Shield and Cards

by Croabadrake

Chapter 1: Attention Getter

"So let me get this straight," Spike said, "He said he's from another world and he's here to test weird magical artifacts?"
"That's right," Twilight answered as they made their way to the Story Teller's keep, "and he's dangerous. Or at least the objects are."
"And it's our mission to get them from him?"
"Precisely. If we can somehow separate him from the objects and hide them somewhere safe... or at least convince him not to use them... we might have partially defused the situation."

The two of them stopped at the front door of the place. It seemed to have been fitted for the Story Teller's kind rather than a pony. Spike shifted nervously.

"Twilight, this place looks kind of creepy..." Spike said nervously.
"I know, it did kind of start existing a few moments ago. It probably should seem creepy," Twilight answered, doing nothing to reassure her companion.
"...are you sure he's dangerous and we can't just leave him alone?"
Twilight nodded. "He plans to test the objects on random ponies next. We can't leave him running rampant, and if what he said about the shield he has is true then a panic will probably just make things worse when something goes wrong in the first place. Come on," she said, opening the door and then turning back to Spike. "Let's get going."

Spike gulped, but followed behind her as she walked into the castle.

He then suppressed a laugh at the sight of Twilight walking literally into the castle, her face flat up against a wall.
She backed up and shook her head. "What...?"

It appeared as though the door was no longer there. In its place was nothing but flat bricks, just like the surrounding wall. The door was simply gone.
Twilight shot Spike a glare that silenced him, though he continued giggling for a moment. She then observed the wall closely...... yup, that's brick alright. It was as though the door never existed.

"Come on, Spike," Twilight said, sighing. "Let's check if there are any other doors."

The two circled the castle's walls to see if another door had appeared or was already there. Turns out that there was indeed another door: facing the forest. Twilight tested it to make sure it wasn't going to disappear this time before finally entering the Story Teller's keep.

The inside was surprisingly warm and inviting. The floors were made of some sort of marble with a red carpet through the middle, again seemingly constructed for a fair number of whatever type of being the Story Teller was to travel through at once; thus allowing ample room for a single pony and a baby dragon to travel through. Torches lined the walls, casting plenty of light on the various doorways that lined the hall.

"Wow," Spike said while looking at the tapestries on the walls. "It's not as creepy in here as it was outside."
"Yeah," Twilight answered, doing the same. She almost didn't want to admit that she was pleasantly surprised as well.

And then everything changed.

The doorways suddenly melted into the walls, fading away as though they weren't ever there: similar to what had happened to the 'door' Twilight had tried to enter before. Spike jumped behind Twilight and peeked out to see the walls change consistency, going from smooth grey stone to mottled green marble with windows that showed an open-air garden on the other side of both walls of the hallway. The end of the hall was the only thing that remained the same, being a large door that seemed to lead to the throne room.

A moment later, everything stopped moving. Different tapestries hung on the walls and there were markedly fewer doors on either side.

"Is it over...?" Spike asked, slowly stepping out from behind Twilight.
"I hope so," she answered, wondering what would happen if they were in the middle of a changing section. "Come on, let's get to that door."

Spike gulped and hopped on Twilight's back before she quickly trotted through the hallway. She cringed slightly as a doorway near the end of it appeared to twitch for a second, but it did nothing else. Before either of them knew it, they were on the other side and at the door. She quickly opened it and went through.

On the other side was indeed the throne room. It was spacious, as one would expect, with the red carpet on the floor ending at the foot of the throne: the Story Teller sat in it, looking very uncomfortable. He didn't notice as Twilight approached with Spike on her back.

Twilight cleared her throat before speaking. "Mr. Story Teller?"
No answer. He seemed to be staring off into space, with the same uncomfortable expression as when they entered.
Twilight tried again, louder. "Mr. Story Teller!"
This time she elicited a response, causing the Story Teller to jump slightly and make a small, startled noise. He looked at Twilight once he regained his bearings.
"I'm sorry, did you say something?"
"Yes," Twilight continued as Spike hopped off of her back. "I'm here to talk to you about your artifacts."
As expected, the Story Teller's eyes lit up. "Oh, you've decided to try one out-"
"No," Twilight interrupted, causing the Story Teller to gain a disgruntled, disappointed expression. "I'm here to ask you to not use them, preferably getting rid of them or at least taking them somewhere else to test them."
"Well what's wrong with here?" he asked in response, gesturing to everything around him. Presumably, of course, meaning this world rather than the keep.
"Well... I don't mean to be rude, but I kind of care about the ponies that live here," Twilight said. "You yourself admitted that the artifacts might be dangerous, and I would rather not deal with having one of them cause something bad to happen."
"You're still not providing me any reason to not test them," he said, crossing his arms.
"What do you mean I haven't?" Twilight asked. "I just told you that I don't want anything bad to happen!"
"And do I care what you think?" He said. "No, not right at the moment. I might later, but not right now."

"What?" Spike asked, scratching his head. The Story Teller noticed him for the first time.
"Oh. My. GOODNESS!" he cried, moving from the throne to holding spike in the air in a smooth motion. Spike struggled to get free, but the Story Teller's grip was firm enough to hold him high in the air.
"Aren't you just the most adorable little thing!?" he said, admiring Spike.
"Put me down!" Spike complained. "And I'm not adorable!"

The Story Teller lowered Spike to the floor, who immediately retreated to the other side of an unamused Twilight Sparkle.
"Well I do think you're adorable," the Story Teller said. "They used to tell me the same thing and I never believed them."
"Who?" Twilight asked. The Story Teller froze.
"......er....... no-one," he said. "Nobody at all, and I shan't explain further than that."
Twilight shook her head. "We're getting nowhere with this. Why didn't you at least test the objects in the world they came from?"

The Story Teller merely stared at her for a moment as though he had heard something astounding. Then a smile gradually broke out across his face. He then began laughing a hearty, jovial laugh that would have been fun if not for the fact that he was dangerous.

The Story Teller stopped laughing for a second, acting as though he was about to cry from laughing too hard.
"Why?" he finally replied.
"Because that would, I don't know, make sense?" Twilight answered.
"Oh, what's the fun in making sense?" he asked. The words struck Twilight, a memory of having heard them before bringing up suspicious thoughts.
"...there's plenty of fun in making sense," she answered cautiously. "I find that making sense of things is actually pretty fun in itself."
"Well that can be too," the Story Teller said thoughtfully. "I've just done it for so long, that... well, I get so bored of things sometimes. That's why I'm so glad that there are so many possibilities for everything, and so much of existence to test it on!"
"Then test it somewhere nopony can get hurt!"
"But it requires participation, and beyond just I," he stated.
"And why not test them in the world they came from then?"
"Well you see, I would rather see how their magics," the Story Teller said, "interact with a world they weren't supposed to exist in in the first place! Things that shouldn't normally happen might be possible here! That's far more unpredictable and fun, wouldn't you say?"
"I think predictableness can be fun," Twilight answered. "Lots of fun can be-"
"But that's run DRY!" the Story Teller loudly interrupted. Twilight took a defensive stance at the sudden hint of desperation in his tone.
"I've been predictable for a long time!" He continued. "So long have I acted rationally, that it's time for a bit of chaos to mix things up! Something random, something... something powerful or unpredictable that I can learn of through watching an experience rather than hearing about it!"

There was a short silence as he stared at Twilight, his arms still in the air from the wide hand gestures he had suddenly flown into.

"...and that, my dear friend, is all the explanation you need as to why I'm here!" he concluded with a calm smile, lowering his hands quickly to his sides. Twilight looked down in concentrated thought.

"Spike," she said, turning to her assistant. "Do you have a scroll and quill?"
He shook his head. "No, I left it back at the library because I was in such a hurry to get help..."

Twilight groaned in frustration before an idea hit her.
"Mr. Story Teller," she said, turning to readdress the being. Who had, apparently, gone back to sitting on the throne and staring into space.
"Story Teller!" she said more forcefully. He jumped and made the same startled noise from earlier.
"...I'm sorry, did you say something?"
Twilight looked unamused. "Do you have any scrolls and quills I could borrow?"
"Why, yes I do," he said happily, reaching behind the chair and procuring both a scroll and a quill. "You may use them if you wish!"

"Thank you," she stated as she levitated the supplies over to Spike. "Spike, take a-!"
She turned back to the Story Teller. He'd gone back to staring once again and she breathed a sigh of relief. "Spike, take a letter."
Spike saluted and readied the quill, which already had been dipped in ink.

"Dear Princess Celestia... there is a matter that I feel that requires your direct attention. You know that I would never ask for your presence without good reason, and I've learned a lot about many things since my first letter to you of this nature since the release of Nightmare Moon -- including that which is and isn't important enough to trouble you with. I'm afraid the details are difficult to explain through a letter, so could you please visit Ponyville as soon as you possibly can? I cannot stress just how urgent it is that this is attended to. Your faithful student: Twilight Sparkle."

Spike finished writing the letter and then looked around for a window. After a few moments of no success, the ceiling suddenly changed and an open skylight was now present. Spike shrugged, took a deep breath, and released a breath of flame over the Shield of Wonder being held between him and the scroll.

He opened his eyes and looked at the shield in confusion while Twilight let out a short scream, not having seen the Story Teller move at all until he was already in place. He giggled with glee as the shield began to glow.

Spike stared for several moments at the shield as its effect took place. After a short, stunned silence, his eyes widened and he began to shake.

"What did you do!?" Twilight yelled, running to Spike's side and giving him a light shake. He jumped violently at the touch but then immediately clung to her leg.
"What... did you do!?" Twilight repeated with a growl in her voice.
The Story Teller shrugged. "I 'unno."

Twilight stared at him with a mixture of incredulity and anger before turning her attention to the still-shaking Spike.
"Spike?" she asked. "Are you alright?"
"No!" he quickly replied. "Twilight, there's a dragon out there that wants to kill me!"
"What!?"
"The Shield... I heard its voice, but it didn't really sound like anything even though that doesn't make sense! It told me that there was an old, powerful dragon out there that just lost its wings, and it can only get them back if it kills me!"

Twilight placed a hoof on his back and shot the Story Teller a glare, who happened to be jumping up and down giddily.
"How can you be happy?" she asked. "Look what you just did!"
"I know!" the Story Teller responded. "Isn't it exciting?"
"No," she stated before looking back to Spike. "Spike, I need you to send that letter, right now. Celestia can help, I'll make sure he," she said, shooting another glare at the culprit, "doesn't do it again. Okay?"

Spike nodded and held the scroll up again as Twilight stood defensively between him and the Story Teller. The Story Teller held both his hands up innocently, the shield nowhere to be seen as Spike breathed another cautionary flame over the scroll. Nothing went wrong this time, with the letter dissolving into magical ash and flying out the window as usual.

"S-... so now what?" Spike asked.
"We keep an eye on him," Twilight answered, briefly glancing away from the Story Teller. "And make sure this doesn't happen to anypony else."
The Story Teller merely laughed.