Found Guilty

by Basil Lecher

Chapter 3

“Hey you guys, what'cha doing?” Rainbow Dash flew down from the sky on a fluffy white cloud and hovered above Rarity and Twilight.

“Hello Rainbow Dash.” Rarity replied.

“Rainbow, glad you're here. Princess Celestia has sent us an urgent message. Have you seen Pinkie? She's not at the bakery.”

“Sorry Twilight, haven't seen her. What's the danger?” Rainbow asked as she hopped off the cloud and kicked it away.

“Apparently there's a dangerous pony on his way to Ponyville. The Princess is worried so he must be really bad.”

“Not as bad as his fashion sense.” muttered Rarity.

“Fashion? What's fashion got to do with anything?” Rainbow asked as she did a lazy twirl through the air.

“She's talking about his armor. This pony is stone gray and wears armor with diamonds.”

“Armor with diamonds? That is so cool.” Rainbow said.

“You would think that.” Rarity muttered.

“Hey, it's not just about being cool. If he's got armor that means he's a fighting stallion and no pretty dresses are going to stop him. It's up to action ponies to stop him. You know, like me.”

“Now wait just a minute Rainbow Dash, I for one-”

“Girls, stop arguing.” Twilight interrupted. “We need to find everyone for this and if you keep arguing we won't get anything done. Rainbow, I think you should go get Applejack since you are the fastest. Rarity and I will get Fluttershy. Keep an eye out for Pinkie and we'll meet up in front of the town hall. Spike, you go look for Pinkie.”

“But Twilight,” Spike whined as he got off Twilight's back, “where am I supposed to find her?”

“Try asking around. Ask Mr. and Mrs. Cake, maybe she's with the twins.”

“Alright.” Spike said as he wandered back toward the Cake's shop.

The serpent struck out at Pinkie Pie who dived out of the way and through some of the brush that scratched at her flank and pulled at her tail. The serpent reared back and spat out some dirt. The serpent towered over her and hissed. It's fangs were as long as her legs and she thought she could see the dripping venom. The serpent struck at her again but its mouth closed instead on solid diamond. Court had thrown himself in front of her. The serpent shook him about and then spat him to the side. Court bled from a puncture in his side but the serpent hadn't fared well well either. One of its two long fangs had broken against the hard armor. The serpent whipped around and swung its tail right at Pinkie. Court had moved slow ever since she'd first seen him in the store that morning but he moved faster than she could have imagined and took the brunt of the tail though the end still whipped her across the muzzle.

“Pinkie, get my sword.” Court shouted at her as he grabbed onto the serpent and tried to hold it down as the serpent struck at him and his unprotected head.

“OK, I can do that.” She answered as she ran to where Court had dropped his sword earlier. She tried to lift it but it was too heavy for her so she forced herself under the hilt and lifted it halfway up on her shoulders. “Maybe I can't do that.” She groaned as she fought gravity.

As she tried to lift his sword, Court lost his grip on the serpent and it slithered out of his hold. The giant snake struck at him again but held onto him this time, lifting Court into the air as he waved his legs helplessly. The serpent swung him down and slammed him against a stone with a loud crack, once, twice, three times. Pinkie gave up with the sword, Court needed her help.

“Let him go you big meanie.” She shouted and started throwing rocks at the snake. One lucky throw hit the serpent in the eye. It writhed around and threw Court down at the rock and slithered toward Pinkie. She tried to back up but tripped and cut herself on Court's sword.

A brown blur flew through the air and struck the serpent in the jaw, sending it reeling. It landed in front of Pinkie and she suddenly realized that this brown pony was Court. His armor had cracked and he had emerged. What she had taken for gray hair seemed to be falling from him in chunks and dust. The stallion began to laugh, low at first but it grew in volume. Pinkie scrambled away from him and off of his sword. Now that his armor had fallen away she could see the extent of his wounds. They weren't as bad as they had looked but then even as she watched some of the smaller ones knit themselves together and the larger wounds shrank. The snake finally recovered from the staggering blow it had taken and rose up again.

“Why don't you stay down?” Court growled. He took up his sword between his jaw and spun, releasing the sword halfway through and sending it flying swift and true. It pierced the snake, nearly bisecting it as the sword nailed it to a tree. The serpent hissed and wriggled in its dying throes, Natural instinct forced it to wrap around its enemy in death leading it to continue inflicting grievous, bloody wounds as it constricted the sharp edges of the sword.

“Make it stop.” Pinkie cried, waking Court from his battle rage. “Please.” She begged. She couldn't stand seeing the serpent suffer like this. She didn't know it was dead, all she knew was that it looked like it was suffering. Even if it had attacked her, it didn't deserve this. Court stepped over to block her view and turned her away from the scene. He whispered something she couldn't quite hear and there was a loud bang behind them. She tried to turn to look but Court stopped her.

“It is o ver now. There is no thing to re mem ber here. Let us re turn to town.” Court took a deep breath and placed a foreleg on Pinkie's shoulder. “Please, to day has not been good and we both could use some thing to perk us up and re turn the curl to your mane.” Pinkie hadn't noticed when she'd lost the fluff to her mane, at some point it had straightened out and now hung loose across her shoulders.

“Well girls, I guess this is all we're going to have today. I don't know where Pinkie's gone to so we'll have to do without her for now.” Twilight addressed the other four ponies gathered around her in front of the town hall.

“Oh, I do hope she's alright.” Fluttershy said with a worried expression.

“I'm sure she's fine. Probably just cooking up a party of something as usual.” Rainbow said. She had caught herself another cloud and was lounging on it on her back.

“Ah reckon Rainbow's got a point. You can never tell what that pony is up to.” Applejack added.

“Nevertheless, this is important and she should be here. Unfortunately we can't wait around any longer. Now, the Princess has tasked us with the important duty to defend Ponyville against whatever evil this stallion is bringing along with him.” Twilight began to pace in front of her four friends. “I believe that the best way to do this is to find him before he arrives in Ponyville and stop him in his tracks. If he doesn't get here, he can't bring anything bad with him. Understand?”

“Yes.” chorused her friends.

“Twilight, there's one thing Ah don't understand.” Applejack said. “If this stallion is so dangerous, and it's so important for us ta stop him, why didn't Princess Celestia send us the Elements of Harmony?”

“Isn't it obvious?” Rainbow grinned. “Obviously she knows we're so awesome we don't even need them.”
“I don't know about that Dash, but that doesn't change the fact that right now we need to find this stallion and confront him. Now, Rarity, do your magic.”

Yes Twilight.” Rarity answered and closed her eyes. She turned her head from side to side as her horn glowed blue. Alright, I do believe there are some diamonds in, hmm well all over really.”

“Uh, Twilight,” Applejack whispered, “not to be rude or nothing but how is that supposed to be helpful?”

“Rarity, try to find something that wasn't there before. Gems don’t just appear overnight and I'm sure she's scoured the outside of Ponyville many times. Just keep trying Rarity, try to find a direction where it wasn't as strong before.”

“Yes Twilight, I understand, but you must understand that there are all sorts of gems in this town, most of them in my boutique. Maybe I could have better luck on the outskirts and circling around.”

“Yeah, if he's not hiding in the city already.” Rainbow said flippantly.

“If he'd been that close then the Princess would have said so. Do you know any new ponies in town?”

“Well no.” Applejack answered.

“Not really, but Pinkie's better at that than us. She knows like, everypony in town everywhere.”

“Well Pinkie isn't here so if you could all be quiet while I concentrate, that would be nice.” Rarity said through clenched teeth.

“E-excuse me Twilight.” Fluttershy said, finally speaking up.

“Yes Fluttershy?”

“Well, I was just thinking. Maybe-” the rest of what she said was lost in incoherent mumblings.

“What?” Twilight asked.

“Well it's just cause I-and then there’s-” Fluttershy mumbled.

“Oh for Celestia's sake, e-nun-ci-ate.” Rainbow said as she rolled her eyes.

“Why don't I stay here and help look for Pinkie while you go look for the scary big pony and maybe I can see if my animal friends have seen her so I can help without actually going to find him with you.”

“Actually Fluttershy, that's kind of a good idea.” Twilight said, much to the others' astonishment.

“It is?” Fluttershy said and Rainbow echoed.

“Yes. I doubt it's going to take all six of us, or even five, to find this pony and convince him not to come to Ponyville. It's not like we're facing Discord or Nightmare Moon again. Besides, Pinkie usually isn't this hard to find so I'm getting kind of worried. Somepony ought to have seen her by now.”

“You still aren't letting me concentrate.” Rarity complained, emphasizing the last word in a sing song voice. “If you could please just direct me this way I think I may have a fix.” Rarity began walking, her eyes still closed tightly, towards the Everfree Forest. “It's faint but it is new so I believe it might be this way.”

“Alright, Rainbow, you keep a view overhead, Applejack, make sure Rarity doesn't run into anything. Fluttershy, you find Pinkie and maybe ask some ponies if they've seen either her or heard rumors about a gray pony in armor.” Twilight glanced around the town as if to reassure herself that it was still there. Something strange was happening. She wasn't sure why the Princess hadn't sent them the Elements, sure they hadn't gotten them for the dragon but the Princess hadn't sounded half as worried as she did now, and where was Pinkie. The disappearance of her friend now when they needed her most upset Twilight more than anything. She may not have had Pinkie's quasi-magical senses, but she was sure something not very good was happening.

“Twilight, come on.” Applejack shouted back to her and Twilight shook her head to clear out any bad thoughts. It was going to be alright, they'd handled far worse before after all. She galloped after her friends and together they made their way toward the forest. Their direct route would keep them off the meandering path that Court and Pinkie were now following back to the town.

Comments

[-Brutus]

Good chapter