After the unfortunate loss of the blue star seed, it was just one star seed leaving, the yellow star seed that belonged to the General of Peace, Golden Paladin, the leader of the Generals of Order of the Light Kingdom. Having regard to who it belonged to, it was crucial that they recovered it.
At that time, Twilight, Blue and Shining caught a ride of the Sphinx that had volunteered to take them to the yellow star seed’s location: San Palomino Desert. The Sphinx was running at a lot of speed. It was amazing how he burned so much ground in such a short time. He even ran more than a train and neither showed tiredness. The Sphinx also knew how to be discreet, opting to go through inhabitable paths, going through Everfree Forest and Ghastly Gorge.
It didn’t late until yellow sand appear underneath the Sphinx’s paws. On that sandy soil, the legendary creature didn’t slow down the speed. They then reached the existing mountain at its center. It was big, though not quite as big as the others Twilight, Blue and Shining had already seen. The Sphinx began going around the mountain, starting to climb it at some point. He looked like a cat climbing a tree and with his claws holding to the rock of the mountain with immense ease. The three ponies that were on his back held on well to not fall. It was then that he stopped when he reached a cave. He cuddled up for Twilight, Blue and Shining get out of him.
"It's here" the Sphinx said. "Such as was the case with the blue star seed, the yellow star seed is in a cave, protected by several defenses."
"Well, it's nice to know" Blue said. "But you could enlighten us a little longer, just like, for example, how to pass through the yellow star seed's defenses."
"Elucidating the least possible is my work" the Sphinx answered.
"Come on, Sphinx, we are in a race against time in recovering the star seeds" Shining said.
But the Sphinx merely looked coldly to Shining that left him uncomfortable.
"Look, Sphinx, maybe you could just... give us some lights" Twilight suggested. "You don't have to tell us everything."
The Sphinx turned his gaze to Twilight and then said, sitting:
"Very well, then so be it. The star seeds are protected by defenses created by themselves based on the characteristics of the generals they belong: the red star seed created a defense that reacts according to the intentions of those who are close of it; the orange star seed created a musical puzzle; the green star seed uses the nature around it; the purple star seed uses the talents of their invaders against them and the blue star seed uses mental and logic traps. What do you think the defenses used by the yellow star seed would be, taking into account what you know about the General of Peace?"
"We even don't know Golden Paladin" Shining said.
"Not quite" Blue said. "Golden Paladin is the General of Peace and, when I went to the Light Kingdom and I saw his statue and he was wearing armor. He was a soldier, like us, Shining."
Shining meditated for a while and then said:
"So that must mean that the defenses must be connected to his soldier code."
"Precisely" Blue said.
"Well, looks like it's time for you two lead this" Twilight said. "You're in your comfort zone. Sphinx, please, can you tell us how many defenses are?"
The Sphinx didn't answer her right away, saying shortly after:
"Three."
"And each one harder than the last, knowing my older brother as I know" a voice replied.
And Heartbeat appeared in her bubble.
"I see you've found the place" Blue noted.
"With the Sphinx’s help it was very easy" Heartbeat replied. "Later, I came here to wish you good luck... And also to see you one last time, if you..."
"Wait, do you think we're not going to achieve the yellow star seed?" Shining asked.
"I didn't say that!" Heartbeat exclaimed, turning then to the Sphinx. "Did I say that?"
The Sphinx shook his head slightly and Heartbeat continued:
"I'm just saying that my brother's defenses can be quite... unbeatable. He doesn't fool around."
"Don't worry, Heartbeat" Twilight said. "Believe that we also don't play in service."
"Yes, that’s why I wanted to wish you good luck" Heartbeat said. "I hope you make it."
And having said that, she disappeared.
"Honestly, I don't know if she looks better with or without the star seed" Twilight commented. "Or she's innocent and unstable or she has a twisted sense of humor."
"She's not that bad" Blue said. "And she gave us a big help in locating the star seeds."
"She may not look it, but the General of Affection is quite good at what she does" the Sphinx guaranteed. "I know that through her star seed."
"I think we should stop this conversation and stay with what got us here and go get the yellow star seed" Shining said.
"You're absolutely right, Prince Shining Armor" Sphinx said. "I'm staying here at the entrance to the store in case of appearing enemies."
"You really gonna do that, Sphinx?" Twilight asked.
"It will be an honor" he replied. "During the long centuries I was protecting the blue star seed, I stay with a few fragments of its light, which included the sense of duty to the Light Kingdom. Be assured that I will do my best to make sure that nopony get in the cave."
"Thank you, Sphinx" Twilight thanked, bowing her head slightly, something the Sphinx returned.
So she, Blue and Shining entered in the cave and started hitting it.
"The Sphinx is really weird" Blue commented. "And quite mysterious."
"That’s normal" Shining replied. "His race is one of the most enigmatic of all. In addition to that, his role is to make puzzles to stop people from obtaining the treasures they guard. They’re guardian creatures."
"He still gives me the creeps" Blue said. "Only his voice gives me chills."
"Blue, don't worry" Twilight reassured. "The Sphinx is not bad, if that's what you're afraid of. He used to protect the blue star seed and it stands to reason that he wants to help us to get the yellow star seed."
"Yes, you're right" Blue answered.
"Hey, look" Shining said to Blue and Twilight, while stopping, causing the other two to do the same.
He pointed and they saw so that the path that they were walking, which was now in slope down, ended at some distance in front for what looked like a room, which contained two torches right at the entrance.
"There should begin the star seed’s first defense" Shining said. "Stay alert."
They advanced and entered in the said room. It seemed to be more like a corridor, done in hard stone. At the bottom there was a door, guarded by a statue of a soldier holding a spear, standing on guard position. The sides contained torches which were illuminating the division and a row of full plate armors, the ones that covered the entire body, holding several weapons.
They began to move along the corridor, watching everything. Shining and Blue seemed enthusiastic about the whole thing.
"It's unbelievable!" Blue exclaimed, watching the armors. "Shining, are you seeing what I’m seeing?"
"Yes, true millennial armors!" Shining said. "This type of armor is almost nonexistent. I had never seen one of this armor."
"Me either" Blue said. "It's something that I never dreamed to see. Do you realize that we can be the only ones to set the eyes on this type of armor for a lot of years?"
"But of course! Isn't it fabulous?"
"Of course!"
Twilight couldn't stop smiling. Her brother and her husband seemed to two little foals in a candy store. It was amazing that those two got along so well since they were kids and everything had begun, according to Shining, with a ball that made them to meet each other, but of course that it had been their mutual dream of becoming royal guards that had made their friendship to bloom. Thanks to this, Shining and Blue became best friends and Twilight met the one that would become the stallion of her dreams, her husband and future father of her unborn foal (although he was unaware of this last fact). It was amazing that this friendship which had been created by this mutual dream remained strong, despite the mishaps that happened when Shining found out about his little sister's courtship with his best friend.
It was then that Twilight had the feeling that something wasn't right.
"Guys, we should be attentive" Twilight said. "I don't like it at all."
"Relax, Twily, it will all be..." Shining started.
It was then that all the armors’ weapons became involved with a pure yellow aura and get out of their respective places and began to circle Twilight, Shining and Blue who group together.
"Ok, I guess I spoke too soon" Shining said.
"You were right, Twilight" Blue said. "We should have been aware. They must be Golden Paladin’s guards’ armors. His guards were the most well-trained soldiers of all, so their armors must be like their owners."
"The yellow star seed must have channeled their sense of their duty through the petrified soldiers’ stored star seeds to protect their general’s." Twilight said.
It was then that the weapons began to attack them, with a sword even ready to make a blow. Shining reacted quickly to create his protective barrier, but when it barely touched the sword, the barrier disappeared. It came a spear and a mace and Shining created once more his barrier, but it disappeared as soon as the weapons hit on it.
"My defensive spells are being cancelled by the weapons" Shining said, while joining Blue and Twilight to launch magic rays against weapons.
"They must be enchanted with an annulment spell to annul any defensive spell" Twilight said.
"Yes, but we can't… keep fighting... against this… eternally" Blue said, while casting more rays against the insistent weapons.
"Now I understand why Heartbeat came here to say goodbye to us" Shining said, using his barrier to protect himself from a bludgeon which undid it, attacking it then with his magic. "This is going to get us out if we don't find a way to stop these weapons of slicing us."
"I'll try a counter spell to animation spell" Twilight said.
She launched a kind of magic against two lances, but that only made them attack with more speed and strength.
"You just made worse" Blue said, starting trying to swerve from the faster weapons.
A staff went to Shining and struck him, throwing him against the floor, but he soon got up. Twilight, in turn, was literally between the sword and the wall.
"Well, the situation is really complicated" she said.
The sword then attacked and Twilight reacted using her teleportation spell, but the spell was made somewhat clumsily, making Twilight appear in the air in front of an armor, tapping against it while landing, causing it to shiver. That made a sword loses the aura that was surrounding them and fell on the ground, returning to rise shortly after. Shining noticed that and said:
"Regroup!"
The other two did so and they kept their backs to each other. The weapons returned to surround them.
"Nothing is working" Twilight said. "Any ideas?"
"I have one" Shining said, using his abilities to pass for the weapons and then kick in the helmet of one of the armors, making it fall to the ground.
This made a mace drop inert on the floor.
"Hit the knights, not the weapons" Shining said.
"The yellow star seed’s magic must be channeled through the armors" Twilight realized. "So…"
She released a counter spell against one of the armors, causing it to fall on the ground and dismantle. A sword dropped inert.
"It's working" Blue said. "Keep going, Twily."
Twilight continued to launch counter spells against armors, making them fall and crumble. Shining gave a hoof to his sister and many more weapons fell on the ground, inert. It didn’t late until all armors were on the ground, crumbled, and thus all the weapons fell on the floor, inert.
"All right!" Blue exclaimed, going up to his wife and hugged her. "You did it, my love."
"Yes, I did, didn’t it?" Twilight said, panting slightly. "But I got too tired. Throwing a lot of counter spells at once let anypony exhausted."
"So it's better you slow down the pace, sis" Shining said approaching. "Now, let everything to me and Blue."
Twilight nodded.
They began moving towards the door to move on, but it was then that the statue was surrounded by the yellow aura and then came to life and leaped from its pedestal and started moving towards Twilight, Shining and Blue.
"What were you saying, Shining?" Blue asked.
"Twilight, don't worry" Shining said to your sister. "We’ll deal with this thing."
"But you'll go to need my help" Twilight said. "I can try to take care of him with a spell."
"I don't think it would work" Blue said. "The most likely is that statue doesn’t have the same weaknesses that the armors."
"Blue’s right" Shining said to Twilight. "Stay back and try to recover. We will take care of the statue."
Although she doesn't feel right to leave Shining and Blue dealing with the living statue, she knew she didn't have a choice. She was exhausted and her magic certainly wouldn't be very useful. Therefore, she retreated to let her older brother and her husband to deal with the magically animated statue.
Shining and Blue launched to fight the statue. The first attack was from the statue which raised his spear to hit the two stallions, but Shining tried to use his barrier to protect him and Blue, but the barrier, despite having protected them, shattered when spear blade barely touched it, similar to what had happened earlier with the weapons of the armors. But Blue used the time after which the barrier was disbanded to tackle the statue, which made it retreat. But it only retreated a few steps, seeming to be apparently without a scratch, starting to advance to Blue and Shining again.
"This is one of the tough ones" Shining commented.
"Well, I guess, for this, we will have to use the heavy artillery" Blue said. "As the horn sword spell."
"You know that this is not one of my favorite spells" Shining said. "And the reason for this is that I never managed to do that spell."
"Yes, it's your big failure, but you've not to worry about" Blue said. "We can do the same strategy we used at the academy. I take care of the attack and you with the defense."
Shining smiled and waved.
Thus, the two returned to the attack against the statue. When it attack, Shining used the barrier to block the statue’s attacks, while Blue counterattacked with the horn sword spell, the strongest offensive spell among the unicorn guards’ spells that made the unicorns’ horn turn into a large light blade, similar to a sword blade. Even with the great teamwork between Shining and Blue, it seemed that they were far from defeating the statue.
Twilight watched the fight, not glad to stay behind, while Shining and Blue fought. She had to help somehow, but how? It looked like that statue was increasingly strong and tough as they were attacking it. But the worst was that it wasn't getting tired and, of course, the same couldn’t be said about Shining and Blue. The statue had to have a weakness, such as the armor, but what could it be?
The young princess thought with all its forces, thought about all the possibilities and used all her ingenuity, but nothing emerged in her mind. Heartbeat was right, the General of Peace’s star seed would not be as easy to get as the others.
It was then that an idea come up. It was a bit farfetched and crazy, but it seemed to be the only one who could result. That statue had no weakness, but she knew how to stop it and that was...
"Guys, stop fighting!" Twilight asked.
"What?" the two stallions asked, thinking that they had misheard.
"Don't fight!" Twilight exclaimed. "This statue reacts to violence. If you stop fighting, it will also stop."
"Uh, are you sure about this, Twily?" Shining asked, while he and Blue retreated before the statue’s advance.
"I'm not sure" she replied. "But we're talking about the General of Peace. Beyond that we have no other choice."
Shining and Blue looked at each other, thinking the same thing. However, they decided to take her advice. Blue stopped the horn sword spell and he and Shining were still in their place. The statue came to them and raised its spear to attack. They scrambled not to react, hoping sincerely that Twilight was right. A few seconds passed with all in complete silence, waiting to see what the statue would do.
It was then that it lowered the spear and turned back to Shining and Blue and starting to head to its pedestal. When it reached it, it jumped to it and put itself in its original position and the door simply opened up.
"I can't believe" Blue said, while Twilight reached their edge. "You did it, Twilight!"
He kissed Twilight who said then:
"When I saw how that statue was getting stronger, I realized that it fed from the violence generated in the fight and, when I remembered that we were in search of the General of Peace’s star seed, I realized that if the fight ended, the statue would not have the energy to fight and would go back."
"Very thoughtful, sis" Shining said. "Now, we can proceed."
They then advanced to the door and passed through it.