The Knights of Friendship

by Joeyjambo122

Chapter 3

The trio had arrived at town hall, where the event was supposed to take place. Spines had finally got over her lethargy and was walking again and was currently holding the list. "According to this, a unicorn named Rarity is in charge of decorating." She looked at Shining and a giggle escaped her lips. He still looked like a giant white puff ball with with his just as puffy two toned blue mane and tail.

Shining glared at her and she quickly stifled herself before she could laugh.

Walking inside, they found the entire room was beautifully decorated with and bows, making it look it had been decorated by a professional interior designer.

"Beautiful..." Spike muttered. "I agree with you on that Spike, these decorations are beautiful." Shining commented as he looked around and admired the decorations.

"Not the decorations. Her." He pointed to a white mare on a small stage. She had a purple curled mane and tale and her cutie mark was a picture of three blue diamonds. Both Shining and Spines saw Spike's eyes form into little red hearts. "And there goes Spike." Spines commented as Shining rolled his eyes and approached the mare.

"Excuse me miss-" He attempted to get her attention, but quickly cut off. "Not now darling. I'm in the zone right now." She spoke as she put some finishing touches on the directions. Shining made another attempt at talking to her. "Miss, my name is Shining Armor-" He was again interrupted. "And done! Now, Shining Armor wasn't? Did you need somethin... AAAAAH HA HAAAA!" Her sudden gasping caught him off guard for a second.

"Oh... uh, sorry if I spooked you, I just came to check on the preperations and then I'll be out of your hair." He said somewhat nervously. The mare still had a white look of horror of her face. "My hair? What about your hair? I simply musn't let a stallion like yourself walk around like that! Come with me and I'll fix you right up. I'm Rarity." She used her magic to levitate the stunned stallion out the door before he could even have a chance to protest.

Spines was about to walk out to follow them, turned back to see her brother still looking at the spot where Rarity was standing a moment ago with a dopey grin on his face, which caused to roll her eyes.

"Come on Casanova." She grabbed her love struck twin's tail and dragged him out the door and past a confused light gray unicorn stallion and his young unicorn daughter. He had brown mane and tail and equally brown bushy eyebrows and a mustache, and his cutie mark consisted of three footballs.

His daughter had white coat and a pink and purple swirled mane and tail and didn't have a cutie mark herself.

The stallion let out an amused chuckle when he saw his daughter Rarity dragging a rather odd looking white stallion toward her shop, the Carousel Boutique. "Looks like another victim of your sister's generosity. Why don't we see if we can't help him out, huh Sweetie Bell?" He asked his daughter, getting a giddy nod from her and they both followed after the twin dragons.

---

Though Shining was thankful that his fur and mane had finally been brushed down, Rarity didn't stop there. She then made him try on several different outfits to make sure he wore something nice for celebration, despite him trying to say he was a recruit from the royal guard. "So what's a handsome stallion like yourself doing here in our little town?" She asked as she continued taking measurements.

Spike and Spines were sitting on a nearby couch. While Spines was having a good chuckle over Shining's situation, her brother on the other hand was still love struck as he stared at Rarity.

Shining took the chance get a word in. "I was sent here from Canterlot to che-" He was interrupted again.

"CANTERLOT!? Ohh... The glamour, the sophistication! The elegance I've always dreamed of living there!" She continued ranting about her dreams of Canterlot. "Psst... over here!" Shining heard a voice say nearby behind the exit door. The stallion and filly he saw on the street when he was practically dragged out of town hall by the fashion crazed mare known as Rarity were standing in the doorway.

"If you don't want your mane dyed pink, I suggest following me before she snaps out of her little rant." The stallion advised, Shining nodded quickly levitated his armor from where it had been set down by Rarity when he was brought in and quickly levitated the twins on his back and they exited as Rarity was continuing her rant.

---

Making it outside, Shining breathed a sigh of relief. "Phew... any longer in there, and I think she was going to put shampoo in my mane that made me smell like flowers. Do you know her?" He asked. The stallion chuckled a little. "Know her? She's my daughter! Hondo Flanks, but please, call me Magnum. I run the local sports shop and also coach for the junior football team." He held out a hoof.

For the third time that day, Shining shook his hoof. "I'm Shining Armor, and these two are my assistants/siblings, Spike and Spines." He gestured to the dragons on his back, though Spines was a little dazed by the sudden departure from the boutique, and Spike still barely registered there were outside, still in his love daze.

"Nice to meet you Armor, and this little lady is my youngest daughter Sweetie Belle. Say hello." He gestured the little filly. "Hello..." the shy filly greeted. Spines hopped off his back and approached her. "Hi there! I'm Spines! Nice to meet you!" She greeted loudly, startling Sweetie Belle a little, but giggled a little at the dragonesses silliness. Spines pointed a claw at her brother. "That's guy my twin brother Spike." She looked at him and leaned toward Sweetie Belle. "He's older by five seconds." She whispered.

Shining looked at Spike and sighed. "He still has that dopey grin on him." And shook his head with an annoyed look on his face. Spines looked around and noticed a green mare with a red mane and tail nearby and gained a mischievous grin on her face.

Spines walked over to the mare as she sat on a bench and approached. "Excuse me ma'am..." She started, getting the mare's attention..

For the first time since he set sights on Rarity, Spike finally made some physical movement when his ear fin twitched at the beginning of that sentence and his head began to mechanically turn in the direction of his sister as his eyes, which were filled awestruck love, was slowly replaced by forbording dread.

Spines suddenly got down on one knee and held her hand out. "Will you please take of my brother?" She asked the bewildered mare, causing Spike to immediately jump off Shining's back and quickly got between Spines and the mare and his cheeks were burning red with embarrassment. "Spines! How many times do I have to tell you to stop doin stuff like this!?"

As Spike immediately began to apologize to the mare for his sister, the other walked over, Shining with a bored look on his face, as if he's seen this before, while Magnum and Sweetie Belle had confused looks on their faces. "What's going on?" Magnum asked.

Spines kept up her smile. "Well I can't take care of my brother forever, so what he needs is for me to find him a good wife-OOF!" She was suddenly grabbed and dragged off by the tail by her brother. "What I NEED is to get you to stop embarrassing me like this!" Spike grumbled as he dragged her off. Magnum looked in the direction Spike dragged Spines off to with even more confusion before turning back to Shining.

"Does that happen often?" Magnum asked incredulously. Shining sighed and rolled his eyes. "More than you think." He responded. "It was nice meeting you two, but we gotta get going. Bye!" He suddenly dashed off after the twins, leaving the bewildered father and daughter in the dust. Magnum cleared his throat. "Well, they were certainly an interesting trio." He said with a chuckle.

"Spines was nice and funny." Sweetie Belle said with a smile. Magnum chuckled again. "Yeah, she was. Let's just get you home and ready for the party at the library, okay?" She nodded and they left toward the direction of their home.

Comments

[Comickook]

Hey there. Thanks greatly for getting this next chapter up. I really appreciate you going to the effort. As usual, excellent job on the exchanges, emotional content, humor and future chapter set-up in all the right places. I particularly liked Magnum rescuing Shining from Rarity AND Spines and Sweetie Belle's meeting. :-D I'll definitely be looking forward to more of this as soon as time and inspiration will allow.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

Uh, I'm a bit confused about what happened with Spines and Spike once they made it out of Rarity's boutique.

[Joeyjambo122]

7564766 What do you mean?

[SuperPinkBrony12]

7564791 What did Spines do that got Spike so mad with her?

[Joeyjambo122]

7564810 So you didn't notice she was embarrassing him by attempting to get him a wife? This is recurring thing for the siblings, with Spike dragging her off everytime she attempts to get him a wife (despite her brother being a little underage)

Since they are both his assistants and are around him almost 24/7, he's seen this odd behavior before and has grown used to it.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

7564828 But who was Spines trying to pair Spike up with?

[Joeyjambo122]

7564833 Any random mare or important character in future stories. It's a recurring gag.

[badninja]

So I wonder how Magnum will fit into the team? Maybe as team dad?

[SuperPinkBrony12]

7565380 Or maybe he's supposed to be the element of generosity?

[Banshee531]

Nice Pokemon reference there.