Summit? I have so much to do still. There's no way I could do any training until after…"

Sweetie nodded. "I think you know what that commander could be doing while you're busy."

"Now if only I could convince dozens of ponies to all gather in Canterlot for a symposium on friendship at its largest scale, I would have no worries at all for at least a month." The very thought of having some time off, though, Twilight knew to be a dream that likely wouldn't come true for a long time.