• Published 26th Feb 2014
  • 6,353 Views, 300 Comments

The Sword in the Stone: Courage to be King - Flutters Is Shy



King Arthur, recently crowned, isnt quite ready to sit down for his reign, so Merlin decides to take him on an adventure to a land called "Equestria"

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4 -A Miraculous Sword?

"I...well...you..."Merlin was fully confused. It had been a wash of action for the past few frantic minutes, and the new addition of this exuberant pink pony was not helping matters any. Also, his head hurt. And his leg. His leg REALLY hurt for some reason.

"-be ready by sundown, mind if-"

It really didn't make any sense to him, there wasn't supposed to be a settlement this close to the Everfree, especially ever since it had gone rampant due to the rise of Nightmare Moon. Or Nightmare Moon happened because of the forest going ...bad. Bad...bad? Bad! Such an odd word indeed.

"K!"

Well, that was a relief, the pink one was bouncing away...bounce...bounce...bouncing...Odd.
Merlin had assumed she had been traveling up the hill...now...she was still going up...but she was sideways...
"Merlin!" a shout of alarm sounded near him, and he was suddenly aware that his mouth was full of dirt. Apparently he had laid down. In an instant. Sideways.

For a brief moment before unconsciousness held him, Merlin felt a sharp pang of fear as he realized something was very, very wrong.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Twilight's head jerked, as the old pony had suddenly fallen over sideways onto the hard ground.

"Merlin!" The colt dashed forwards, worry evident on his face. Kneeling on the ground beside him, she took a long look over the old stallion, to see if there was anything immediately apparent as wrong. Grimacing, she saw the cause of this "Merlin's" collapse. Affixed to the stallions left hind leg was a thick, almost skeletal bulb. Dripping from it was a white, viscous fluid.

"Poison." Twilight stated, standing up.

"What?" The colt looked at her with a face filled with worry, quite evidently stamped upon his features.

"We need to get him to the hospital, now." Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash, a plan to safely deliver the old timer churning away in her head.

"Rainbow, I need you to fly ahead, find Nurse Redheart. Inform her we are bringing a patient, afflicted with manticore poison." Turning to Rarity, she started, "Rarity, I'm going to need your-"

She was interrupted by Rainbow Dash swooping close to her face, "Now hold on just a minute there, I could get him there and back like that-" she clopped her front two hooves together dramatically, "-so why are you-"

"RAINBOW." Now it was Rainbow Dash that was startled into silence, as Twilight glared at her angrily. "We don't have time to waste on theatrics here. Yes, you could get him there in under a minute. We know you could. For his condition though, we need to be careful. Any errant twitch and his body could be overwhelmed by the poison." With this she put a hoof on Rainbows shoulder, turning her in the direction of the town, "This is important, and every second we waste is another second Nurse Redheart could use properly preparing the antidote to the manticore poison. Now go!" With this she grabbed her with her magic, and half threw her into the air.

Rainbow Dash looked uncertain for but a second, then flapped to a higher altitude, and within seconds she was out of sight.
"Rarity." Rarity looked at Twilight, the display of force stunning her momentarily.

"Yes, Twilight? Whatever you need me to do, just tell me."

"We need to pick him up, but without letting his body flop around limply. I know you have that level of control Rarity, its minute fluctuations that you have practice with. All we have to do is-" Rarity briefly cut in, a soft set of words breaking Twilights speech,

"I cant do that darling, while the minor manipulations would be a breeze, there's no way I have the energy to lift a fully grown stallion and carry him in that state for the entire distance to the hospital." Rarity flourished at the end of her words, her left forehoof tracing through the air.

Twilight closed her eyes, silently calculating.
With a slight nod, she continued, "That's true, you don't have the necessary power." Rarity nodded in agreement.
"I do though." Twilight closed the distance between herself and her friend, and before Rarity could utter even a short cry of surprise she touched her horn with her own.

Light flashed and arced, and finally solidified into a continuous stream of energy between the two unicorns.
Rarity was flushed, a constant pressure pressing onto her horn, yet somehow quite comfortable. "Yes...if you can keep this up for the foreseeable future, I do believe I can handle the...finer details."

Rarity turned to the fallen stallion, and enveloped him in a magical aura. Twilight let out a slight gasp, the energy drain sharper than she had imagined. "You okay there sugarcube?" Applejack had approached upon seeing Twilight buckle, and even the filly, who up to this point had been steadily ignoring all except the colt, looked slightly worried at the strange sight.

"I'm fine...I can't keep this up forever though...we need to go..." Twilight looked steady on her hooves for a second, then turned to Fluttershy as she approached.

"Ummm, is there anything we can do? I simply can't stand idly by..." She asked as she timidly rubbed one foreleg against the other.

"Ah agree Twi, must be something we can do..." Applejack had drawn up alongside Fluttershy, and had a look of brazen determination upon her face.

"I need..." she looked down at the filly and colt, then pointedly back at Applejack and Fluttershy. "I need you to watch them, keep them calm." With a slight smile at the two young worried faces, she continued, "everything will be okay, okay?"
With a slight nod from the colt, they started slowly up the hill.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Arthur was assailed by strange strange sounds and sights. The group of technicolor ponies had grabbed Merlin, and taken him nearly half an hours leisurely walk through a town, and then to a large mansion of a house. From the outside, Arthur had seen that it had three floors, with two large stone chimneys poking from the peaked roof. Originally thinking it a guardhouse due to the large plaque with a coat of arms outside(he had initially thought it slightly off that such a signet was that of a cross surrounded on all four crux's by hearts, but in this world of frivolous colors, it might have just been normal), he had been taken off guard once they stepped inside.

The scent was...wrong. Gone was was all traces of anything earthy. In their place, was a pervading scent of...Arthur couldn't place it, knowing it only to somehow simultaneously stick to the back of his tongue, and inducing a taste and smell of coppery sickness. There were rooms upon rooms, each connected with seemingly endless hallways. There were torches that flooded the ceilings of the halls and each room with light, yet there was no fire, or even a whiff of comforting smoke.

The girl(Arthur had recognized her as the squirrel from months past almost immediately based on her rather invasive personality, but as she was no longer a squirrel he was loathe to show his ignorance by calling her as such. Even if it was only in his head.)had clung to him the entire way from the forest, and even now was nestled up against him on the bench they had ended up on. The bench in question lay against the wall of the room they had finally delivered Merlin to, with him nestled safely and sleeping soundly in a small bed, with pristine white sheets that smelled like soap.

"Do you need anything, would you like anything to eat? I have it on pretty good recommendation that the jello is simply the best!"
The yellow bird pony and the normal orange one(as normal as an orange pony wearing an odd brown hat can be) had been chattering to them the entire time, trying to get him and the girl to respond. Arthur didn't like ignoring them, but this was a new land with new rules and dangers. Only a few seconds here and he'd been attacked by some kind of giant cat with wings, and a giant lizard thing with 4 heads. Sure they seemed like they wanted to help, and they had been nothing but nice to this point. Arthur wasn't about to take the chance that there was something he was missing though.

"Fluttershy..." The yellow one turned away from Arthur and the girl, focusing on the one he had come to know as "Applejack".
"Can ah talk to ya for a second?" With this, she gave a slight nod toward the two on the bench, and then lightly shook her head towards the door, indicating her want to talk outside in the hall.

"Yes, what is it?" Fluttershy didn't move, not quite getting the "subtle" hint Applejack had woven for her.

"Eh, not...here?" Applejack pushed further, not wanting to insult the two foals, yet finding it harder than it should be to enact the seemingly simple task of getting Fluttershy out into the hall. Even Arthur got the hint, but he wasn't going to say anything.

"Oh!" looking once at Arthur and the girl, giving a friendly smile before following Applejack out into the hall.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

"Well, what did you need to talk about?" Fluttershy asked as Applejack closed the door to the small room behind them..

"SHHHHH, keep quiet, just a tick!" With this Applejack grabbed Fluttershy and forced her into a squat,concealing their position from the inside the room.
Applejack put a hoof up to her mouth, giving a "keep silent" motion. Fluttershy bobbed her head in confirmation, not quite understanding the reason for it though.
Applejack was trying to lull the two foals into a false sense of security. In her mind, this seemed like the perfect way to get them to start talking and such. Once they started talking to themselves, thinking themselves safe from anypony, she and Fluttershy would leap into the room, catch them in the act, and they could converse like civilized folk.
They knelt like this for several minutes, hearing no activity from the other side of the wall, all the while garnering looks of suspicion from passing doctors, nurses and visitors. Fluttershy had noticed these growing stares, and had curled herself into a miserable ball of pink hair.

"Girls, what on earth do you think you are you doing?" Rarity had stalked the hallways, separating from the group once Twilight and Rainbow had struck up conversation with the lead doctor on manticore venom. Twilight because of the scientific implications of having a semi intact manticore stinger to experiment with was "simply staggering", and Rainbow Dash because apparently the effect the venom could have had on flesh was "totally awesome sounding". And now that she had finally found the room the three newcomers were in (she had had trouble remembering if the room number was 317, or 713. It had turned out to be the latter, much to the embarrassment of herself and an elderly individual getting a checkup in room 317.), she found her friends Applejack and Fluttershy skulking outside the room like a couple of common thieves!

"Don't tell me you simply left them in there alone?" Rarity gushed, hardly able to believe it.

"Well...you see, we were just..."

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Arthur listened to them bicker through the wall, and mentally patted himself on the back. No way some silly pastel colored horse would get one over on him. With a slight grin, he shifted (gaining a shift from the girl as well, as she repositioned herself into his side, now asleep, and eliciting an embarrassingly unfeminine snore) to get a better look at Merlin. He was sleeping peacefully now, his breathing deep and even. Arthur had been worried initially, but it looked to him at least as if Merlin was in better straights.

"Ah, come on you stupid thing..."Arthur whispered to himself, finding his sword scabbard digging painfully into his side due to the pressure from the the girl on his other side. Gently moving it into a more agreeable position, Arthur settled in. Merlin might not wake for a considerable amount of time, and he didn't see any reason to be awake until then.

"W.W.W.Wart, where are we, whats going on?" Arthur woke up to Merlin calling out, and let out a colossal yawn with a stretch to match.

"Merlin, are you alright?" Arthur sat upright, somehow managing to extricate himself from the sleeping girl without waking her.
Arthur got up, and walked over to one side of Merlin's bed. "You gave me an awful scare..."

"Well, I...my apologies Wart. I never imagined we'd run into such trouble right from the get go. We never should have come across- AGH." Merlin twitched violently, having moved his leg in such a way that sent waves of irritation down its length.
"Blast it all, pins and needles!" his right hindleg had fallen asleep, pinned under the cast that embraced his wounded hindleg.
"I...well, whats this?" he exclaimed, poking at the cast with one of his forelegs. The girl moved briefly, rolling onto her opposite side, causing Arthur to hiss at Merlin, desperate to remain "free" and unburdened for as long as he could.

"Shhhh, keep it down, we...uh...we wouldn't want her to wake up, would we? Beauty sleep and whatnot, right?" Arthur gave a hopeful look to Merlin, desperate for him to keep quiet.

"Ah, yes, beauty sleep indeed." Merlin quietly tittered to himself, knowing the boys discomfort. "But, ah, we appear to be in a hospital, and I appear to have a full leg cast. Last I recall, we were running for our lives from that blasted Hydra. Mind filling an old geezer in?" he asked hopefully, grabbing his glasses from the nightstand with his magic and placing them upon his face.

"Well, Its like this..."
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Merlin sat, silently digesting this influx of information. Most interesting of all was this purple unicorn Arthur had described. As he had told it, she had supplied a constant stream of energy to another unicorn. Very unstable practice. Very difficult. Transferring ones magic over to another, and with them drawing upon it to manipulate it as their own?

"Hmph." Merlin garumphed to himself. It was nearly impossible to manipulate someones magical energy as their own. Even when it was freely given. And they had apparently done it over several miles! Without direct skin or focus contact! Just a strand of magical energy, strung out in the air between the two of them! Moving, without a stable connection to any leylines!

Merlin took a deep breath, noticing the beginning states of a full blown fit. Better not to fuss on the subject, he silently intoned to himself, rubbing the crease of his brow with a hoof. Repositioning his spectacles, he let out his captured breath in a low sigh.
"Well then." With this, he swept the sheet off to the side, and hopped down to the floor. Wincing slightly at the chafing from the cast, he hobbled to the door.

"We aren't going to get anything from moping around a hospital, grab your girlfriend Wart, and lets us be off!" Without waiting for a response from Arthur-and judging by his shocked(Merlin dare even think, horrified?) expression, it would have been quite a wait- he grabbed the doorhandle with a burst of magic, and flung it open.
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"Well, well, well. Its certainly wonderful that you're up and about, but-" Their way was blocked by a white mare with a silky pink mane, tucked tightly into a bun behind her head. She wore a white cap with a red cross embossed upon it. She also wore a very annoyed look on her face. " -I'm going to have to insist that you get back, " she nodded slightly towards the bed, its sheets strewn on the floor, "In your bed. Now, now," she hissed lightly, a slight frown curling at her lip. "I don't want to hear any more on this. In bed. NOW." She grabbed Merlin by one of his front legs, and forcibly dragged him back to the bed.

"Now just a second madame, I'm fine I tell you, perfectly BWOH-" Merlin found himself lifted up into the air, as she had hooked a leg under his chest and expertly flipped him onto the bed. Following him in short order was the sheet he had flung to the floor in his haste to vacate the room.

"I don't want to hear a word of it, mister...." she looked at a clipboard holding a chart she had taken out of her saddlebelt, "Doe. Well mister Doe," Merlin at this point had started sputtering ineffectually, garnering a look of amusement from Arthur, "It says here you suffered from a severe overdose of......manticore venom." Giving Merlin a look that could stop said manticore dead in its tracks, she placed the clipboard back into her saddlebelt.

"I'm hereby putting you on strict bedrest. AH AH AH!" She tutted, stopping Merlin's cry of indignation in its tracks. "I don't wanna hear it. And I'm not GOING to hear it. Am I?~" She ended with a wild smile, sending a shudder down Merlin's spine. His most manipulative of responses died in his throat as he simply nodded along. THIS was a lady he didn't want to cross. Or to be cross. Especially not at him. He may have been the worlds greatest wizard, but even he wasn't that stupid.

"All right then, I'm going to leave you for now, you appear to be in good enough spirits. Just get some rest, and you'll be out of here before you know it." With a flick of her tail, she left through the open door. "Ah, miss Sparkle! ...and miss Pie." The sudden drop of enthusiasm in her voice made Merlin crane his neck, desperate to see who was out in the hall.

"Are you ready to Par-tay!?" Remembering of a bouncing pink pony going up a hill, Merlin wondered if this might be the same random pony he had seen before.

Leaping into the room was indeed the bright pink pony towing...what appeared to be a scaled up version of a 1800's circa cannon, its mouth and body far wider than they necessarily should have been.

"Sur-prise!~~" She yelled, pulling on an ignition cord connected to the base of the cannon. Merlin barely had time to erect a shimmering half shield around himself(throwing one out to surround Arthur and the girl as well) before a loud boom echoed throughout the room.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

There was streamers everywhere. Arthur's ears were ringing, and his neck felt like like he was being strangled. He practically was, the explosion having woken up the girl and causing her to throw her front legs around his neck in terror. She had calmed down from the initial burst, it being predominantly harmless. Messy, but seemingly harmless. What was spooking her now was the roaring Nurse almost screaming at the pink pony. She had been berating her back and forth, shouting things like "Hospital grounds" and "gosh darned nuisance". Arthur guessed she had done this before, and to disastrous ends.

"If I ever see you with that thing in my halls again, I'll chuck it through a window, so help me I will!" Arthur could see the red on her face, even through the white hair that covered it. "Are we clear?" This elicited a smile laden nod from this 'Pinkie Pie'. "Fine, just...just...gah, dangit Pinkie..." with an exasperated sigh she turned and left the room, muttering something about 'janitors'.

"So..." all heads in the room turned towards Twilight, "You three all right?" with an expectant look to both Arthur and Merlin, it was clear she wanted a response. Turning towards Arthur, it looked as if she were about to address him when Merlin spoke.

"Yes, yes we are. Slightly banged up, me moreso than them, but I have to say," Merlin winked at Arthur, a sense of a cocky air about him."We made it through like champions, didn't we lad?"
"Er, yes sir. " At this the pink one moved closer, possibly looking happier than ever. And then she started talking. And she wouldn't stop. It started with "I knew you could talk! I mean, I suspected as much, but I didn't want to end up saying something rude, you might have been mute! I hoped you weren't, but I couldn't be sure, Applejack and Fluttershy said you didn't say ANYTHING! And well I thought that couldn't possible be true, and after you had missed the totally awesome party I-" this went on for several breathless seconds, leading to "and then gummy said 'I think it needs more streamers! so I put more up, but they didn't match! So I-" At this point Arthur turned to Twilight, giving her a silent "help me" look.

"Pinkie!" Twilight almost yelled this, but managed to keep it at an appropriate decibel range.

"And then I yelled 'Surprise!' and shot the party cannon, and you put up that yellow shield thingy and then Nurse Redheart yelled at me and now here we are and thats been my day so far!" Pinkie pie took a long gasp of air, causing the curtains around the window to suck inwards into the room.

"Well..." Twilight deadpanned, not quite knowing how to follow this sudden silence.

"If I may?" Twilight turned, half surprised at the questioning lilt from the old pony.

"Yes? Was there something you needed?" Twilight raised a hoof, looking expectantly at Merlin.

"More of a question. Its a simple one, I assure you. I see a horn, and wings." At this, Twilight absently flared her wings, opening them slightly before closing them tight around her midsection. "Are you an alicorn?"

Arthur stared. How had he missed wings? Sure everything of the past day was a jumpy blur, but he would have thought he'd notice something like that. They weren't like the others, either. He had seen Fluttershys and Rainbow Dash's up close, but these seemed larger, somehow longer.

"Very astute eye there, yes, I am an alicorn. Magically induced, not born, although I wonder how one would really classify-" Merlin coughed once, dragging Twilight out of her introspective thoughts.

"Ahem, well, yes, I do believe introductions are in order, the least we can do for our 'valiant rescuers', wouldn't you say so?" He waggled his eyebrows at Arthur, getting a low giggle out of Pinkie Pie.

"Well, my name is Merlin Maelstrom. This here is my nephew, Pen Dragon, and his friend- " Merlin paused for a second, and Arthur could tell he was wracking his memory for an appropriate moniker for the girl. "Guinevere Hazel." Arthur thought this was a bit strange, Merlin had gone and given Arthur such a strange title, and then just up and given the girl a proper English name!

"You mean his name isn't War?"Pinkie asked, drawing looks from everyone in the room. "I heard you through the wall, I was pretty sure you called him War!" Twilight gave her an odd stare, then turned back to Merlin "Afraid I was complaining about a WART," Merlin started,"Being old and so forth, you know how it is." Pinkie pie decided to sit down next to Arthur, eliciting a low hiss from the girl- from Guinevere Hazel, Arthur had to remember.

"Is she..." Merlin interrupted Twilight, leaping into his own sentence "Yes, quite protective of the lad, might not want to get too close..."

"Whats England?" Pinkie Pie had leaned closer to Arthur , and had craned her head sideways to get a better look at his sword.

"What?" Twilight responded wanting to snip her foolishness in the bud as quickly as possible.

""Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of england." she intoned, reading the inscription engraved upon the swords hilt.

"I...wait, what?"

Author's Note:

blaaaaaaaaaah. am sick. stuffed nose. achey back and arms. everything sucks.