//------------------------------// // Minsc arrives to kick evil's butt in Equestria // Story: Minsc Saves Equestria // by Bendy //------------------------------// Late at night Princess Celestia was fast asleep lying in bed, her mane no longer flowed. A dark shadowy mist crept under her door, went along the floor and then climbed up her bed. Elsewhere Princess Luna was walking along a dark marble corridor. There were torches along the walls, but all of them seemed to be put out. "Why are all the torches put out?" she came around a corner to see several Royal Guards, whom were fast asleep lying on the floor snoring loudly. She sighed rolling her eyes at the sleeping guards. "Honestly sister, has the standards really gone down hill on becoming a Royal Guard these days?" "WAKE UP YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING LAZY GITS" she shouted in The Royal Canterlot voice." Luna growled in anger at the still sleeping guards. "This is utterly preposterous! How does thou remain asleep after hearing the Royal Canterlot voice?" she gritted her teeth. "Unless of course, all of you somehow acquired a cutic mark in laziness." Luna rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I never thought such a thing possible." A horrifying scream could be heard from Celestia. "Sister?!" She galloped as fast as she could down the corridor to make her way to her sister all the while glaring daggers at all the sleeping guards she bypassed along the way. Luna smashed through the door to Celestia's room. She gasped in horror when she saw a transparent avatar of her sister soul being sucked through the glowing red eyes of a huge snake like shadowy being, whose body seemed literally made of a dense shadowy matter and emitted a chilling icy coldness from its body. The shadow was constricting around Celestia's body as he sucked her soul out. "Ah, how delightful!" it spoke in a deep, icy cold voice as it loosened its grip on Celestia and turned to face Luna. "Too meals for--- before he could say anymore he was blasted by a laser from Luna's horn, that sent him crashing through the wall into the bathroom next door. "Ow! Hey, you didn't let me finish!" Luna briefly scanned her sister's body with magic, it seemed Celestia was still alive, but in a deep sleep. Still, the thought of her sister being dead before she scanned her body still caused a tear to fall down her cheek. The shadowed being stumbled out from the bathroom, it's body now that of a huge minotaur with glowing red eyes. Luna blasted him again with magic, this time it seemed to have no effect on him what's so ever. "Your pathetic magic is useless." he laughed maniacally. "So please, don't struggle." Just as Luna was about to flee two more smaller shadowy beings with glowing orange eyes, this time of an Earth Pony came up from behind and her grabbed her. Luna head butted one and bucked the other in the face with her back leg, causing both of them to screech like a banshee and burst into shadowy vapor. "Hah!" she shouted. Her victory was short live as dozens more smaller shadow monsters, whom laughed squeakily like hyenas came out from the floor itself all around her. Luna tried to escape, but to her horror the room itself became encased in walls of shadowy matter. "I shall enjoy devouring your soul!" With that the leading shadow monster in the huge form of a minotaur lunged forward and grabbed Luna by the neck and stared into her closed eyes. Tears ran down Luna's cheeks as she struggled to break free from the demon's icy cold grasp. The demon’s eyes glowed even brighter as he used his magic to force open Luna's eyes. "I am Durlagoth, lord of shadows, and Equestria is mine!" With one final scream of fear, Luna's soul was sucked out into the Durlagoth's eyes. He let go of her and simply let her sleeping body fall to the floor. Durlagoth made his way to the throne room, bypassing all the sleeping guards along the hallway, whose souls he sneakily sucked out. Once he made it to the throne room, he sat down on the throne itself and then howled like a wolf. His lesser, smaller shadowy monster minions of both Earth Pones and Pegasi responded by screaming like banshees as they poured into the streets to grab Ponies and innocent alike and drag them kicking and screaming before his throne to have their souls sucked out by him. The Ponies screamed and cried out in denial in the throne room as they were brought before Durlagoth. His shadowy monster minions laughed maniacally while Durlagoth silenced their voices one by one as he sucked out their souls. Each Pony, who had their soul sucked out was merely levitated aside, by a dark shadowy aura of magic wrapped around their body into a pile of sleeping Ponies next to the throne. As everypony in Canterlot was being rounded up by shadow monsters, a dark shroud of black clouds appeared above Canterlot castle which slowly began to expand across the land. *** The following morning the clouds continued to expand, those that didn't flee were quickly overwhelmed by the ever growing number of shadow monsters that lurked within the shroud. The shadow monsters did not run past the shroud’s darkness, even if they were chasing a Pony that managed to escape outside the shroud, suggesting they had a fear of light. The few that escaped told of what they saw happening in Canterlot. What was left of the Royal Guard tried to battle the shadow monsters. While they were easily killed ten more would replace each one they killed, and eventually the guards ended up being grabbed and taken all the way back to Canterlot to have their soul sucked out by Durlagoth, forcing them to retreat to the safety outside of the shroud. Even worse the clouds could not be moved by Pegasi to open gaps in the darkness, nor were affected by any form of magic. Plus the flying shadow monsters abominations of Pegasi attacked them every time they went near the clouds. Within the Golden Oak Library the unicorn Twilight Sparkle with bloodshot eyes was searching frantically for something to help defeat this new evil that's come to Equestria, somehow now able to read a book nearly as fast as a machine. With each book she read in about two seconds she tossed them away with magic into a huge pile in a corner of the room. Of course, all of her closest friends; Spike, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy were there as well, helping her search for a book to find a way to defeat this evil, they were just a little less stressed about it and read far more slower. All of a sudden Pinkie Pie gasped and then dashed away out of sight in a pink blur. "Where she going?!" screamed Twilight. Within moments Pinkie Pie returned holding a scroll. "What's that?!" "An ancient magic scroll for summoning a hero from across the multiverse to banish evil." "Why didn't you show us this before?!" she screamed as her mane became engulfed in flames and her eyes turned bright red. "Uhhh, I forgot." she said nervously. Twilight pulled the scroll out of Pinkie’s hooves with magic. "I hope this isn’t a prank of your Pinkie." As soon as she opened the scroll and read aloud the large black ink sentence 'Butt-kicking for Goodness.' written on it, the scroll evaporated away with a small flash of light, followed by an explosion of blinding light in the center of the room, that caused everyone to fall over from the force of the magic unleashed. When Twilight opened her eyes, she saw a tall man wearing heavily plated armor with purple war paint on his bald head, his head also appeared to have many scars from previous battles. "Aww, look at his hamster! He's so cute!" said Fluttershy. "Boo, where have you taken me?" he addressed the orange hamster on his right shoulder in bewilderment while he scratched the back of his head. Boo simply made an incomprehensible squeak in response to the man's question. However, the Human seemed to understand what Boo was saying, since he nodded his head to his hamster's answer to his question. Twilight gave him a weird look in reaction to this. "It’s a Human!" shouted Pinkie Pie. "Told you they existed!" she said followed by sticking her tongue out at Applejack. She frowned angrily at Pinkie, growling quietly and gritted her teeth a little in reply. "He looks so cool!" said Spike excitedly. The Human reminded the dragon as himself of a brave heroic Knight... in one of his past daydream fantasies. "Minsc and even Boo is confused. You seem to be talking horses?" "We're Ponies!" shouted Rainbow Dash flying into the air in front of him glaring at him angrily. "Ponies with a pet dragon?" he said with his eyebrows raised. "Hey, I'm not a pet!" shouted Spike defensively. Minsc raised his voice. "Possibly talking demon Ponies with evil dragon?!" Rainbow Dash backed away a little. "We're not demons!" shouted Applejack. "And I'm not evil!" shouted Spike. "No, you’re too cute looking to be demon Ponies. "Pinkie blushed. "But evil can be deceiving, maybe you are demon Ponies!" he shouted as he drew a huge flaming two handed sword from his back. The Ponies screamed in fear. "Please, don't kill us!" screamed Fluttershy as she cried with her hooves covering her head on the floor while the others backed away slowly. Minsc hesitated shaking a little as he saw their fear struck faces and the rapidly growing puddle of tears from the eyes of Fluttershy. "No… none of you can’t be evil." he said in a low voice. "Such a sweet, beautiful voice could never come from a demon, even with a dragon as a friend. For not all dragons are evil." he withdrew his sword, the Ponies and Spike took a deep breath in relief. "I’m sorry, little Ponies. I'm so sorry. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?" a single tear fell from his cheek. "We forgive you mighty noble warrior Minsc, for we are in dire need of your help." said Rarity in an over exaggerated pleading tone like from a play." The others looked at her in confusion, she gave them a wink to play along. "Yes, what troubles you, milady?" he said curiously. "Evil is taking over our land and we--- "EVIL?!!!" he roared followed by gasping in shock. "Say no more! Direct me and Boo to where this stinking evil lies and we shall give it a righteous butt-kicking!" he shouted. "But you're just a madman with a pet hamster. What can you do?" said Twilight. "Slice evil's head off with my flaming claymore!" Twilight turned to the others whom nodded in agreement with Minsc. "Well, he does make a persuasive argument Twilight." said Rainbow Dash. "Also, I have a miniature giant space hamster." Boo squeaked in agreement. Everyone gave him a funny look, apart from Pinkie Pie. "Righttt... Anywoo, I shall show you where this evil is." said Twilight. "Lead the way."