The Tale of Isla Nova

Reunion

The next morning Silence was awoken by a jumping feel on his bed. He looked upward to find his Alicorn friend beaming excitedly.

“Silence wake up! Shining Armor is almost here, Derpy spotted him on her morning route!” Twilight exclaimed happily. Silence rolled over and pulled the covers over his head.

“Dang it mare, ghosts are nocturnal.” He said tiredly. Twilight stopped leaping and backed off the bed slowly, then proceeded to fly up and dive bomb onto the mattress, sending Silence flying through the ceiling.

“How many times must I fix this roof anyway!?” Silence yelled, his voice muffled by the hardwood. Twilight bit him on his tail and dragged him down. She flung open the door to see a shocked Lunar in mid-knock.

“Umm… We’ll come back later…” The dark mage said nervously. Before Lunar could close the door Silence found an opening and backflipped out of Twilights hold, leaving the Alicorn upside down.

“No, that’s alright. Twilight here just informed me an old friend or something of the sorts is coming to visit. I don’t know why HERE, but you know.”

Solar looked over Lunar’s shoulder with a quizzical expression at the sight of the purple Alicorn dragging Silence out of his own house. Silence picked himself up off of the ground and looked about for any signs of this character, Shining Armor, which Twilight had spoken of.

“He should be coming down the road now.” Twilight stated, as if reading his thoughts. “We could go to the head of the path and meet him.”

“So, who is this Shining Armor anyway?” Silence asked. Twilight gave Silence a puzzled look.

“I never told you about him? He’s my brother, and the King of the Crystal Empire.” Twilight informed him.

“Ten years… I practically live in your storage room for ten years and you never once mention you have a brother.  That’s really thoughtful, Princess.” Silence stated. “I suppose this means Dusk has a sister too.”

Twilight began to reply when she spotted a tall, white stallion wearing a brown trenchcoat and tie pulling a medium sized covered wagon down the road.

“There he is!” She shouted. “C’mon let’s go!” She called as she began to gallop down the road. Silence began to follow her, along with Solar and Lunar. Silence turned around as he approached Shining and looked into the distance. As Twilight approached her brother with glee he put a hoof up.

“Now’s not the time. Spike’s been hit.” Shining stated.

Suddenly Twilights face fell from happiness to disbelief.

“Silence, I’m borrowing your house.” She shouted as she hitched herself to the cart and helped her brother pull it. “How bad is he?”

Shining Armor began to gallop forward as Twilight helped him.

“Three shots, one of them potentially fatal.” He stated. “The other two aren’t as bad but if he doesn’t get help soon, we may lose him.”

“That’s exactly why we’re here.” Twilight said as she stopped at the old cabin and unhitched herself. “I’ll get Spike, go inside and remove the board in the far left corner.”

Shining Armor nodded and ran inside; Twilight ran to the back of the cart and tore open the back curtain, with Silence following. In the middle of the cart laid on a stretcher was Spike. As Twilight climbed inside she was able to observe Spike’s bullet wounds, one on the back another near the hip and one beside his stomach. Laid next to the stretcher was a bullet riddled and bloodstained green vest. Silence peeked over at the dragon to examine his features. He was rather tall and muscular, perhaps six feet tall. His scales looked hardened, making Silence question as to how he could’ve been penetrated with bullets. He was purple, with several green prickles jutting from the top of his head in one line down the center. His tail was maybe three feet long at most. His legs were armored with green pants covered in metal pads, and his feet were encased in iron. His claws jutted out threateningly. Silence could see suffering in the dragon’s slit eyes as he was about to be rushed inside the cabin. As Twi levitated the stretcher through Silence’s doorway, Silence heard something stir from inside the cart, but quickly dismissed it as a passenger, and entered his own house to assist the other two ponies in treating the injured dragon. As he entered his home Silence found the entrance to his base inexplicably opened. As he examined closer he saw that the panel had been ripped out of the floor.

“Somepony better fix that.” He mumbled as he entered in and proceeded to the bedroom. Twilight had already begun flipping through page after page of spellbooks looking for a cure. Silence turned and left to the library, returning with a brown book with a green leaf engraved on it and gave it to Twilight, who immediately opened it and flipped to the first spell. She quickly folded down the corner of the page to mark it, moved to Spike’s side, and her horn started to glow its standard aura. She then pulled out three crushed bullets from the wounds in the dragon’s body, dropping each of them onto the nearby metal tray. Her larger brother, who Silence now recognized as a Unicorn looked over at the bullets and made a very precise observation:

“Fifty Caliber, armor piercing. Keeper Elite issue, it must take a lot to pierce a dragon’s hide.”

Twilight nodded grimly, looking over her fallen friend.

“It does, even one of Rarity’s sharpest needles could barely hurt Spike. But my question is, will he be okay?” She implored. Silence nodded.

“If he can take a few bullets and make it this far, he’s got nothing to worry about.” The Pegasus assured, quietly overlooking the bullets lying in front of him.

“I know this is a bit sudden… But it might be smart to cut tonight’s mission.” He picked up a bullet. “That is of course, unless you feel like getting real friendly with hot lead.”

Twilight nodded as she began a restoration spell.

“No use throwing ourselves out for target practice… We’d be like ducks in a frozen lake, worse than sitting.” She said slowly as a yellow aura began to surround Spike. As Silence redirected his focus, he saw the true nature of the magic. Spike was floating slightly, engulfed in a golden light, concentrated swirls of which entered the wounds, filling them with new muscle and skin, covering them with new, shiny scaling. A sigh of relief filled the air as the ponies became assured of their friends condition. He would need to rest, as evident by his light snoring, but he would be fine nonetheless. Silence thought the situation to be a fair time to begin... repairs on his house.