5) You Say Run
To Prince Shining Armor
Given the recent increase in notable incidents over the past few months, the need to activate all preventative measures against catastrophic threats has never been more vital. Although we can depend on the wielders of the Elements of Harmony, and the wisdom of your sister, it would be better if we also make sure that our ace in the hole is still up to par. As a result, I hereby request that you grant me authorization to test Plan B.
For your information,
General Armstrong
Boon wanted to strangle the life out of Buddy.
It had been more than five years since they went on their separate ways with him continuing his career in the royal guard while Buddy left to go out adventuring only for the latter to return just after a few months and establishing a bodyguard company with a ragtag group of ponies of varying backgrounds.
Then, there was-
“Heeeeeeeeey!” piped Boon, his thoughts stopping immediately and taking a different course when he noticed the pair of shades that Buddy was wearing. “Are those the sunglasses that I gave ya years ago? Never thought ye’d actually wear them!”
Boon was easy to anger, but it didn’t also take much to lift his mood.
“They grew into me,” chuckled Buddy weakly before adjusting them. “They were picking up dust and I thought it’d be a waste to keep them in the dark.”
“Well, whatever makes ya feel better,” chuckled Boon as well before patting his friend in the back a couple of times and withdrawing his hoof.
“… So, what’s the other reason why you’re here?”
“Oh, right, yep, the other reason, hehe, um… It’s uh… It’s Knight Vision’s… F-first… Day off…” he stammered before looking at the knight who didn’t join the others in bringing in his gifts to his friend, glaring at her when she was about to open her mouth, which caused the mare to give him a look in return that basically said ‘Are you serious right now? I’ve been standing here for five minutes.’
“A royal guard’s first day off, huh?” asked Buddy, turning his head to look at Knight Vision. “And that warrants the presence of the Captain of the Royal Guard-”
“Luna Guard,” Boon corrected him.
“Luna Guard, along with four other pegasi that are training under him?” he added, the disbelief in his tone as obvious as a dead tree in the middle of a desert.
“A-As the CAPTAIN of the Luna Guard, I have to make sure that she doesn’t get in trouble, right? Since she’s… Under my care????” responded Boon before giving Buddy another look that practically begged him to go along with it and not press any further.
“…I see,” sighed the unicorn before shaking his head. “You could have given me a heads up, else I would have had Haymaker prepare some refreshments. Would she like to go into town perhaps?”
“We would appreciate thine offer!” gasped Knight Vision excitedly only for her to place the tip of her wings on her mouth when Boon glared at her for speaking.
“And she speaks olde englishce too,” groaned Buddy. “I never expected anyone to even be willing to learn that considering your experience with Wordsmith. You frequently forgot to speak normally when you trained under him. Just, don’t go a bit overboard like what he did to you,” he continued before watching one of Boon’s knights return while carrying Tender Heart who in turn used his magic to bring in the rest of the casks and barrels of booze that the captain of the Luna Guard bought for him.
If it weren’t for the younger unicorn voluntarily offering to help them, they might have taken all day to move all of the booze and would have been dead tired to do anything afterwards.
Boon, on the other hand, could not express his relief when Buddy seemed to have caught on what he wanted to imply and merely nodded to Knight Vision, giving her the ‘okay’ to relax and speak freely.
“Thanks, bud,” smiled Boon, watching as Tender Heart carefully brought the casks inside under the guidance of his knights, seemingly having gotten over how he greeted him already with how cooperative he was with the others.
“Don’t mention it, anything to make your job easier.”
“We hath heard of thy deeds done during Cadence’s wedding. Thou hath given much when no pony required thou to do so. We humbly asketh thy forgiveness for not being able to assist thee. Boon hath… Forcefully taketh us away the moment my sister fell,” said Knight Vision as she trotted towards Buddy and Boon, standing beside the latter.
“I hold no blame nor grudge towards you, ‘Knight Vision’. Chrysalis caught everypony off guard and it would have been a more dangerous situation if she managed to capture more hostages while being empowered by then-Captain Shining’s love. You might not like Boon’s decision to keep you safe, but I’m sure it was the best option he had at that time,” responded Buddy.
“SEE! I TOLD YA IT WAS THE BEST THING I COULD DO AT THE TIME! YA WANNA BE CHANGELING FEED? BECAUSE DOING OTHERWISE COULD HAVE TURNED YA INTO CHANGELING FEED!” Boon exploded as if he had found definite proof that what he did was right.
“He is thy friend! Thus his opinion is biased towards thee! Do not test us! We could have fought and pushed back together!” Knight Vision shot back.
“And that wasn’t what Princess Celestia told me to do! Ya want me to go against the princess’s orders? That’s treason! Treason is the word yer lookin’ fer!”
The bickering between Boon and the mare continued with both of them flaring their wings at times to emphasize their point.
Although it looked like they were about to throw hooves at each other, in reality this was nothing more than a simple ‘contest’ on who had the better argument on the matter.
This was affirmed when the Roughnecks finally returned with Tender Heart to the courtyard only for them to stare at the two ponies that were still arguing, not moving a muscle to try and separate them from each other or calm them down as if they knew that it’ll end well without their intervention.
For them, it wasn’t the first time that this happened.
In fact, it was a rather common sight.
“ENOUGH! WE HATH GROWN TIRED OF YOUR STUBBORNNESS, WE SHALT HEAD INTO TOWN BEFORE WE WASTE MORE TIME ARGUING WITH YOU!” declared Knight Vision with a harrumph at Boon who only grumbled in place and followed the former as she began to trot towards the opened gate of the mansion.
“Fine by me, princess!” groaned the pegasus as he began to follow her “Even though yer wrong,” he whispered under his breath, snickering when the mare shot him an annoyed glare.
Noticing this development, Buddy told Tender Heart to find Argonia so that they can accompany Boon and his group.
When the colt tried to persuade him to let him stay so that he can clean up the mess that he made, the unicorn told him he’d have all the time in the world to do that later, among other things if he wanted.
The mere suggestion of him being given free reign on which areas or what else he could clean was enough for Tender Heart to cooperate, darting immediately back inside the mansion to get Argonia so that all of them could follow Knight Vision into town.
Normally a crowd would usually attract unwanted attention, especially when there were six royal guards of Princess Luna, this wasn’t an uncommon sight for Hooverheim which regularly saw armor-clad adventurers and other knights or soldiers that patrol the Undiscovered West on a daily basis.
As Knight Vision began to converse and interact with the locals, who were perplexed with her manner of speaking but simply passed it off as a new requirement for ponies that guard Princess Luna, Boon and his Roughnecks kept their distance but still paid close attention to the mare, ready to jump into action should something odd were to happen.
Soon after, Haymaker approached them, having returned from watching the potion shop owned by Argonia, and was briefed by her on what had transpired at the mansion.
This caused the Earth Pony to give Boon a quick hostile glance as he put himself in front of Tender Heart and the mare.
Fortunately, the glare was blocked by Buddy who stepped to the side to obstruct the Haymaker’s sight just as he inquired for Boon’s reasoning why this security detail was modest at best.
As the pegasus watched Knight Vision turn her attention to a traveling musical troupe that began to play for passersby, Boon answered him.
“Truth be told, the Roughnecks are all what I could muster for her. But I guess this lack in numbers isn’t all that bad, ya know? At least she’ll get to enjoy a bit of normality,” he said. “It’s not everyday that she gets to head somewhere without her presence bein’ announced and having ponies bowing down to her or walking away from her in fear.”
The captain added that her current situation was no better than a thousand years prior. The circumstances were different but the situation was the same.
“Bein’ in Equestria and surrounded by ponies who don’t want to interact with her is no different to her bein’ locked up in the moon for a thousand years with no pony to talk to. As long as what she’s doin’ is safe, I’ll allow her to do what she wants,” said Boon, his eyes focused on Knight Vision as she applauded with the others for the performance of the troupe before throwing in a few bits of her own.
That had been their relationship not long after Boon was assigned to her.
For the captain, he was not her jailor, and he refused to be one.
Boon also admitted that him being the ‘Captain of the Luna Guard’ was practically an empty title or token position.
Apart from the Roughnecks, the pegasi couldn’t find anypony that wanted to be transferred to her.
“She’s got such a bad rep that the ‘Voluntell’ method doesn’t work at all. If it’s not mass resignation, ‘unreasonable endangerment’ is their go-to phrase and all of the other officers would write up a strongly-worded letter or complaint stating how they can’t spare personnel. And that’s where we are right now, five pegasi tasked with protecting the princess. It’s a bad composition no matter how you look at it,” he huffed.
“And you accepted the post of being Luna’s Captain of the Guard despite all of that?” asked Buddy before adding, “Actually, let me rephrase that: How come you haven’t quit yet?” asked Buddy.
“This isn’t the peg that'll take me down,” grinned Boon “If command thinks that this’ll sway me away from my ‘rockstar’ status and ask them for help by kissin’ their flank, they’re sorely mistaken,” he added before turning his head to the unicorn beside him.
“After all, if I’m the only pony around who can lend a hoof to somepony who truly needs help, what right do I have to deny them?” asked Boon before giving Buddy a wink.
“…I see,” replied Buddy who turned his head to the side as he began to bite his lip, quivering lightly before exhaling loudly. “But still, it’s a little ironic to know that the only way for her to have a little bit of happiness is to become somepony she’s not.”
“Yeah… Still, baby steps, bud, baby steps,” chuckled Boon as he nudged the unicorn. “I’ll figure something out. Fer now let’s just let her enjoy bein’ ‘Knight Vision’.” he added, blinking as the mare in question approached them with a curious look.
“Uh… Buddy?” asked Tender Heart in the background.
“… What? Got dirt on my face?” asked the captain as he began to instinctively rub his nose just in case there was dirt there.
“Nay, but prithee explain to us what that poster is about?” asked Luna, raising her hoof to point behind them, causing both Buddy and Boon to blink and turn around to see the poster that the mare was pointing to.
It was of a tearful pink mare with a chocolate-brown mane in front of the moon on the upper right corner of the poster with her hoof reaching downwards to a golden-maned purple stallion reaching out to her with a desperate expression.
The title ‘The Last Shrinemaiden’ was written on the bottom part of the poster.
“SWEET CELESTIA, WHY IS THAT STILL THERE?!” screamed Boon in panic as he ran towards the object in question, standing on his hind legs, and spreading his wings to obscure the poster as much as he could.
“Huh, I thought we took all of those down?” asked Buddy, sounding as if he had learned a new fact about puns with how casual he was compared to Boon’s reaction.
“Buddy, I think we have a problem,” Tender Heart called out again from behind but the stallion was focused on Boon and Knight Vision to listen to him.
“APPARENTLY WE DIDN’T! IT’S BEEN YEARS AND THIS STUPID THING STILL LOOKS BRAND NEW! SWANSONG’S STUPID SPELL SHOULDN’T HAVE LASTED THIS LONG WITH PRESERVING IT!” shouted Boon, moving from side-to-side as Knight Vision tried to get a better look on the poster which was such in a pristine condition that one would think that it was only placed there the day before.
Having enough of Boon’s shenanigans, the mare stopped and used her magic to take the poster off the wall, the silhouette of a horn glowing on her head even though one wasn’t physically there, bringing it to herself successfully even as the captain tried to grab it with his mouth.
“This is a play?” asked Knight Vision with the poster in her hooves, moving to the side casually as Boon tried to take it away from her frantically. “What kind of play is this? It looks nice.”
“A nice one,” agreed Buddy with an eager nod, not moving a muscle to help Boon.
“A CURSED ONE, YA MEAN!” retorted the captain to the unicorn. “JUST GIVE IT HERE, PRINCESS, AND SAVE YASELF FROM DESPAIR!”
“Oooooooh, we would most definitely love to see a nice tragedy,” said Knight Vision, her eyes sparkling with curiosity as she began to wonder what the plot of ‘The Last Shrinemaiden’ was based on the poster though she mostly assumed that it was a sappy romance of sorts that didn’t end well.
But given Boon’s attempts to protect her from it, maybe it wasn’t as bad as one would initially think.
“No, ye most definitely DON’T want to see a ‘nice’ tragedy.”
“Why of course! WE wouldn’t want to see one, but perhaps… Princess Luna herself would like to see one. Actually, WE would request her to have this play performed in her honor!” Knight Vision grinned much to the chagrin of the captain while Buddy merely watched the scene unfold in amusement.
That was until Tender Heart began to tug at his tail to catch his attention.
“Buddy! Someone’s about to commit a terrible crime!” whined Tender Heart, causing everypony in their group to look at him.
This in turn also ceased Knight Vision and Boon’s arguing.
“You sure it’s not just your imagination, Tender Heart?” asked Buddy, half-serious and half-sarcastically, because while he trusted his pupil with housework and a bit of his spells, he wouldn’t just vouch for him immediately just because he cried wolf out of nowhere.
“No, someone is about do something really, REALLY malicious nearby! I don’t know where exactly but it’s extremely close,” stated the colt as he began to look around nervously.
“Ya sure it’s not this poster right here? Its play traumatized a lot of-” Boon stopped when the air felt wrong all of a sudden, causing everypony to stop in their tracks, silent as they began to look around as well as an ominous feeling spread throughout the town.
Even the birds in the sky fell silent and flew away.
No pony dared to make a sound as this ominous air transformed into that of dread and fear.
“Tender Heart, how did you…” whispered Buddy as his eyes scanned their surroundings, watching as a few brave ponies huddled together with very little motion as they can.
“Empathy… I can sense the emotions of others…” he answered, shrinking towards his mentor in fear while Haymaker pulled Argonia close to him, his expression stern.
Beside them, Boon had placed Knight Vision behind him so that she was against the wall while the Roughnecks covered their flanks.
“And what emotion did you sense…?” asked the unicorn, his horn already glowing in preparation of casting a spell.
“Resentment… Absolute resentment, towards everything, every pony.”
Then, the colors of the world were inverted for a split second, causing everypony to widen their eyes, confused and afraid as this unfamiliar phenomenon occurred.
CRACK!
All of a sudden, a large tear in the sky appeared as its natural colors and that of the surroundings returned, making it look like it was made out of shattered glass as it revealed a pulsing red kaleidoscope and a loud roar emanated from it before a bipedal monstrosity made out of a red crystalline material descended to the town from the tear.
“MOVE!” shouted Buddy to the others as he grabbed Tender Heart and dove away, Boon doing the same with Knight Vision as his subordinates tried to keep their formation while Argonia was pulled away by Haymaker, using himself as a shield when the creature crashed to where Buddy and Boon once were, destroying the building that the poster of ‘The Last Shrinemaiden’ was on and roaring loudly as the tear in the sky closed up like a severe wound healing in mere seconds, leaving no trace of it being there in the first place.
Looking up, Buddy and Tender Heart saw that the creature was over three-stories tall and had huge stumps at the end of its arms while its legs had a flat underside to give it some form of stability for walking.
If any, it looked more like someone wanted to make a carving of a diamond dog using a semi-transparent house-sized crystal but stopped half-way, giving it a rough and crude look.
“Is that… A golem?” asked Buddy before widening his eyes as the creature raised its left arm and brought it down towards him and Tender Heart, forcing him to grab the colt with his forelimbs and dive to the side to avoid being crushed.
Before long, the sound of screams and running filled the air as every pony ran away from the hostile giant.
Knight Vision, despite her protests, was taken away by the Roughnecks with Boon shouting at them to keep her safe as he spread his wings, his feathers stiffening and glowing gold as he winced in pain.
“Unhand us! We can fight with thou! We need to protect our subjects!” she shouted at the knights holding her back but none of them complied.
Instead, they intensified their efforts to pull the mare away.
“Don’t make our jobs more difficult than it already is, yer highness! Two thirds of the Idiot Three will be enough to take care of this! We got this!” shouted Boon before making throwing motions with his wings as the other knights pulled Knight Vision away even further, doing so until they were at least a hundred meters away from the fight.
FWIP! FWIP! FWIP! FWIP! FWIP!
Like arrows released from a fully-drawn bow, Boon’s feathers zipped through the air with amazing speed, flying towards the crystal golem and embedding themselves through the target’s back but stopped a third of their length as Buddy and Tender Heart once again avoided another strike from the creature.
“Right, rocks, no pain receptors, good job, idiot, you wasted feathers for zero damage,” hissed Boon, eye twitching at the discomfort of his feathers regrowing almost immediately to replace the ones he fired at the golem.
Fortunately, the creature stumbled back when Haymaker jumped and landed a punch on its chest, cracking it slightly, while Argonia fired a number of beams at it as well, small cracks appearing on the areas it hit, allowing Buddy and Tender Heart to put some distance from the creature with the latter hiding behind the former.
Boon rushed over to Buddy’s side once his feathers were fully regrown, shuddering as he felt a strange presence in his head while the golem was being held back by Argonia with her magical projectiles and Haymaker’s punches.
“You alright?” asked a voice in his head that was unmistakably Buddy’s.
“Fer cripes’ sake! Warn me when ya do that! It’s freaky!” replied Boon, just realizing that Buddy had cast a spell to allow them to communicate telepathically.
It was one of Buddy’s staple spells when he was still part of the royal guard both to improve communication between posts and also to keep morale up by allowing guards to have conversations with their assigned partners without having to speak, alleviating boredom while on duty.
“Freaky?! Your feathers are freaky!” said Tender Heart telepathically.
“Say that to my face and see what happens-”
“Will you two knock it off?!” said Buddy, Argonia, and Haymaker.
“The kid was pushin’ it!” argued Boon before shaking his head and snorting before turning to Buddy “Alright, bud, ya seem to know what this creature is, how do we make it kick the bucket?” he asked while Argonia and Haymaker tried to keep the golem pre-occupied with.
“If it’s the same as the ones that I’ve studied, then we’ll have to destroy the its magical core. The problem with that is…” Buddy trailed off.
The golem was semi-transparent, and although you can see through it, there was no sign of an object or structure that was different or installed inside of it to look like a core.
It could be located at the very center of its chest but it might as well be in one of its legs or arms.
“Whoever made this was crafty, we’ll have to try our luck with finding it.”
“Not if we cut everywhere we don’t,” declared Boon before spreading his glowing wings completely, wincing as more than two dozen of his feathers were ejected from his wings and floated beside him, their sharp points aimed at the golem that Argonia and Haymaker were preventing from attacking by constantly keeping it in a stunned state.
“Stand back unless ya want to get turned into sliced bread!” he said to everyone before placing his left front hoof in front of him and lowering his body as his right hind leg stepped forwards.
All of the captain’s hooves dug into the soil hard as if he was getting ready to launch himself into a dash. While he performed this, Boon was already beginning to regrow the feathers that he removed.
With a nod, Buddy had himself and Tender Heart distance themselves from Boon as he relayed instructions to Argonia and Haymaker to jump out of the way at his signal.
Boon then closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he began to concentrate all of his energy into his limbs and wings.
“Lowering physical limiters, ten percent threshold…” said whispered the pegasus to himself, the glow of his wings and his feathers glowing brighter as electricity began to crackle around them. “Target distance…?”
“Thirty meters, straight ahead. No civilians, Argonia and Haymaker can jump off from your path in time,” replied Buddy.
“Five seconds, keep that blasted thing there for five seconds and jump away as far as you can,” said Boon, a command that Buddy relayed to Argonia and Haymaker.
Little by little, the air around the pegasus began moving towards his wings, seeping into his feathers and compressing it through some unknown means.
“Consider it done,” replied Argonia as she stopped firing magical projectiles at the golem before conjuring a magical seal on the ground which caused thick thorny vines to shoot out and latch on to the crystalline giant and restraining it in place.
“Four…”
Haymaker roared as he struck the left leg of the golem, breaking it and bringing it down to one knee as the vines tightened even more around it.
“Three…”
Upon landing, he and Argonia jumped away from Boon’s target, before being engulfed in a protective dome that the mare conjured to protect themselves just in case.
“Two…”
Grabbing the still-frightened Tender Heart, Buddy ran and hid behind the nearby wall, hugging the colt close as he created a protective dome around them as well.
“One…”
Within a split-second, Boon opened his eyes and shot through the air with incredible speed with the floating feather blades that were levitating around him, leaving behind a powerful explosion of pressurized air, causing dirt and debris to be thrown back from the force of his launch.
All of a sudden, the golem was bisected horizontally.
The top half about to collapse along with the vines that were cut only for both halves to be segmented cleanly in various chunks and sizes as if it was a massive piece of jelly that was forced through a net made out of sharp blades before finally falling into a pile on the ground.
Behind the pile of crystals was a trail of Boon’s feather blades with only around a tenth of each sticking out of the soil with how hard these projectiles or weapons struck the ground while the captain dug his hooves hard to slow himself down spreading his wings again to create more drag so that he won’t crash into his charge and his subordinates, stopping just right in front of the Roughnecks and Knight Vision who had to step back a little more when it was apparent that the captain had little control over his momentum.
“See!” panted Boon. “I told you we got this!” he added before turning around shakily, hoping that the telepathic link between him and Buddy was still open.
In the meantime, he chose not to regrow the feathers that he had to use for the attack.
“I think we got em, bud, no way that thing’s core ain’t sliced and diced.”
On Buddy’s side, the unicorn waited for a few seconds before finally undoing his protective spell and releasing Tender Heart from his hold.
“Stay here, I’ll check if it’s neutralized,” whispered Buddy to the colt who only nodded to him.
Standing up, the former royal guard got out of cover to see if the golem was truly eliminated, seeing nothing but a pile of crystals on the ground that was once the hostile that tried to squash them.
“Haymaker, Argonia, status report,” he called out to his two companions.
“Shawl’s a bit dusty, but nothing Tender Heart can’t fix with a good washing.”
“No injuries here.”
Buddy gave a small sigh of relief before walking over to the pile of crystals that was once a mobile golem, wondering just who could have made it with a single slab of crystal.
The cheaper and better alternative was to use granite and use a small crystal core, around the size of an apple, where a pony can magically ‘inject’ the instructions on how the golem would behave.
In Buddy’s mind, this was just a waste of good materials.
A core made out of the red crystal.
Sighing again, the unicorn cut off the telepathic link between all of them, watching as Argonia disabled her protective dome around her and Haymaker before running towards him and hugging him, causing Buddy to chuckle.
He stopped however when he heard the crystal pile suddenly move, and before he could react, the pieces rose up and ‘melted’ into each other to form a single entity before solidifying or hardening into the same appearance as the golem that Boon had just cut up not too long ago, the feathers that Boon had shot to it falling uselessly to the ground with audible ‘clinks’.
Buddy was about to shout for Argonia and Haymaker to run away as they were the closest to the golem, fearing that they’ll get rushed with a swift swing to the side.
But instead of doing so, the golem instead rushed over to where he was and raised its arm while ‘staring’ down at him.
Although confused, Buddy then realized the reason behind all of this: He was its target.
If its purpose was to rampage and cause mindless destruction, it wouldn’t have acted the way it did earlier.
It could have avoided all of their attacks and destroyed the town within minutes when it was apparent that Boon’s feather blades did not cause any significant damage while Argonia and Haymaker’s attacks could only make it stumble at best.
Even before being trapped in the vines that the mare had summoned, it had the opportunity to flail around to make every pony keep their distance while still damaging the nearby buildings but it still focused on him.
Buddy weighed his options.
If he was the golem’s only target, then once he died, it should theoretically cease all functions once it has accomplished its objective.
But then again, he had no assurance that he was its only target. For all he cared, he could just be priority number one for it.
As the gem-like creature raised its arm once again, Buddy took a small breath and closed his eyes.
It was a terrible gamble, but right now, he was out of other options. If he were only in his prime, Buddy may have taken this as the chance to return to the spotlight as a hero.
But he wasn’t.
He was a mere blind crippled pony that cheated death twice.
If everything comes to worse, Boon will just have to get serious for once.
As Buddy waited for his life to end, he gasped and opened his eyes when he felt somepony from the side push him as hard as they could, pushing him a good few meters away.
Upon turning his head, he saw that Tender Heart was now on the very spot where he was supposed to be and the golem’s arm was crashing down upon him.
The world is shrouded in darkness
Now you’ve gone and done it, Tender Heart.
But there is a light just beyond my reach
The plan was to live as long as you can, even if it meant eating scraps or living in the cupboard.
Always there but never to be held
And now that ‘live’ part got cut short all thanks to you pushing away this mysterious dark lord-wannabe whose powers revolve around mentally torturing people with puns.
No matter how much I yearn, it cannot and will never be mine
He could have jumped to the side like how a normal pony would!
However, I can bring others to this light…
He literally had like… Ten or so more seconds to do just that and he chose to stay still like an idiot!
To give them joy, to give them hope, to give them love
But… Maybe it wasn’t too bad…
This gift was never meant to be mine, it was never meant to be coveted by one single pony
The entire ‘You can live in this mansion in a nice room, be treated like family, and eat real food’ mind you, not getting crushed by some freaky angry rock thing that came out of the sky…
Hence, I let go of it, and turn to the night sky…
Yeah… It was short, but maybe it wasn’t all that bad. As the golem’s arm was about fall upon me, I closed my eyes and accepted my fate…
With only the stars to cradle us…
[A Knight in Shining Armor]
Suddenly there was a blast of magic. I opened my eyes and saw that the golem had been pushed back while that I was enveloped in an armor of light, a semi-translucent shell of gold that covered every part of my body.
On my sides were wings of the same material as the armor covering me that moved around naturally as if I had been born with them my entire life.
Curious, I spread them around and folded them with ease, with no hesitation or confusion. It all felt so natural.
It was as if my life as a mere unicorn was just a midday daydream that I had forgotten, that this winged form was what I was supposed to be.
But I.. I still have my horn… So does that mean that right now, I’m an Alicorn?
Apart from that, I felt… this incredible sense of euphoria… No, not euphoria… Fulfillment? Contentment? No, it… It was the feeling… It was the feeling of being loved after being starved by it, of yearning for it. At first only being able to imagine what it feels like but now there was definite proof that it exists, that after so long, I was able to find it.
And there was no more need for me to be afraid…
And with this power…
I can save everyone…
Almost by second nature, I fired a beam of magic at the golem that had tried to crush me once again, pushing him a few good meters away.
While I wanted to be astonished by this feat of mine, I knew that I couldn't waste any second and so I flapped my wings and took to the air, soaring and flying around the golem while hitting him with more beams of magic, preventing it from attacking by keeping it on a stunned state.
Normally, I wouldn't know how to do this, nor would I think of being capable of executing these skillful maneuvers while attacking with magical projectiles efficiently. All without breaking a sweat.
Everything that I needed in order to use this form as I saw fit, the knowledge and experience that was required to utilize this body in this current state, merely appeared on the back of my mind, supplied by my subconscious.
At the corner of my eye, I can see Buddy with his horn glowing, standing where I pushed him to, watching me, placing his faith in me as if telling me that everyone in this town, not just Argonia, not just Haymaker, not even Boon and his knights, were depending on me to save them.
With no time to waste, I reconfigured my wings, changing them to be sharp and sturdy before soaring towards the golem and mimicking Boon’s aerial attacks. I slashed at the hard crystalline material easily, cutting its legs and arms and letting it fall down to the ground with a crash.
Landing in front of it, I spread my wings and put my front hoof forwards, but instead of angling it so that I was in the ready position of a sprint, I dug deep as much as I could and followed suit with my other limbs, anchoring myself to the ground.
Steadily, I began to accumulate magic from my surroundings with my wings, absorbing it and redirecting it through my body and storing on my horn which began to glow brightly with an orb of magic surrounding it.
These thoughts, these ideas were not mine to begin with, but they came to me naturally with a guiding voice at the back of my mind. In my normal state, I wouldn’t be able to process this much magical energy at all and would have broken my concentration immediately, but there seemed like a voice kindly reassuring me. I just needed to ‘do’.
Just as the golem had managed to re-attached its limbs back together and was about to stand up, I had already accumulated enough energy to do what I had to do.
All that was left was for me to…
Give it a name…
“Emerald… FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRE!!!!!!” I shouted as I fired a destructive beam of my green-colored magic at the golem with an upward angle so that I can avoid destroying the town. The beam that I ejected from my horn was so strong that the sheer force of it gradually pushed me backwards in the very few seconds that I maintained it.
In front of me, the golem was obliterated with unimaginable force that not even dust remained of the crystal creature.
As I expended the last of the magic that I had stored, the beam dispersed harmlessly in the sky, transforming back into neutral magical energy into the environment.
After confirming that the threat was no more, I huffed and relaxed my muscles, folding my wings as there was no more need for them to absorb magic or stay in a sword-like state.
Turning my eyes towards Capt. Boon and his ponies, I saw that they were just amazed as I was, especially Knight Vision who looked perplexed as if she was astounded to see a mere unicorn like me to suddenly fight and fly efficiently like an Alicorn raised for battle since birth.
Haymaker and Argonia seemed to be amazed as well but they didn’t look as surprised as the others.
Before I could call upon them and say that we’re safe, I heard a thud to my left.
“Buddy!” shouted Argonia as she and Haymaker ran, causing me to turn my head see my mentor had collapsed and was breathing heavily, his body twitching.
The blue aura around his horn vanished after a few seconds and with it, the shining armor that encompassed by body faded away as well.
What focus and battle-readiness that I had soon disappeared along with the magical concepts that I used in order to be able to cast my ‘Emerald Fire’ spell. Just as how quick it was for me to learn and utilize the knowledge that appeared out of nowhere disappeared just as quickly.
I turned to my side to try and examine my left wing but it was no longer there, not even the sensation of having that extra limb, and being able to use it naturally, remained.
It was as if everything that I had managed to do just a few seconds ago was nothing but a mere daydream of mine, that I had imagined what it was like to be an Alicorn and fought the golem with the powers of an Alicorn.
What remained, however, was the lingering sensation of being loved. Sure, it was not as strong as when I was in that state, unlike everything else, it was the only thing that I was sure wasn’t ‘imagined’ or ‘part of the daydream’ of me being an Alicorn.
But as it diminished to a certain point, my entire consciousness was flooded with the feeling of somepony being in intense pain and agony, causing me to shiver and snap out of my dazed state.
No, it wasn’t just somepony, it was Buddy who was in pain!
Shaking my head and cursing myself for being distracted, I rushed over to the groaning and whining unicorn that Argonia and Haymaker tried to prevent from hurting himself by hitting the ground as he lashed and contorted in pain.
“I-It hurts…! I-it hurts…!” cried out Buddy as tears fell from his glossy, no, milk-colored opaque eyes.
How the buck did he get injured?! That golem was miles away from him and it didn’t even hit him once!
I tried to raise a hoof to try and check the state of his eyes, hoping that I was just imagining the severity of Buddy’s injuries and hoping that I wasn’t the one that caused it. Argonia calmly placed a hoof on me shoulder and shook her head while Haymaker took my mentor into his limbs, carefully cradling him so that he wasn’t rubbing against the rough soil.
“It’s not your fault,” said Argonia solemnly “This is… This is what Buddy’s real state is. Blind, crippled, and in a constant state of pain from drinking numerous ‘instant-curative’ potions to remove his injuries during the Siege of Canterlot.”
Argonia explained that if he had only taken two, or three at most, he would have been fine, but Buddy drank at least a dozen bottles to ensure that everyone around him was safe.
But that didn’t make any sense!
“That’s impossible! Buddy would have been completely invulnerable and unstoppable! He wouldn’t need these potions that you’re talking about with that spell that he used on me!” I insisted, thinking that Argonia was lying to me.
Instead, she shook her head again.
“That would be true, but… That spell, I’ve only heard about it from Haymaker, but…”
“The Shining Armor spell only works on others…” continued Haymaker.
It… Only works on others? He can’t use it on himself?
“During the Siege of Canterlot, Buddy used this spell on every capable pony he could find within the vicinity, civilians and knights alike,” he explained.
The spell, A Knight in Shining Armor, shortened to Shining Armor, was Buddy’s greatest spell, invented with inputs from Earth Ponies and Pegasi to supply him with the knowledge of their abilities to mimic what an Alicorn can do.
With their enhanced abilities and with a telepathic link to him, Buddy directed them to save as many ponies they could and bring them to the designated safe zones that the Royal Guard has in case of an enemy attack.
Haymaker explained that casting the spell makes him completely vulnerable, and that in hindsight, he could have had two ponies protecting him while the others rescued civilians and gave orders to other detachments of the Royal Guard so that they had a clear set of orders during that chaotic attack.
“But Buddy chose not to, he didn’t know if the ponies that he had put under his spell were enough and so he ordered them to save others, leaving him completely exposed. He never said the reason why he chose not to order those who were under the effects of the Shining Armor spell to just begin exterminating the Changelings the moment they arrived, but our guess is that the need to save lives outweighed the need to retaliate immediately. We would have killed so many Changelings, yes, but at the risk of losing innocent lives,” sighed Haymaker as he took a quick glance towards Boon and his team who seemed to be working already to calm the crowd and have messengers sent to Canterlot to report he incident.
During the siege, the Changelings eventually caught on to what Buddy was doing and swarmed on him, injuring him severely. But instead of stopping his spell to defend himself, he chose to hold it and healed himself as much as he can with his potions. Only when he was sure that most of the Canterlot was safe did he call for backup.
For abusing those healing potions, the pain from all of his injuries lingered and his eyes were healed from being damaged so much that the potion had a side effect of causing his body to think that thought that him being blind was his ‘normal’ state, as was his damaged limbs…
The only reason why he was able to function normally was because of the help of a few friends of his who created a spell that Buddy has to cast on himself continuously to stave off the pain and regain use of his limbs and his eyes.
While Buddy could now somehow live normally after knowing how to maintain that spell to the point that it’s undetectable to others and that it’s as natural as him breathing, he will never be able to cast anything beyond the simplest of spells ever again as it would break his concentration and his supply of magical energy to the one that maintained his body.
After hearing this from Haymaker, I came to realize that General Armstrong really wasn’t lying nor exaggerating Buddy’s condition.
And even after everything, he chose to seclude himself in his mansion and refuse help and companionship except for a trusted few like Haymaker and Argonia.
But then, there was also him choosing to stay still when the golem was about to…
No…
He couldn’t, right?
Shaking my head at the thought, Argonia, Haymaker, and I decided that it would be best if he tried to get Buddy home as soon as possible.
As we attempted to carefully pick up Buddy so that we can take him back to the mansion, the colors of the world around us inverted once again and the familiar crack occurred once more, this time almost immediately after the colors returned to normal.
A loud crash, followed by the very same roar of the golem that I had disintegrated with my Emerald Fire, then happened behind us.
Turning around, we once again saw the crystalline creature that wasted no time in walking towards us with its heavy footfalls.
Once more, we needed to destroy every bit of our adversary, but this time with Buddy incapacitated.
Boon jumped before us, spreading his wings and converting his feathers into blades with its golden glow, ready to face the golem for the second time in a row.
“Take Buddy back to the mansion! I’ll-”
“ENOUGH! YOU WILL HARM OUR SUBJECTS NO MORE!” shouted a voice that boomed throughout the town before a great pillar of midnight blue light descended upon the golem, disintegrating it completely like what my Emerald Fire had done and leaving a small crater on the ground.
Looking up, we saw Princess Luna flying above us with a determined look on her face, her horn glowing brightly as she carefully watched the area.
Nightmare Moon or not, I couldn’t describe how thankful I was that the princess had arrived at Hooverheim at the very last minute to save us.
Right now, it didn’t matter if you were a royal guard, a captain of the Luna Guard, a talented mage or a strong earth pony. When it came to threats such as this, the vast difference in power that an Alicorn had compared to normal ponies was like day and night.
“Oi! What the buck are you doin’?! You were supposed to stay in disgui-” Boon however was cut off when ponies from around us called and cheered for the princess, offering her their thanks for saving them from the second golem that arrived.
An indescribable sense of relief and contentment emanated from the Princess as she descended and was promptly surrounded by ponies that went to thank her even more.
“We were really scared, your highness!”
“Thank you so much, Princess Luna, we thought we were done for!”
“Can I have your autograph, your highness?”
Although the Roughnecks wanted to break up the crowd so that Luna won’t be swarmed, Boon prevented them from doing so with a shake of his head as he turned his wings back to normal and decided to watch the princess from afar, letting her enjoy this precious moment where she was finally seen as one of their rulers.
In his eyes, maybe this was the very first time that she felt loved in so many years.
Who was he to deny her this small piece of happiness?
With the crowd focusing on Princess Luna, which was increasing in size as more and more ponies got more curious as they now had proof that she was no longer Nightmare Moon or malevolent, Argonia, Haymaker, and I were able to take Buddy back to the mansion so that he can recuperate.
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Thought I'd let you lnow that I really like your story and can't wait for more of it.
9564279
Oh gosh, I just saw this comment right now. I haven't worked on this fic for a while with how scarce feedback is for it so I'm never sure if I'm doing it well or not. In either case, I'm really glad to know that you liked it!
This story has potential. I hope Buddy's okay, the story would be empty without his...
PUNishments!
9653727
Oh gosh, you don't know how much this comment means to me! I'm so happy that you liked it, and Buddy's Puns :P. I don't know when the next chapter will be done but you've made me do a huge chunk already and I'm really hoping that you'll read and enjoy it once it's finished :3
Glad that I inspired you, and don't worry I'll read it and hopefully enjoy it.
Good luck!