//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Helpful Hooves 
// Story: The Protectors of the Light 
// by EverlightHelios 
//------------------------------//

That was the last thing she said before suddenly going unconscious and into a deep sleep right in front of us. Leaving all of us, especially me of course, in a slight panic and wonder what exactly these 'Protectors of the Light' were. Sergeant Alucard, who was still standing next to me at that point, decided that Everlight would need rest right now and that we could all get to know each other better over a little drink or something. 'Music to my ears!' I thought before we all left the room and went to the hospital's coffee/waiting room.

Once seated and some drink in our hooves to boot, I immediately started to ask questions "The Protectors of the Light? Who's that? Who are you? What drove you to get here? I mean, I got mangled and forced here by this big hunk of iron here, but what are you all doing here?" As I said that I was planning on putting a hoof on the pony I mentioned but after a quick and dark glare, I decided that it would not be in my best interests if I did that.
The darkly coloured, but brightly mooded mare started talking first "I'll go first, since, you know... I found her and stuff... So, there I was minding my own business and chatting with some of the spirits at the graveyard..." I rolled my eyes as she continued "When all of a sudden this bright and light and seemingly young mare trots in from the bushes surrounding my graves all cut up and bruised! She said something about 'The darkness is coming! We need to do something!' or something like that before she collapsed and went unconscious, in the middle of MY graveyard! So I quickly began to run towards town, looking for a guard to take that crazy lunatic out of my graveyard before she scares the spirits away! As I ran about, I suddenly came to the realisation that Ponyville doesn't really have any royal guards around so there won't be anypony to help me with this weird little mare in the middle of my graveyard... But JUST before I started slumping back towards my poor spirits I saw a big guard pony leaving the smith in town and I got all excited and ran towards him and immediately started to talk to him..."

She suddenly got a hoof against her muzzle from the this Sergeant Alucard as he said "I'LL take it from here, miss Crystal... You're probably wondering what I was doing there, aren't you?" I nodded quickly and he continued just as quick "I was visiting at that smith to get my armor reworked and repaired, to explain, my armor was ruined in a big fight with some thugs, me against 10, I think it was. Sadly, in my stupidity I forgot that thugs are the weakest of the weak and... I killed one of them. And of course, being a sergeant of the royal guard, the very princess that wants love, tolerance and friendship all around convicted me to a 2-month stay here in this little village to, and I quote 'Learn the true meaning of my lessons from my most faithful student!' Bah, as if I'd need some young filly to teach me how to behave, that wretched mare!" 
Before I myself could react in a shocked way, a sudden stomp of a hoof on the table in front of us was enough to catch my attention. It was the smith stallion who looked angrily at Alucard "'Oy! Don't you be disrespe'n our goddess, you hear?! She may not be to my direct relationship or nothin' but I sure as hell don't like no ponies who're just dissin' her for nothin'!" Alucard waved a hoof at him "Aaah, calm down you, she deserves to be called that after sending me here while I only protected this country and myself!" The gentlestallion sat down with a bit of a grumble but seem to quiet down as Alucard continued.

"Anyhoof, that's why I was at this here blacksmith when all of a sudden this crazed grey mare comes at me and starts to talk to me like there's no tomorrow and before I knew it I got dragged along by this surprisingly strong hoof that belonged to the same mare!" Alucard chuckled a bit at his own story "Of course, I let her drag me with her, I mean, a citizen in need is a citizen in need, right? But as I got dragged on, I started to make sense of all the talking she did and she seemed panicked because somepony was disrupting the peace in her graveyard, something about heavy wounds and horns and wings... 
I immediately jumped into action and sped right past her and saw this small and frail pony just laying there unconscious and grievely wounded. Of course, my duty as Equestrian Guard immediately made me pick her up, put her on my back and run toward the Ponyville hospital, yelling towards miss Crystal to come along with me and explain everything to me, SLOWLY..." As he said that, Alucard glared at Crystal for a bit before looking back at me again, continuing his story "We arrived at the hospital, she immediately got taken care of by the wonderful staff of this hospital and as they went on and performed their magics, me and miss Crystal here sat down to talk about what happened. She explained most of it, with a lot of details added to it which were, though pretty interesting, not helpful at all. 
And not before long, the waiting was over, the hospital ponies had done their job as best as they could and led us to her chambers. 

She still looked pretty frail and little but her wounds were mostly gone and she seemed a lot healthier at that moment. We both sat on one side of the bed and watched her for a few minutes, staying silent to respect her rest, when all of a sudden she opened her eyes wide and looked around in panic, yelling 'GAAAAaaah, what?! Where am I?! Who are you ponies?! What am I doing here?! What about the Enforcers of the Dark?! Did they get me?! Do you belong with them?!' 
I quickly put a hoof on her muzzle before she could get herself into a panic even more and told her 'Woooaaah there, little miss, calm down, you're safe now... Whatever attacked you is gone now and you're in the Ponyville hospital, you were wounded badly and needed medical attention. This mare here found you and asked me to help her get you to the hospital, allright? No bad things going on here...' 
The filly seemed to calm down a lot and I removed my hoof as I continued 'Now, little filly, you're obviously too young to be wondering about on your own and now do you see what happens when you do? Where are your parents?' The filly sighed a bit before suddenly fainting again from exhaustion and Crystal and me looked worried at each other before that filly's eyes opened up widely and glowed a menacing white light and she stated 'The writer, the fighter, the smith, the caretaker and the fifth! The fifth shall bring together the four that remain, make haste and complete the ancient armor once again!' She then collapsed once again and her eyes closed again. 

Of course, both of us were quite surprised before the little filly opened her eyes again with a groan, the eyes being normal again 'Urgh... I... Am the fifth... Search for... The four... Bring them here... Please... Hurry...' She then fainted once more and Crystal and me looked at each other and I said 'You go get that smith we were just with, I'll go check around to see if I can find that writer...' Crystal nodded at this and we both trotted out of the hospital, Crystal hinting me that there was some writer called Scribble Writer on a visit in this town and that he was known throughout Equestria. By the time I found you, Mr. all-important writer, I forgot the name and didn't really feel like wasting anymore time than necessary so I just dragged you along! And so that's how we all got involved!" 
As he finishes his story I notice that he grabs a big cup of water and downs it in one gulp before Iron Merch adds "Well, Crystal came ta me and ask'd me kindly t'follow her, explain'n in a rapid tempo what had happen'd until now, only caught half of it, but now it's all crystal clear ta me, hehehe..."

I sat there in wonder as I realized how extremely coincidental this all was, maybe it was fate that brought us together? Nooo, that's just silly, nothing can be this pre-ordaned in some kind of plan for the universe, right? Anyhoof, I sat there in wonder and we all got a bit silent as we waited for any news from the small filly that brought us all together before I realized I missed some info "Wait... That still doesn't explain what the hoof these Protectors of the Light are! I mean, it's a good story and all, but... What about the reason she got us together?!" 
The three of them looked at me blankly before looking at each other and then looking at me again as they shrugged in unison and Alucard declared "Your guess is as good as mine there, kiddo!" The four of us then seemed synchronized as we all sighed simultaneously and relaxed a bit, wondering about the small filly that brought us all together, not knowing that which was about to unfold would change our lives...

Forever...