//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: Arrested Development // Story: What does a Hero Truly Need? Vol. 1: A New Age of Heroes // by zelkova48 //------------------------------// What does a Hero Truly Need? By: Zelkova48 Chapter 11: Arrested Development Today was suppose to be a good day for our heroes and fillies. It was nothing very serious when you think about it. The heroes were going to be reunited with their friend, Twilight and the others were going to catch up with the princesses and maybe they would browse around the Canterlot scene and have a pleasant time. Even better, they thought, they might even be able to witness the grand wedding of captain Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza alongsid their newfound friends. Right after Twilight gave her brother a piece of her mind that is.... Too bad all those plans flew out the window when the group got ambushed by a group of elite royal guards. As the mane six and Spike watched their friends being ruthlessly taken down, Gondar was readying himself for the hostile encounter. Shining Armor called in the order to have him stunned and detained, causing everypony to gasp in horror. Twilight ran up to her brother, pleading to let them go. "Shining! Stop! You're hurting them!" But her words fell upon deaf ears. Shining simply pushed her back as he watched his men surround the conspirator. "Stay back, Twilight! I have direct orders from the princesses themselves. These four are going to apprehended and judged for their crimes!" Twilight tried her hardest to dissuade her brother from capturing them. "There has to be some sort of mistake, a misunderstanding! They haven't done anything wrong, they're..." Twilight caught her tongue just as she was about to let slip the fact that they are outworlders. If she told Shining that, it would only fuel his zeal to capture them. Rarity, who feared for Gondar's safety tried her hoof at persuaded Shining to stop. "Please, don't hurt him! He hasn't done anything wrong, he's... he's just a carpenter!" Shining didn't listen to her either. Tears began flowing as she was forced to witness injustice. Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash attempted to intervene but all seven of them were trapped behind Shining Armor's magical barrier. They all tried to break the barrier but to no avail as it was far too strong. Shining merely looked back and told them: "It's for your own safety." Gondar was surrounded. All around him he could sense the guards closing the distance between them. The elite guards looked similar to the regular royal guards, the only difference were the major changes to their armor. While the standard attire would be a helmet and a cover for their torso, the elites were completely encased in elegantly designed overlapping plates of gold and steel. From head to hoof there was nothing but metal, save for the face of course. Though many of the guards kept their usual stoic expression, Gondar could tell that they were very, very angry at him. The entire area had already been cleared out except for the small crowd that was amassing from behind Shining Armor and everypony else. They all wanted to watch. Faint whispers could be heard in the background as ponies gossiped amongst themselves about the fate of the short and shaggy yellow stallion. As rumors began to churn from within the crowd, others were placing bets on who would win. The odds for Gondar, as guessed by the crowd, was about one to a thousand in the guards favor. Some pretentious nobleponies even busted out a cigar and started to smoke it as if they were expecting some kind of show. One by one the elite guards stepped ever so closer to their target, each of them, both a mix of earth ponies and unicorns had their spears and sword drawn and ready. There were also a number of pegasus guards in the back with crossbows and flintlock rifles all prepared to take him down from afar should he escape. The squad commander walked up to Gondar and offered him a choice. "Come quietly, or prepare for the beating of a lifetime, scum." The commander brandished his blade at Gondar's neck with a very smug grim plastered on his face. Gondar stared at the commander for a spell. He then began to chuckle, which soon erupted into a full blown laughing fit. "What's so funny, scum?" the commander demanded, his face portraying a look of burning anger. But Gondar just kept on laughing, laughing at the guards like they were nothing more than a troupe of clowns. This action infuriated all the guards surrounding him, but not so much as Shining Armor who was downright offended at the conspirator outlandish joy. Shining Armor and his company will not take such humiliation. He called in the order through gritted teeth. "Commander... take him down." The guard smirked upon hearing the command. "Yes, sir!" The commander raised his sword high and brought it down upon the conspirator, only to have it stopped mid swing by Gondar. Clasped in both of his hooves was the commander's sword, its mirror-like blade gleaming with the rays of the sun. Everypony stared with a slacked jaw expression on their faces, there was no way an earth pony could be this fast. The commander was the most shocked of all, he was absolutely speechless at what had just happened. Then with a cold, piercing voice, Gondar spoke. "You wanna know why I find you group of assholes so funny?" He snatched the sword from the stunned commander and began twirling it around for his amusement. "Because you clowns are being so damn rude." He gazed at the guards with his grim crimson eyes. "You show up uninvited to our little group and decide to brutally subdue some of my closest friends," he said, his voice growing more and more irritated with each breath. "Then, you have the nerve to come up to my face and offer me an ultimatum? Isn't that just hilarious?" Pinkie giggled from behind the barrier. She had to admit, it was kind of funny. "I'll tell you what my choice is, I'll pick the beating of a lifetime..." He then slammed the sword directly into the ground, embedding it into the floor. "For you lot of armored idiots that is." He concluded by cackling mockingly. The commander couldn't take any more of this crazy criminal's rambling. Right now, he just wanted to see him pulped to a fine paste. "Grrr... I've had about enough of this! Take him out NOW!" The guards quickly descended upon Gondar like a wave of righteous justice. The commander was the first to strike. Enraged, he dove towards Gondar and threw a wild hook at him. Gondar anticipated his attack however and swiftly ducked out of the way, leaving the poor fool completely open for a counter attack. Whispering a few enchantments to his own hooves, Gondar aimed straight for the commanders open knee. "Got you!" *Crack!* The powerful strike connected for a clean hit, crushing the armor and forcibly bending the commander's entire foreleg completely backwards. With the satisfying sound of crunching bone and agonizing screams, Gondar could tell that he hit him just right. Following through, he grabbed the still screaming commander's head and slammed it directly into the handle of the entrenched sword multiple times until he stopped moving. Granted he was unconscious, Gondar did him a favor by anesthetizing him from all that horrible pain. The guards watched in horror as their squad commander was brutally beaten down so easily from this mysterious stallion. His sheer animosity sent shivers down each and everyone of the guards armored spines. But instead of turning to run, they all bravely (idiotically) rushed down to apprehend the criminal. All the pegasus guards took aim and open fired upon the yellow stallion. By instinct, Gondar picked up the sword and began slicing bullets and arrows left and right with disturbing dexterity and precision. Piece by piece, the arrows and musket balls scattered across the ground, useless. As the smoke cleared, Gondar stood in the center unscathed. Once again, everypony found themselves gawking at him with a slacked jaw expression. The elite guards, the very best of the best within their ranks, were beginning to lose morale. Somehow, all of them gathered up their courage (stupidity) and blindly rushed Gondar again as the pegasi were occupied with reloading all their weaponry. A guard attempted to strike Gondar with his spear, only for him to redirect the blunt end of his own weapon right into his face, dazing him and breaking his nose. A unicorn tried to blast him with a magic bolt, but Gondar grabbed the dazed guard and used him as a shield against the attack, knocking him out completely. As he let the guard fall to the ground with his head full of stars, Gondar dashed through the line of guards and began incapacitating them one by one. Every single one of the guards attempted to apprehend him, but they couldn't even touch him due to his incredible speed and their bulky armor. What started off as broken legs and concussions quickly grew into much more painful methods of subduing a pony. One of the guards got turned into a pin cushion for arrows and musket balls. Thankfully, his armor protected him but with all the projectiles jamming up his armor he couldn't budge an inch. Several ended up getting chained to many of the station's support beams by their own manacles when they tried to get the drop on Gondar. One particular guard got his face smashed directly into the glass window of an empty ticket booth where he fell to the ground writhing and wailing in agony as shards of glass ripped into his face. "Ah, you'll live," Gondar quipped before immediately rolling out of the way as another volley of projectiles came flying his way. A second volley flew at him and he dodged right behind the ticket booth. "Grr... Only cowards hunt from a distance!" he yelled back at his aggressors. The pegasi had wings, they were mobile. He needed to find a way to get them grounded. As Gondar pondered his options, his eyes glanced over to the unconscious guard who face he smashed into the glass window of the ticket booth just seconds before. The large jagged shards of broken glass beside him gave him an idea. As the remaining guards were reloading their weaponry, Gondar hopped out of cover and took them entirely by surprise. Gripped in his hoof was a handful of hastily shapened glass shards. "Hello there!" With deadly precision and grace, he flung the shards at the guards. Each and every single one of the pegasus guards were struck by the base of their wings, sending them clumsily plummeting to the ground. Without proper control of both wings, pegasi left and right were having simultaneous crash landings all over the station. Some fell into random luggage, others flew straight into windows of nearby shoppes and stands while the unlucky ones crashed directly into water towers and bill boards. With a near rhythmical sound of bodies hitting the brick roads of Canterlot signifying his victory over the guards, Gondar could only help but smile and raising his hoof high over his defeated opponents and cheering as if he and his teammates just destroyed the opposing ancient. But Gondar wasn't finished yet, there was something he had to take care of first... Everypony from Shining Armor, to the mane six, to Spike, and even the crowd in the back could not believe what they saw with their eyes. They just witnessed a short little earth pony take down fifty some of the finest soldiers their guard had to offer with almost little to no effort at all. It was so shocking that in the midst of it all, one of the noble ponies didn't notice his cigar fell right off of his lips when his jaw hit the ground. It probably didn't help that he lost the bet either. As Gondar was dusting himself off by the station, Spike was the first to shatter the stagnant silence. "Dude. He must be a good carpenter." Everypony couldn't help but nod at his statement. Shining Armor felt like he was struck by a raw bolt of lightning right on his horn. The finest and most respected battalion of soldiers ever assembled in Equestria had been brutally beaten and humiliated beyond belief by a scraggly punk in the time it would take for the average pony to make lunch. That alone was a major blow to the morale of the entirety of the royal guard. He felt a shiver run down his spine as Gondar began his march towards him. Gondar may have been wearing a mask, but underneath the red bandanna the unicorn could feel the quiet rage radiating off his person. Shining reeled back when Gondar got face to face with him. His crimson eyes unnerved Shining, causing him to break out in a cold sweat. But all Gondar did was just hiss at him intimidatingly. He then pushed past Shining and approached his new friends. Gondar placed his hoof on the magical barrier, scrutinizing its properties before speaking. "Some older brother you got here, Twilight," he said. Twilight snapped out of her stupor and nodded along in agreement. "Yes, he can be quite the hard head sometimes." She glared at Shining Armor with her violet irises. Shining could feel the bolts of lightning strike at him again. This stare was far more unnerving than Gondar's because it came from his own younger sister. How was he the bad guy in this? He did what was he was ordered to for the safety of Equestria. "Don't you all worry your pretty little heads, I'm gonna bust you out of there." Just as Gondar mentioned breaking open the barrier, Shining gathered up the courage to confront him. "Don't even think about it, scum. You may have defeated my men but you're out of luck this time. This is the strongest shield in all of Equestria. You don't have a snowball's chance in Tartarus in breaking it open." Though he remembered back to the moment with the assassin, he pushed the though out of his head when he remembered that he was a large muscle bound stallion. Gondar was short for the average stallion. He couldn't break the shield, Shining thought. But Gondar merely looked at Shining with the same expression he had when he was fighting his men, it was a look of confidence. "Tsk, we'll see about that, asshat." Gondar turned his attention to the bubble. He looked directly at its center and began to concentrate. He closed his eyes and blocked out the outside world as he gathered himself. Softly, he began whispering sacred verses of empowerment to himself, drawing perplexed looks from his peers. Rainbow Dash in particular raised an eyebrow at him while Shining gawked at the fellow like he was crazy. "Uh... how is whispering gonna bust open the most powerful barrier in all of Equestria?" She would soon get her answer when Gondar's eyes suddenly shot open, revealing crimson eyes held with unparalleled focus. He assumed a striking stance and reeled his foreleg back sharply. "Jinada!" Snapping his foreleg out, his empowered hoof collided with the barrier at blinding speeds, cracking it like a frail egg. His hoof remained in position where it revealed a large jagged hole. Piece by piece the barrier shattered slowly around the fillies like a beautiful mosaic screen as Shining felt himself lose control over his own spell. Shining Armor was dumbfounded, the girls were awe stricken, and Spike was ready to explode at the awesomeness he had just witnessed. With the shield shattered, Gondar let out a measured breath and relaxed his form as everypony rushed around Gondar, congratulating him on winning the fight and bombarding him with questions as to how he did what he did despite being an alleged carpenter. Twilight on the other hoof trotted over Shining Armor and gave him a swift righteous slap to the face. "Gah! Ouch! What was that for?!" he demanded, but all he got in return was the same blood freezing sisterly glare from earlier. "What the hay was that all about?" She impatiently tapped her hoof on the ground, expecting a proper answer. "What do you mean, Twilight? Your so called friends are all in league with the assassin! They deserve to rot in a cell!" His response only warranted another slap from his younger sister who was all too ready to dispense more tough love at a moment's notice. "Ah! Would you stop that? I was doing what I was ordered to do! I did it for the princesses, for Equestria, for you!" Twilight was prepared to slap him again but stopped mid swing as her anger was quelled from the last part of the statement. She did however kept glaring at him. Shining Armor started to feel uncomfortable as his younger sister's eyes bored into his very soul. "I did what any older brother would do if his younger sister were in danger." As sweet as that would normally sound for a younger sister to hear her older brother talk about protection, given the circumstances, it only served refueled Twilight's anger. With her face slowly blending with the colors of a soft lavender and that of a harsh red, she exploded on her brother. "You- you, idiot! Do you have any idea what you and your soldiers have just done!? You just attacked a group of innocent ponies! You have absolutely no idea how furious I am with you!" she huffed angrily. Shining, in light of the tirade and onslaught of stinging slaps, remained steadfast with his position. "Innocent!? Are you even listening to yourself!? You've seen what that yellow freak was capable of! He and his friends are coming with me to be judged for their crimes and that's final!" Just as Twilight was about to scold him again, Gondar approached him with an unamused expression on his face. "Who are you calling a freak, you soup can wearing donkey!? You should be glad all your soldiers are still breathing!" Gondar raised his hoof to clobber him in the face but stopped when Twilight intervened. "Now's not the time for that Gondar." Gondar complied and backed away. "Don't worry, he'll get what's coming to him..." she told him before turning to face her brother again. "Why are you acting like this!?" Shining yelled, but then something struck him as suspicious. "You're not brainwashed, are you? Oh, Faust! You're brainwashed, aren't you? I should've seen this coming!" Shining Armor grabbed onto Twilight worriedly, shaking her back and forth in an attempt to snap her out of her supposed trance. "Snap out of it, Twilight! Don't worry, the princesses will fix all of this! You and your friends!" He shook her some more, causing Twilight's eyes to spin in dizziness. "What did you do to my sister you monster!" Shining yelled at Gondar, but all he did was hiss back at him. Applejack and the others shook their heads with disappointment, perturbed by the scene unfolding before them. Twilight gripped onto Shining's foreleg and broke out of his grip, scolding him again as she did so. "I'm not brainwashed you dolt! I just can't- Why, I ought to- grr... Take me and my friends to the princesses. Now," she demanded. "I need to talk to them. I have to get this whole debacle cleared up. But first, you, and whichever one of your guards that are still capable of performing their duty go on and wake up my new friends." Shining was shocked to hear such an outlandish order, from his younger sister no less. "No. No way. There is absolutely no way in Tartarus me and my men are going to wake up these dangerous criminals. And there is absolutely nothing that you can do or say that will make me help you assist these freaks!" Shining put his hoof down, he was resolute in his statement. He was intent on keeping it that way. Although, he didn't expect what his sister would do next. With her eyes narrowed at him with a look that would've liquefied a lesser pony on the spot, she called over Gondar. "Yes, Twilight?" he asked as he trotted over. Twilight regained her composure, all the anger she had earlier disappeared without a trace, disconcertingly so. She looked over to Gondar and smiled wickedly, the very same smile she wore when she snapped a few months back. With a polite curtsy and a nod, she gave Gondar some very good news. "Would you be as so kind as to assist my brother in making a decision to help your friends?" Shining Armor swallowed the large lump that formed in the back of his throat. "He appears to be having a difficult time making a choice." Gondar looked over at Shining and chuckled ominously. "Why yes, Twilight. He most certainly does." He joyfully played along. His crimson eyes regained the wild look he had when he was fighting. The air surrounding the two ponies become a choking fog of impending doom, one that was aimed directly at Shining Armor. "Perhaps it is time..." she suggested. Gondar was all to ready to carry out her plans. "I like the way you think little missy." Gondar lifted his hoof and began whispering to himself again. Shining could only stared in horror when the obvious struck him like a ton of bricks, or in this case, a very powerful punch to the schnoz. "This ones for Aiushtha, Sven, Rubick, and Rhasta, you punk!" Chapter 11 end