Fictionationality - Equestria

by Spirit Guide

United, We Kick Smoke

“I’ve seen worse.”

Echo and Shining could only gape at the green dragon's aloofness while the battle commenced between the manifestation and their troops. It was really quite unfair; parts of the enemy seemed to have a mind of their own, lashing back at the guards with no pattern to their moves.

“That’s not to say this isn’t bad,” Fang added.

Spirit nodded as he beheld the manifestation. It was clearly a conglomeration of several, all mashed together to destroy as much as possible in a short time. It looked like a bloated tornado, stuff to the point that it could only lay on the ground and ooze about, with numerous tentacles protruding all along its body. It was these tentacles that acted as the main combat factor, sparring and tussling with all the attacking ponies with little trouble.

“Can we please speed things up?” Echo pleaded. “Our men are getting thrashed.”

“All right, all right, we’re on it.” Fang spread his wings and flew up above the manifestation. The beast sensed him and three tentacles focused on the dragon, swinging their weighted tips at him. Fang headed them not, instead making a show of zigzagging and spinning through the air, not looking fazed or tried from his seemingly unconscious dodging.

“What’s he doing?” Shining wondered aghast, flinching as two more guards went flying.

“Gathering information in his own way. I’ll be doing the same.” Spirit casually trotted onto the field of battle, much to the captains’ shock. The manifestation beast turned its turbulent gaze on him and brought down one of its tentacles. Without breaking his stride, Spirit teleported four feet to the left and the tentacle crashed into his original location, carving a ditch in the soil.

They’re hopeless.

After dodging two more attacks, Spirit caught up with two guards, one bat pony and one pegasus. Both of them were trying to subdue a tentacle, working on opposite ends and arguing with each other all the while.

“Back off, night guard!” the pegasus hollered, wrapping his hooves around the tentacle’s end and shaking it. “This one is mine!”

“You couldn’t lower a flag with those hooves!” the bat pony yelled back, slamming his elbows onto the middle of the tentacle. “Did a snake bite swell them up?”

“Blood sucker!”

Spirit decided to intervene. “Excuse me.”

Both ponies stopped and stared at him; even the tentacle miraculously halted its movements. “Yes?” they both asked hesitantly.

“I don’t mean to interrupt any of your brawling, but I was just curious: why do you despise each other?”

The pegasus and the bat pony opened their mouths to answer, but the tentacle went back to its lashing. The two winged guards were swept up together, both forced to hold on to the end of the waving appendage for dear life.

Looks like I’ll have to intervene further if I’m going to get my answers.

Using his magic, Spirit choked the tentacle at its numerous joints, freezing the dark whipping arm and causing it to drop both ponies beside him. They stared in silent awe as Spirit wrapped the tentacle in magic and crammed it inside the manifestation’s smoky body.

Spirit knew he had some time to breathe before the monster caught on. He conjured a protective dome around himself and the guards, closing them off from the battle. “I’ll ask again: what drives you to distrust each other?”

Letting go of their amazement, both ponies began to speak loudly, but Spirit cut them off with a raised hoof. “No. I don’t want to hear any of that. In here, you will speak honestly and with no hate, just your bare opinion. That’s it.”

The guards were silent for a moment. They slowly turned their head and looked at each other, expressions shifting between suspicious and confused. Finally, the pegasus spoke. “Jealousy. After one thousand years, Princess Luna returned to Equestria. We of the royal guard have served twofold our duties, with the absence of the bat ponies in her banishment. We were never nearly as good as they had been, and envy grew into paranoia. Soon, we resented the bat ponies for leaving us, and that feeling only grew stronger when they came back, silent as the night they worked under, as though nothing had happened.”

“Confidence,” the bat pony said with a sigh. “With Princess Luna gone, half our purpose seemed to disappear with her; she was, after all, our foremost mistress. At first we were angry, enraged that Celestia had undertaken such a decision herself, but then we became concerned for ourselves. Fearing how we would be looked upon by the day guard and the clueless citizens, we fled the castle and continued to serve Equestria in secret. With Luna’s return, we sought to recreate the old guard ties, but our past decisions combined with the disapproving behaviors of the day guard undermined our morale.”

Spirit digested the testimonies, sieving through them for an answer. “Tell me, guards…”

“Daybreak, sir.”

“Nightfall, sir.”

Do not laugh. “Tell me, Daybreak and Nightfall, what is your duty as the guards of Canterlot Castle?”

“To serve and protect Their Highnesses, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,” they replied in unison, much to their own surprise.

“Would you say that your jealousy or misgiving increases the quality of your service, or detracts from it?”

Daybreak’s eyes widened and Nightfall’s gaze wandered. “No.”

I knew that much. But now… “Tell me, Daybreak: do you truly feel envious of Nightfall here?”

“No.”

“And Nightfall, are you feeling shadowed by Daybreak?”

“No.”

Spirit drew himself up. “Then I can only suggest one thing for the two of you: put aside any and all concerns or quips you have with each other and focus on the one thing you both have in common: your duty to Equestria.”

Both guards’ faces seemed to glow at Spirit’s words and confident smiles quickly appeared. “We’ll do our best,” Daybreak announced proudly.

“More than that,” Nightfall added, “we’ll do it together.”

That’s more like it.

Fwwwwwwwwwww-BAM

With a shattering crash, Spirit’s protective dome disappeared and the tentacle responsible rose up for another attack. With synchronized motions, Nightfall and Daybreak shot up and looped around the offending tentacle, encasing it in a strange cloud.

“We’ve got this!” Daybreak called down to Spirit. “Just spread the word; help our comrades!”

Nightfall would likely have said something similar, had his fangs not been flashing in and out of the tentacle’s dark casing. “Ommmm nyomyomyomyom!”

Will do. In a flash, Spirit left the battlefield and returned to the sidelines, where Silver now stood alone, cocking his head to the sounds of combat. Shining and Echo and joined their troops and were leaping through the fray, trying to distract the manifestation beast from attacking the others.

“So what have you got, Silver?” Spirit asked him.

The manifestation pony shrugged. “There’s nothing new; it looks to be just a conglomeration. The ones in the parasprite swarm could have achieved the same, except they decided to work apart. These manifestations have chosen to merge, to become one seamless destruction machine.”

Spirit’s eyes lit up. “That fits perfectly with the reality of things. Any weak spots?”

“Nothing specific; just gotta hit it hard, then Seal it away.”

“Confirmed.” Fang glided out of the battle, dusting sin smoke from his shoulders. “The guards are wimps; they’ll get nowhere with how they’re going about things now. The biggest problem is their lack of synchronization, which leaves many places lightly touched and not nearly enough to damage.”

“Then it’s time to tip the scales. Silver, Fang, attend me.”

Spirit rushed into the fray with his friends close behind him. The manifestation sensed the unicorn prophet approaching and turned all its attention on him, accidentally brushing aside half the royal guard as it twisted. The rest of the armor-clad ponies rolled out of harm's way as the manifestation faced its newest foes.

“Here we go."

With the efficiency of veterans, the trio jumped into action. Fang shot cards at the massive monster, dousing each one in his dragon fire and sent flaming into the manifestation's gaseous bulk. While the drake outdid himself in the distraction department, Silver took Spirit into the air, rising above the manifestation.

"Are you sure you want me to let go?" Silver grunted. "It's a long way down, despite what you're using as landing gear."

"I wouldn't suggest this if I wasn't sure enough that it would work," Spirit replied.

"'Sure enough'? That's not reassuring in the least."

"Let go, Silver Shade."

And he did. Spirit dropped like a rock, falling toward the enraged and preoccupied abomination below. He held out his hoof and summoned his staff in a flash, twisting himself so that the crook aimed downwards. As he neared his target, Spirit charged the ancient implement with his magic, causing the whole thing to glow like the sapphires it was made of.

SHHHHWWWWWWWNNNG

The staff struck the manifestation beast and pierced its smokey hide, cutting all the way through to the ground. Even as Spirit sliced through it, the abomination split apart into pony-sized chunks which began to writhe helplessly. The members of the royal guard gaped, shocked at the prophet's precision and the damage he was causing the creature.

Spirit vaulted over the manifestation chunks on his staff, somersaulted through the air and stuck the landing. Standing upright on his back legs, he addressed the surrounding defenders. "Ponies of the royal guard, the time has come to turn the tables. For too long, the mistrust between your two factions have compromised the quality of your service. It's that same mistrust that's losing you this battle. The reason you can't overcome this monster is because you can't overcome your misgivings of your fellow ponies. You must put aside your differences and come together in your mission and fight as one!"

"In other words," Fang said, tired of the repeated use of speeches, "get up, get your act together and kick butt!"

It took a moment, one full of wide-eyed ooze-gazing mouth-gaping, but once it passed a collection of war cries rang out. The royal guard, in all its armored glory, rushed forward and fiercely attacked the struggling heaps of darkness. Unicorns, pegasi, earth and bat ponies alike joined together in pummeling the enemy, forgetting their feud in favor of their assignment.

By working together, the royal guard abolished the manifestation shreds within a few minutes, corralling them to the center of the courtyard under the direction of Fang, Shining Armor and Echo Barrage. Once the last piece of manifestation was herded in, Spirit stepped forward with his staff glowing. He waved the implement for effect and completion, summoning a new Seal in the shape of a tiny metal tree.

"The tree's control reaches as far as Reality itself," Spirit boomed. "It will be more than sufficient to control you."

Spirit threw the Foovian Seal over the clump of churning manifestations and started up his magic. The Seal glowed blue and a huge circle of magic spread out around it like a storm. A powerful vacuum centered on the Seal began to pull at the manifestations, its winds blowing across the courtyard. The guard ponies took cover as the Seal steadily sucked in the manifestations, trapping them inside its impossible void. With one final whoosh, the last wisp of darkness disappeared inside the Seal and the vacuum stopped.

Fang leapt forward and grabbed the Seal as it fell. "And thus ends another short reign of manifested terror," he proclaimed, holding the metal tree aloft.

Something in the dragon's words roused the royal guard and they all burst out cheering. Even with their mission completed, their feud had become water under the bridge as the different ponies now mingled freely among their ranks: Storm Runner high-hoofed Overcast; Daybreak and Nightfall lead introductions between their fellow guardsponies; and Echo and Shining Armor oversaw their factions amalgamate together.

"So that's it then," Spirit said, watching the royal guard in their victory revelries. "No more mistrust."

"It certainly looks that way," Shining confirmed. "And it's all thanks to you."

"Gimmie a break." Fang ambled out of the mingling crowd, still holding the Seal, which he handed to Spirit. "Their whole conflict could have easily been avoided if they'd just talked it out from the start. No magic, no battle, just talking."

"Be that as it may," Echo noted, "the important thing is that the royal guard is back to what it used to be. And that is the greatest thing I've seen today."

"I'll bet."

The four ponies and the dragon turned at the sound and beheld Princess Luna approaching from the castle. The blue alicorn wore her black-and-silver regalia, as well as her tiara. "The royal guard have finally accepted the night guard, something I'd hoped would happen since mine and their return to Canterlot. And I know who's responsible for it."

The two captains stepped aside, allowing Luna to walk right up to the the three foreigners. "Spirit Guide, Fang and Silver Shade. You have done what two princesses could not. You have ended the feud that could have torn our guard asunder and endanger many ponies. For this, I thank you."

"You're very welcome, Princess Luna," Spirit replied, bowing his head.

Silver smiled proudly, his smokey mane flowing to the side. "It was our pleasure."

"I've literally run out of words to answer with." Fang riffled-shuffled his deck. "How's it going, Princess?"

"Well enough. The good news just keeps coming in, though I wouldn't say no to more." Luna smiled pointedly at Spirit.

"We can go talk about it now that we're both awake."

"Hey, Silver!"

A grayish-gold bat pony waved at the small group, specifically at the manifestation. "Come on, the entire guard's going down to the barracks for festivities."

"Festivities?" Silver repeated. "But who'll protect the castle?"

Luna walked over and stood beside Spirit. "I think we'll take guard duty until further notice, right Spirit? Maybe we could fill in that hole the manifestations made while we're at it."

"Sure thing. Come on, Fang."

Fang looked at Silver with a stern face. "You go have fun, ya hear? You're gonna join your bat pals and all their new friends in military revelry while we take charge of the walls, got it?"

Silver nodded. "All right, I'll do my best."

"You'll do better."

Silver took off with the bat ponies and Fang hurried to catch up with Spirit and Luna. They climbed up the stairs on the inside of the wall and onto the battlements. Looking over the merlons, they could see the city of Canterlot and the ponies going about their business, blissfully unaware of the danger that had transpired on the other side of the castle wall.

"Look at them, bless them," Luna remarked. "Going on as though nothing's happened. They're always like this, no matter what appears to be going on at the castle."

"Does that bother you, them not taking interest in it?" Fang inquired.

"I can't really say. This could very well reflect on how they would act in a national disaster; then I would be bothered."

"For now, let's give them no reason to react and fill in the hole," Spirit suggested. Peering straight down over the edge, he could see the chink in the otherwise solid armor of the castle wall made by the abomination. Rubble littered both sides of the wall, as though the monster first ripped chunks from the outside and then barreled through the rest of the way. "This should be easy enough. May I, Princess?"

"Only if I help," Luna insisted, joining him and looking down as well. She activated her magic and began lifting the rubble into the rift. As Luna filled in the crack, Spirit used his own magic to meld it into the rest of the wall, recreating the white stone barrier as it once was. Working together, the prophet and the princess completed the job within five minutes, something which would have taken a team of builders several days of laying and cement drying.

"Good as new," Fang reported after flying along the wall on both sides. "You've outdone yourselves."

"It's been a while since I've worked in constructing walls," Luna admitted.

"My last time must have been at least a year ago," Spirit commented, "back when Fang and I were Creating and establishing our home base dimension. When was your last time?"

"Over a thousand years ago, when my sister and I helped in the construction of Canterlot."

"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" Fang grabbed his ear frills and leaned in close to Luna, snout bumping her muzzle. "Is there anything else I should be made aware of that makes you better than any other flesh-and-blood monarchs I've known up until now?!"

"Uhhh..." Luna gently pushed the rigid dragon back. "We accepted eighteen brunch invitations in celebration of Equestria's anniversary, all in the same week. We were thinking of doing it again, especially in this particularly peaceful millennium."

Fang inhaled deeply, slowly letting the air out through his nose as smoke. "I have no words left. I thought I'd said the last of it yesterday, but you insist on showing your great qualities time and time again. Should I ever face a flaw of yours, it will be flushed away by your strengths and good traits."

"Such an eloquent praise." Luna leaned over and kissed Fang on the cheek. "Thank you very much, Fang!"

Fang raised a claw to the tingling spot on his face, his expression melting into a stupid grin. "Nothing you didn't deserve, my princess. And now I shall take my leave."

"What?"

But he was already gone, draconic wings whisking him up off the castle wall and towards the castle proper. Fang circled the great white structure, rising up around the tallest tower and zooming into the Chamber of the Sun Princess.

"He must be going to Princess Celestia to have the homing-teleportation spell strengthened," Spirit guessed. "How long do you think he'll be away?"

"I don't know," Luna replied. "The spell is a new one on me and Celestia didn't get a chance to tell me how to do it myself."

"I'm sure you'll get a chance someday."

"Yeah, as long as it's not in another hundred years."

The two blue ponies laughed, just as they did in the dreamscape the previous night. "This only goes to show how unprepared we are for facing the manifestations," Luna began again. She and Spirit turned and descended the stairs as a dozen assorted guards exited the castle and climbed the wall, two of them stumbling a bit. "We'd need to put barriers everywhere to prevent such things from happening ever again."

"Back home, almost every Republican is capable of taking down a manifestation on their own and, even if they can't, there's always at least a dozen other Republicans within a fifty-foot radius to help them out."

"Would be nice if everypony could take down a bad guy in the street."

Luna and Spirit crossed the courtyard, now looking war-torn from the battle of the guards, and entered the castle. "But getting back onto the topic of fighting manifestations, more specifically between us, I hope you've considered what I mentioned last night."

"Hm?" Spirit exclaimed distractedly, watching a knot of guards gallop down the intersecting hallway, laughing heartily. "You mean about joining you in the dreamscape to safeguard ponies in their sleep, right?"

"Yep."

"What would it require of me?"

"Only your consciousness during the night hours. You'd appear in the dreamscape and I'd come to you. We'd then spend the night scouring the dreamscape for any sign of manifestation activity and use our powers to end it. We could be an invaluable source of protection for all of Equestria.

"So what do you say, Spirit Guide? Would you be willing to extend your power and wisdom to help me guard the dreamscape?"

The unicorn gave an affirming nod. "It would be my pleasure."

Sparks of magic leapt from Spirit's horn, zooming around the prophet and the princess. Luna's horn shot out magic of her own, joining the glittering dance. The sparks trailed around the ponies, forming a dome of bright blue rings. Spirit and Luna gazed into each other's eyes, blue-on-blue for all things between them, be it coat, mane, eyes or magic.

Then the lights ebbed and the strange connection bridging the two ponies faded out, though they could still feel it lingering between them. "Will everything we do as a team result in magical fireworks shows?" Spirit wondered.

Luna shrugged. "I feel.... different towards you now."

"What kind of different?"

"Not romantically or anything like that. I just feel..... more to you."

Spirit nodded. "Fang says stuff like that a lot. I understand; I feel that way too."

"Is it because you've accepted to help me protect the dreamscape?" the alicorn asked excitedly, holding her hooves together.

"I'm pretty sure, yeah."

Luna through her hooves around Spirit's neck, tightly hugging the prophet. "Oh boy, this is the best day ever!" She opened her eyes and looked out to the side. "At least, since yesterday."

"Every day is best day," Spirit stated. "Now let's go make it even better with Fang and your sister."

"Do you think they're done affixing the spell onto Fang?"

Spirit looked past the princess of the night and down the hallway. "We can always ask them."

Author's Note:

Trying to incorporate two things into the story:
1. Making the chapters shorter
2. Possibly dividing them into arcs, making this one a Canterlot arc

Why?
It's easier on some, mostly including me