Starlight is now the sole protector of Ponyville. She needs more aspirin, if you can spare it.
Against her will(mostly), Starlight agrees to protect Ponyville when Twilight and her other five friends are busy saving the entire world. The unicorn only agreed to this startling position because she actually believed that she wouldn't be doing any saving immediately.
She didn't think villains could pop out of nowhere, but they did, much to her chagrin. It's up to her to defeat them one by one, with her faithful butler--er, friend Spike and Robin...I mean, Trixie at her side.
"Starlight, you're going to catch flies like that!" Twilight pursed her lips at her cowering student, who stared back with that stupid horrified expression of hers like the one you can see right now. Twilight always got that stare for no reason at all; it just popped up when she randomnly revealed something to the unicorn. Honestly, her face might freeze like that forever if she kept it up. "Please close your mouth like a civilized pony."
"Im...I-I'm the what now?!" Starlight croaked in fear and despair unlike ever before. Except that one time when she destroyed Equestria back accident, but this was pretty close to that time.
Twilight rolled her eyes; Starlight used to listen better. "You're the protector of Ponyville now. You get to keep this town's citizens safe from the clutches of in the event that we are busy fighting a different battle. 'We' meaning the mane six."
"I-I can't be the protector of Ponyville--NOPONY CONSULTED ME!" The student whined dramatically from the floor, her blue eyes glistening with faux tears. "I didn't even sign a scroll, with all due respect!"
"Yes you did. Yesterday. " A large scroll levitated before her eyes and presented an all too familiar name in all too familiar handwriting. "I gave this to you yesterday and you quickly signed it."
"I thought it was some kind of friendship document! And besides, you six are the protectors of ponyville, not meeee!"
The Alicorn princess raised both eyebrows, but her eyes were halfway open. "Nooo, we used to be the protectors of ponyville! But Princess Celestia discussed that a villain may arise someplace while another attacks our hometown! You'll be the contingency plan for when that day comes!"
"You and Celestia put that kind of responsibility in my hooves?!" Starlight growled and gripped Twilight's face in her hooves. "How could you betray me like this?! I actually liked you..."
"That's just it! Princess Celestia never suggested you, I did!" To the student's confusion, her Sensei gave her a warm smile. At least, as warm as a smile could look being trapped between hooves. "As one my best friends, I remembered all the trouble you helped me fix and the problem solving you did on your own ever since you learned the error of your ways! I know you can take on this job, because I believe you."
"Flattery will getcha nowhere, Princess." Starlight deadpanned.
"You're more powerful than I am, anyways! Remember?"
"Whatever! I'm not gonna agree to this, Twilight! Even if Princess Celestia will be disappointed."
"More like frusturated with your disobeying attitude."
"What about Doctor Hooves? Or Big Mac? They look a whole lot more capable of protecting ponyville than me!"
"Citizens. You're the royal student."
"Ugh! Well, what about Princess Luna?! Does she even do anything nowadays?!"
"Doing...stuff in Las Pegasus."
"Discord?"
Twilight glared at her.
"Okay, Okay...The cutie marks crusaders!"
"Look, Starlight...this won't be as hard or stressful as you think it will be, I promise. " Twilight frowned and placed a hoof on the shoulder of a whimpering Starlight. She paused and added cheerfully: "C'mooon! Who's the last major villain we've had to face in ponyville or Equestria?"
Starlight gave a depressed stare. "Me."
Her teacher's smile faltered at that. "Well, kinda...the point is, it's been most of a season and we haven't seen one villain whatsoever! For most of the time, you don't have a thing to worry about because any potential villains are afraid to show up!"
"I guess thats true..." Starlight mused to herself, considering that this could be a laid back job and not demand responsibility from her as she'd expected. But that could make her off gaurd for an actual attack on ponyville. "I'm just...afraid I'll let you down on something so important!"
"So long as you have friendship, you'll never fail!" Twilight presented an Alfredo cheesey grin.
"Yes, so you keep saying...When do I start, exactly?"
"Right now!" Twilight squinted at her pupil in another glare. "Hey! I said stop making that face! It's not my fault a giant worm creature popped up in canterlot!"
"You're leaving now?! But don't I get a day to collect my thoughts and make a plan?" She whined in a pathetic tone.
Twilight shook her head. "Nope! Your plan is Attack, Defeat and always repeat. Hey, that ryhmes." The Alicorn began to make her way to her bedroom door now, waving a hoof in dismissal. "But, again....the chances of anyone attacking Ponyville on this specific day are too slim to work. Trust me."
Bon Bon gasped loudly, bouncing somewhat like Pinkie Pie would. "You're Joking! They really did it?"
"They kissed, if that's what you mean by 'did it'..." Lyra explained with a smile as big as her friends, as they began to travel to the outskirts of ponyville on the dirt road. A package of cakes sat on either of their backs with straps to aid them. "They look soooooo cute together! I'm just surprised they finally kissed now."
"Surprised or relieved?" Bon Bon smirked.
"Both!"
Their simultaneous giggling was cut short by a sudden blast of green far above their heads, from the outermost reaches of space it seemed. They gasped as the green explosion rocketed downwards like a falling star, leaving a trail for electricity the color of grass and limited punch. Ten yards before the two it landed; the huge crater throwing up tons of dirt and dust into the air like an impact should. Lyra quickly but up a shield in front of them so they wouldn't be knocked by the force of sound suddenly clapping together. The mares exchanged confused glances and ventured near to the crater against their better judgement, peeking in rather timidly.
Before the eyes of the mares was a minotaur. Or, at least that the only way to really describe it, despite several differences. For one, Minotaurs were not fifteen hooves tall and they did not have weird horns that made it seem even taller. They also didn't have unruly black manes that doubled as dreads, and they didn't usually have chain-connected blades that glowed brightly. They definitely didn't have green eyes, or smiles that were that menacing.
The 'minotaur' stood up from his kneeling position and closed the distance between himself and the mares slowly, like a bear that knew it had it's prey trapped. Bon Bon hesitantly took a protective step forward, while Lyra frantically searched for a defensive spell.
"What exactly are you?"
The voice spoke oddly, sounding rather confused for someone who just made an entrance like that. The best friends stared at each other in an expression of their own confusion, but not for long. "Uh...we're ponies? U-Unicorns and Earth ones to be exact."
"Hmmmf..." The lumbering narrowed his eyes upon them until another question from him was heard. "And...what is this place?" "
"P-Ponyville."
"...Never heard of it. But it doesn't matter, I suppose." The giant beast stood up to his full height, back turned to them and arms wide as he bellowed to the sky. "This shall be the realm of my own making, a place to control without being opposed. I'll have to conquer China some other time...for Kai has ARRIVED!"
Lyra suddenly stopped crouching in fear, if only to rub her now aching head. "Excuse me, Mister minotaur guy...but what's a Kai?"
"That's me, insignificant equine: Kai! General Kai! The Spirit Warrior!" Kai turned back to them, noticeably faltering in his evil glare and more concerned with their knowledge of him." Supreme Warlord of all time!"
"Nope. Doesn't ring a bell. And if you're a spirit warrior, how did you get in this... physical place?"
"It's complicated." Kai snorted and scratched his shaggy mane as confusion struck him too. "Hmmm...You may know me as the harbinger of horror...? The master of pain...? Uh....Beast of vengeance? No? Maker of Widows...?"
"Hey!" Lyra snorted in brief laughter. "That was an innuendo joke, wasn't it? "
Bon Bon held up a hoof to stop her. "Actually, that was more of a dark humor thing, like killing husbands. Am I right?"
The buffalo creature blankly stared down at the first two of his soon-to-be slaves, then left his hoof slide down his muzzle slowly. "I'd ask if you know Oogway, but I'm too far from China for you fools to know anything."
Bon Bon cheerfully gestured to herself. "Maybe we could help you get settled in ponyville somewhere, Mister Kai."
"General Kai...." A strange smile passed over him, causing the mares to frown again almost instantly. His eyes seemed to glow a bit more too. "And your Chi will help me enough, thanks anyways."
"What do you mean by Chi? And w-what are you doing...?!"
Spike patiently sat there, watching Starlight trek across the crystalline room and back several times as she brought her story to a close and finished by slapping a small journal in front of the small dragon. He picked it up and examined it's thick paper cover, his expression pretty unreadable. "I assume this is some kind of journal Twilight gave you?"
"She says I have to record stuff about the villains I defeat, in case they escape from jail." The unicorn massaged her forehead with one hoof and effectively stopped in front of her scaly companion. "Mostly their weakness and most powerful traits. Like I'm actually gonna write in that stupid thing."
"You seem pretty sassy today." Spike noted aloud, but not loud enough for his friend to notice; he knew that she'd deny it. Besides, Sass was just one of her many traits upon reforming. It was entertaining at times. "So, what's so bad about protecting Ponyville? Don't you want people to look up to you, or at least thank you a lot?"
"Yes, of course!" Starlight grimaced. "I just don't know about being a hero or anything...do I have what it takes to actually protect Ponyville?"
He walked up to her with the notebook in claw and pulled her forehoof upwards to his height. Smiling, he placed the book in her hoof. "That's what we're about to find out. This whole thing will be a test, the beginning of a personal journey like Twilight's before she became an Alicorn! When you bag your first baddie, You'll know you have what it takes to be the hero of Ponyville! Like in my comics!"
She rolled her eyes but smiled at him just the same, levitating the journal to a nearby desk. "I have to stop talking to you all the time about these things. You're too...motivational."
"That's what I'm here for!" Spike beamed childishly. "That and eating Ice Cream."
"Ha! Say, why don't we go eat some now? I know I won't be doing any saving right this minute." Before Spike could readily agree to the offer, an intense banging sound echoed from the front door downstairs. It sounded pretty urgent, because it kept repeating itself every four seconds. The pony and the dragon rushed downstairs soon after the frantic knocking began, and the unicorn opened the door to reveal a very familiar pony. "Oh Hey, Trixie! How ya--OOF!"
"Starlight!" Trixie spastically gripped her best friend's shoulders and shook her violently, eyes darting behind herself every two seconds. "My cart is ruined! Destroyed! Two weird emerald pony creatures just barreled right through it! It's nothing but pieces of wood and--"
"Pl-Please st-Stop sh-shaking m-me."
"Oh. Sorry."
"What exactly did you say happened?" Spike questioned her while Starlight's eyeballs rolled in her head for a moment. Trixie gestured to the town in the distance as she spoke. "They're in ponyville right now; those weird green ponies! I was just just sitting in my cart, minding my own business when it all just explodes! When I pushed all the wood off me, I saw them running towards town like rampaging Bison!'
"Hey! You're hurt." Starlight pressed her hoof against a huge purple bruise on the unicorn's shoulder and earned a pained wince.
"I am?...Oh. I somehow didn't notice that running all the way here." She looked behind them in worry now, biting her bottom lip. "So, maybe Twilight can come out and kick their flanks before anymore damage happens? Trixie can't perform in a ruined town...I mean, somepony could get hurt!"
"*sigh*...Twilight and the others are in Canterlot by now, or on their way." Starlight nervously explained and stepped out of the doorway to peer closely at ponyville. She could see smoke rising ever so slightly, which only added fuel to her nervous attitude. " And I don't know if I can contact any other help in time to save anypony!"
Spike exchanged a frown with Trixie. "So what do we do?"
Starlight inhaled deeply and exhaled in a determined snort, her brow furrowed into a slight scowl and her lips forming a grim line. "...You two won't be doing anything. But it's about time I started protecting my home."
"Stopstopstopstopstopstopstopstop!" She steeled herself to her plush seat when the cart suddenly came to a complete halt; this taxi was no Star-mobile but it would be fast enough to suit her for now. The unicorn hastily leaped from the seat and turned to the confused driver to spit out two bits at him. "You were an excellent driver, thank you and stay out of town for a while!" She didn't give an explanation or time to see hear his response; she was already screeching to a halt beside Rarity's old living quarters and surveying the current damage.
Things actually looked relatively nice, all things considered: buildings were still standing and the ground didn't have so much debris. Several small fires were scattered across the damaged roofs of buildings, feeding the sky black smoke and wails of horror. Ponies were running left and right with horrified expressions frozen for her to see, if they moved slow enough for her to see them at all. She spotted one strangely quiet grey pegasus sitting in front of a brown mushed...thing on the ground.Starlight decided it was wise to talk to the pony who seemed the calmest. "Uh, excuse me? What just happened here?"
The pegasus looked up with a startled gasp, confusing Starlight with her cross eyed golden eyes. The mare's expression eventually went back to saddened stupor as she explained. " Well, I was buying a muffin a few minutes ago, cuz I haven't eaten muffins in a long time...and then there was loud booming sound and I ran outside. Then a pony just looked at me and knocked my muffin down. She ran over it getting away." The pegasus pouted at her ruined snack again.
"Oh...and the pony was green?" Starlight spoke louder when a group of wailing ponies ran behind her. Once her question was answered, she grimaced. "Figured as much...Oh! uh, get somewhere safe please...Sorry about your muffin."
As it happened, the ruffians causing all the chaos and trouble to ponyville were just around the right corner of the buildings lined up ; Starlight spied on them from the edge of Sugarcube Corner as one of them kicked the doors of a barber shop. As she'd been told, the earth pony and unicorn she saw were completely light green and seemingly made of emerald. there was no skin on them, or any apparent flesh...just a hard texture and brightly glowing glares.
Her heart hammered with adrenaline; she couldn't do this, could she? Her hesitation gave birth to the doubtful she'd stashed away for later, and now they were making her imagine hurting a pony by accident or doing something worse to them without meaning to. Ponyville wasn't a crowded place, but the wrong moved could send buildings crashing down. As she bit her bottom lip, The jade unicorn busied herself by spraying a steam of fire at the roof of the barber shop, and the earth pony charged out from inside it and crashed right through a cart full of edible green items.
"My Cabbages!" An aqua colored stallion shrieked high enough to make an opera singer jealous, becoming the target of the earth pony instantly.
Starlight yanked him out of the way just in time, deactivating her levitation spell when he was next to a safe looking building.With incredible speed, the earth pony shot at her with the intent of ramming into her ribs and Starlight's slow reflex only allowed her to smack past her flank. Starlight winced from the slight pain, but her eyes remained on her foe. "You know, maybe fighting isn't the best thing, huh? There's always--" She couldn't finish that sentence and halt the pony's head at the same time. Her blue eyes slowly narrowed to slits and her horn lit up with a violet aura. "...Okay, let me rephrase things!"
The unicorn and the earth pony were shoved together by the force of her levitation spell, both now focused on her...though not for the better. The earth pony ran in a half circle to the left of her amethyst foe and the unicorn conjured a steady ray from her horn that Starlight countered with her own. She couldn't take her eyes off of the task at hoof for fear of losing concentration, but she knew the earth pony was on the verge of ramming into her from behind. Guessing when to jump, her legs propelled her body into the air and a green blur zipped right under her. Due to a severe lack of speed control, the jade equines smashed together with a resounding
Starlight didn't hesitate to wince at that painful sound as she whipped up a quick shield bubble around the two to trap them. Buck and toss as they might, it was clear they weren't going to escape unless she wanted them to.
"Okay! Now maybe we can settle this without...huh?" The unicorn blinked almost infinitely when the jade ponies turned into slowly morphed into green smoke, which shifted through the plum colored bubble and then traveled to an unknown location. A tenseness she didn't even know she had was released about two minutes later, and her shoulders loosened. "Huh...That was...satisfyingly easy. I should do this more often."
She turned to walk around town in hopes of helping somepony, but ended up ramming into the furriest wall she'd ever felt. Well, not literally: It was the knee of a fifteen hoof tall Minotaur, or at least he really looked like one. His stance was hunched just a bit-- the better to sadistically smirk down on her as if she were as significant as an ant to him. His fore hooves were poised menacingly to compliment his cold stare and stance, something her darting eyes took notice of reluctantly. She also noticed two distinct pony amulets made of jade around his neck, glowing just like his eyes.
"....Hi! Heh heh!" Starlight apprehensively stammered and gave one of those hilarious 'I just passed gas' smiles to the big beast. "I,uh, D-don't think I've met any pony like you before! Are you new here or...?"
"General Kai." His smile fell around the same time his eyes narrowed, which effectively took out Starlight's grin. "I already know you don't know me."
Half of the unicorn's brain was focused on responding and the other half was gathering every defense spell she ever knew. "O-Okay! And what brings you here, exactly?"
Kai snorted loudly. "My apologies if my new minions didn't make that clear. When i conquer a place, I make sure that it's all nothing but dust first; helps when building your own empire. However, I wanted to know just who I would be dealing with by trashing the place...I wanted to know who was the most powerful here. It's no honor to meet you, but you'll be just as good as every other pony in this town will...at groveling before me."
Starlight snuck another swallow down, this time building up just enough courage to speak right. "Over my dead body!...why did I just say that?"
Kai grinned again, a little wider this time. "As you wish, little girl.."
"This is weird..." Trixie slowed to a halt at the northeastern edge of ponyville, eyes looking around for any signs of her best friend. "There's hardly anypony outside!"
"If a threat attacks..." Spike paused to leap off her back and onto the ground. "You don't stand around outside to gawk and potentially be killed. Starlight's probably in the middle of town."
"Well then let's--" Trixie was interrupted by a large booming sound, identical to that of a punching noise from far off. She and her scaly sidekick looked up in time to glimpse an amethyst blur clipping the edge of a high roof and barreling towards them. They both screamed and leaped out of the way, allowing the blur to smack right into the dirt ground. "What was...Starlight!"
The unicorn in question seemed to be covered in bruises and a few small cuts, ironic considering her fall. She spit out a mouthful of dirt and suddenly noticed her friends helping her up. "H-Hey! What part of stay out of town didn't you understand?!"
"Are you okay? Who the heck are you fighting?!" Spike worriedly inquired and instinctively wiped a smudge of dirt off her muzzle.
"Some creature who calls himself General Kai..." Starlight reluctantly offered. "He's unlike anything I've ever heard of from Twilight and the others. He fights with some kind of strange, quick skill that I've never seen before. I barely blocked any of his punches!"
The blue unicorn suddenly brightened up. "Hey! Trixie might have something to help with that!" She looked around for a split second and then dashed off in a specific direction away from town. "Wait here guys! I know a spell that'll help, but I need the scroll for it! Stall him or something!"
"Stall him?! What do you..." Spike pointed towards the air. "Is that him coming towards us right now?"
Starlight whirled on him immediately. "Hide! If you're not going to run then at least do that! Twilight won't forgive me if I get her son hurt or worse!"
"Son? I never thought of it that--"
"Oh just hide already!"
Just as Spike hid at the corner of a blacksmith's workspace, Kai halted ten feet before her. He walked forward confidently as she instinctively took a step backwards. He reached behind himself and suddenly revealed two very large and thick looking blades, both glowing green and attached to one lengthy chain. The villain swung them both simultaneously in a slow circle, and Starlight had to hold back a whimper at the way the ground sizzled when the blades touched it. "Now, I'm gonna need you to hold reeeeeeally still. I'd rather chop off that head of yours then a leg. It wont make a good trophy; you understand."
"Why are you doing this?" She continued to step back from him. "You can't just...want to murder ponies or destroy towns for no reason!"
"...Watch me."
He launched his right blade first, watching it miss it's dodging target by two inches before cracking it like a whip. The blade returned from the opposite and coiled around her neck in two loops, allowing him to slowly pulled her towards him. His free hoof glowed green as it extended towards the frightened mare maliciously. "Come to me.."
Once she was pulled just within grabbing reach, he noticed her horn giving off an odd glow too late to move. A single beam fired from the tip of the horn and barreled into him with an intense strike, shoving him right through an abandoned cart before he rolled to a halt. He quickly scooped up his chains as Starlight walked into view.
"I'll stop you." She snorted, still afraid but gaining courage again. "I have to."
He snorted in return. "I'd love to see you try."
He struck out with both of his blades now, both hurtling at her body from the side and both missing when she teleported to his right. She attempted to blast his face with another beam, but he leaned back to avoid and delivered a right hook to her cheek. She skidded across the ground and a bubble shield quickly sparkled around her when a green blade made a dive for her head. She added another spell to the shield one, and her bubble became more bouncy and flexible. She catapulted herself into his stomach and bounced off from the impact. He recovered faster than she expected, fast enough leap into the air and encircle her bubble several times with his chain. The chains tightened too much for her to hold, so she teleported to the ground as it shattered like glass and looked up with another beam spell prepared. Kai was sailing down from the air with another punch, but since it was much harder to dodge from above her beam sent him high up past the clouds.
She breathed in ragged spurts; this battle exhausted her and it only went on for half a minute. How could she stop him and still remaining standing by the end of it?
"Starlight!"
A familiar unicorn approached her rapidly, and Starlight sighed. "What took you so long to get back here, Trxie?!"
"Detours. Here." She handed her a short scroll with instructions written on it, giving her an idea of what would happen. The gist of it was that when the spell was complete, Starlight's body would have the same fighting style as her foe's and would have equal muscle strength. " You'll have to use it when you catch sight of him again...where is he anyways?"
"He should be falling back down anytime now. Thank you...Now go hide with Spike." Starlight instructed and scanned the paper as her friend reluctantly trotted away. Kai soon landed just a few feet in front of her, causing her to toss the scroll away and stare at the pissed off creature. "Back so soon? Didn't think you missed me that much."
"You're pretty confident..." He growled and reared back his fist, aiming right between her eyes. This probably made him miss the purple flicker at her horn. "For a dead pony."
Her hopes were brought to life; she perfectly blocked Kai's punch without straining a muscle at all. He looked at her arm blocking his in pure astonishment, his jaw hanging as limp as a wet sock. Blinking away his confusion, he brought down a hoof baring his blade only for it to be knocked out of his hand and far back behind him. He growled at Starlight's smirk. "What we're you saying about me being dead?"
Kai bellowed in rage and assaulted her with his practiced fighting style, whirling kicks and chops at his smaller enemy with angry speed. She calmly parried the punches and delivered her own assault, catching his face with strikes every other second of their blow trading. Suddenly both her hooves were caught in the palms of his own hooves, and the two struggled against each other. "It doesn't matter if you have new strength! I will have this land by the end of the day!"
"No you WON'T!" Starlight declared just as her hind legs smacked into his abdomen and sent him flying backwards to skid across the ground. She walked towards his body with a glare and a thrust for fighting him...but knew she couldn't stretch this out. Her friends among other ponies were in this town, and she'd never forgive herself hurting one of them in this squalor. If she could get him to surrender or maybe just punch the back of his head..." You have a chance to end this, Kai! I suggest taking it."
Kai groaned as he shifted to his knees and hooves, his body blocking the sight of his weapons from her eyes. A sinister grin slipped over him as he secretly grabbed one of his blades. "You...You're right..."
Starlight's relieved smile was replaced by a scream of agony; his blade slashed across her chest in a millisecond and her reflexes had just saved herself from being cleaved in two. She covered the bleeding gash with an arm and suffered a kick that shot her back by her head several feet. A painful roll brought her face down in the dirt, but she managed to try moving to her hooves.
Cold metal slithered around her neck once again as a hoof shoved her down into the ground by her back. Her air supply was immediately cut off by the metal chains as if she were being constricted by a boa and try as she might, she couldn't get out from under him. She gagged and scrambled to get the chain off her; her neck felt like it would snap any second. Her foe snarled above her.
"That's it...writhe, little pony." Kai commanded, tugging harder on his chains and receiving choked whimpers from the unicorn. The sound was pure music to his ears, and almost made him consider keeping her alive just to hear more of her silent pleads. Well, almost. " I want to feel your life slip away from you...I want to drain the Chi from your rotting CORPSE! I...huh?"
Starlight wheezed on her first breath, then coughed uncontrollably from the pain at her throat as she turned to see what happened. Her friends were attacking Kai as best as they could manage: Trixie hurling large stones at his head and Spike blowing short bursts of fire. It didn't seem to be hurting the bad guy though, if only making him laugh.
"Seriously?" He asked them in a sarcastic tone, stomping towards them slowly. Spike and Trixie looked pretty worried given their attacks hadn't done a thing. "I take out your friend here, and you think fire and stones will help you? That's a little insulting."
Starlight had enough of his words by that point. She seethed and snarled through her teeth, before leaping up at him from and forcing all of her strength into a single punch. The punch collided with the back of his skull despite her lack of aim, and Kai gave a sound of pain before teetering in place. Luckily, Trixie and Spike got out of the way before Kai could unconsciously land on them. Starlight stumbled off of his hug body and onto the ground, but they were already helping her up.
"Are you okay?" The unicorn slowly caught on to Trixie's tone of voice as she was hugged tightly by her; she sounded close to tears. "I-Is anything broken?"
"Im...*cough*... I'm okay." Her throat stung a bit, her voice was hoarse and the gash on her chest was still bleeding even if it was just barely now. Yet, she still managed to smile. "Really...don't go crying on me. You know I'll cry too."
"I-I'm not crying!" Trixie argued defensively. "We just hid in that onion store for a while. That's all."
"Woah." They turned to see theither dragon pal poking the villain's unmoving body. "He's out cold."
Upon closer inspection, she saw the three emerald face from before and stepped closer to slow pull them off. She placed them on the ground before her and noticed something very familiar about two of the faces. She gestured for her friends to look at them. "Do you guys recognize these two?"
"Yeah...they're really familiar." Trixie remarked. "I remember them watching my shows once!"
"Lyra and Bon Bon!" Spike announced worriedly, inspecting them both and looking up at the two mares. "Do you think...?"
"Yes, Spike. He turned them into Jade Zombies...including this third one." Her hoof gestured to the old looking face of the third amulet. "How do we get them out of there?"
Trixie suddenly smashed the three of them with a hoof, earning gasps from Starlight and Spike. She silenced them and gestured to the strange smoke rising from each individual stone as if they were on fire. The smoke grew into a huge clouds before them and began to materialize. The molecules bonded quickly, taking the shape of two ponies and a taller figure.
Lyra and Bon Bon suddenly groaned and rubbed their heads, while Lyra was the first to speak. "You didn't say anything about a headache occuring, Oogway."
Trixie, Spike and Starlight exchanged glances so hilarious they could not be described. "Who's--"
"That would be me, of course!" Said a new, elderly voice. A bipedal tortoise, half the size of Kai was standing before them with a wooden stick in hand. He smiled down on them wisely,m as he rubbed his chin in interest. "And you...must be the one who saved us! Yes you, the purplish pink one."
"Tortoise actually...and it was you who inspired the courage to fight within them!" Oogway chuckled himself as if he knew of a joke that they didnt, and turned to Lyra and Bon Bon. "What did I tell you? She has what it takes!"
"We didn't necessarily doubt her." Bon Bon smiled softly. "We were just afraid we'd be stuck there forever!"
"Okay, Okay--hold up!" Spike interrupted and waved his claws. " You two know him? And what do you mean 'she has what it takes'?"
"We were able to speak to each other from our places in the amulet. " Oogway walked in front of the fallen villain and frowned, evidently knowing who he was. "As for your friend, she was dealing with a bit of stress...she didn't think she could protect this place, did you?"
She blinked rapidly, but nodded as well. She had a feeling her multiple questions wouldn't get answered anway. "No, I didn't..."
"But now you hold the slightest bit of hope." He nodded to her. "You were afraid at points in the battle, but not so much that you would have run away. Which is exactly what you feared doing."
"I...I guess so, yeah."
"Well, I believe you know better now, don't you?" Oogway briefly chuckled at the look of Awe on her face, then looked towards the sky with a nod. "I fear it is time to leave. I'll have to take him with me...I know a place he cannot escape from."
"B-But...There's been no explanation!" Trixie countered. "Do you know him or something?"
Oogway nodded somberly, raising his wooden stick. "It is an unfortunate tale I do not wish to recall again. Just know that he will be put away. " The wooden stick connected with the ground and a swirling cloud of light circled around the tortoise and Kai, slowly making them fade in with it's blinding rays. While everypony else stepped back, Starlight stood there and held a gaze with Oogway. The talk had been short, but it felt like he knew things about herself that even she didn't know. It was weird...but pretty informative too. The last she saw of this strange old creature was a hearty grin, and then nothing else.
Everypony stood there in silence after the disappearance of the strange animals, but the science was short lived. Lyra cleared her throat and nervously spoke. "So, we didn't really see much from inside the stones and such...We didn't hurt anyone did we?"
"You tried to kill me." Starlight shrugged and smirked. "It's perfectly fine though."
Before a response could even be thought of, the sounds of doors slowly opening filled the air and heralded the arrival of nervous looking ponies that had hidden. Some took shelter in the buildings and others had been desperate enough to hide behind old barrels. After a few seconds of confused chattering, the Mayor of Ponyville arrived.
"What happened here?" Mayor Mare exclaimed, her eyes worriedly scanning every resident for injuries. "Who defeated the evil Minotaur?"
"I saw somepony fighting him..." A stallion gestured to Starlight. "Hey! I think it was her!"
"Hey, I saw her outside too!"
"That's true!"
"Yeah!"
"That's right, everypony!" Trixie proudly grinned at the amethyst unicorn, who turned red while grinning back. "My best friend saved us all!"
A roar of happiness surged towards Starlight almost immediately, and she couldn't help but blush a little bit more. She squeaked loudly when Bon Bon and Lyra hoisted her up into the air as a crowd formed around them. Spike climbed on Trixie's back and raised a fist skyward.
"Eight cheers for Starlight Glimmer: Protector of Ponyville! Hip Hip!"
"HOORAY!"
"Hip Hip!"
"HOORAY!"
Starlight sighed happily as the cheers continued to fill the air and spread her smile wider. She could definitely get used to saving this town.
