Tale of a Trickster: Harmonius Magic

Tale of a Trickster

Harmonius Magic

Chapter Two

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Assignments

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The royal guards all crowd around the gaping hole in the throne room wall, their eyes wide, and ears down.

Stalemate and Janil stare at the guards, whom seem to be mentally falling apart, mostly due to their princess's sudden disappearance. Janil instantly started laughing, as she usually does at 'silly looking' things. Stalemate simply let them be; believing that all emotions are meant to be felt. The- what seems to be- royal captain did not share the same view, however. And yelled firmly at the soldiers, causing them to come to an attentive formation: Snapped right out of their stupor. The royal captain appears to utter some strong orders...

"At attention, soldiers! Now is not the time to mourn or panic, now is the time to ACT!" The royal captain states firmly. Shining Armor doesn't feel good about the princess's disappearance too, but they have to stay strong.

The soldiers instantly jump to attention, broken out of whatever state they were in. Now it was time to state orders to the six guards there.

"Listen, the princess is missing, as you all have clearly noticed! We must ready ourselves. You!" Shining Armor points to a new, young pegasus recruit, "Go to the royal barracks immediately and awaken the guards, tell them it is a Golden class emergency, they will understand!"

He turns to two earth ponies, one rather large and bulky, the other thin but agile looking.

Shining points to them both. "You two unlock the armory; hand out weapons and armor to the guards passing through. We will need them."

Finally, Shining looks to two other pegasi, both wonderbolts, and a unicorn magi. "You three, prepare the carriages, we will need to transport soldiers quickly and efficiently. We are going to do a full sweep. Make sure nopony takes off until I state further orders to them as a whole."

The guards, now given orders, rush to fulfill their tasks with haste. Shining turns to look at Stalemate and Janil.

He was told they do not understand his actual speaking language, but perhaps body language? He may as well try.

He points to them both and motions for them to follow with his hoof. They seem to understand as they start to walk. Shining turns to walk with them when he is face to face with a lightly panic-ridden unicorn of red coat and fiery mane.

"What is going on, Shining- Err, captain?" He asks hastily, but still finding time to correct himself. Casual talk was not supposed to be used at times like this.

Shining Armor looks to him with a serious look. "The princess has been kidnapped by Nightmare Moon, whom has just recently returned. The soldiers, these two, and I are off to find The Nightmare."

Psyon understands most of it, except one little part: "Why are you bringing those two?" He asks, motioning toward Stalemate and Janil.

"Half to keep an eye on them, half because I know they are magically, and physically capable of fighting. And based on what I have seen, they are almost excited about this adventure. Despite them not being too trustworthy in my eyes, the princess trusts them, so I trust them as well," Shining answers, before asking the unicorn to move aside.

Psyon does as he is told, and lets the three run off into danger. "I sure hope nopony is harmed," He states, before trotting back off to the Canterlot library to continue looking into the strange language.

Lightly panting, Stalemate exits the castle interior and is immediately hit by a cold breeze. He attempts to ignore it as they start to near what appears to be carriages of a fancy style. Multiple armored pegasi fly in and mount themselves to the front of the carriages.

"How does that even work?" Stalemate asks, knowing only Janil and himself could understand.

Janil smiles at him. "Magic, Stale."

"Stop calling me that," He orders to Janil, whom just rolls her eyes and looks around.

All of the soldiers gather at the base of a tall hill in the courtyard, where Shining Armor stands and speaks.

"Alright, everypony! Nightmare Moon has reappeared, just as we feared; and just as we are trained to do,we fight! We will be sending scouting chariots multiple areas in Equestria. If you find ANY trace of The Nightmare, come and tell me immediately! Do I make myself clear?" Shining starts.

Each guard salutes and call out their assorted and multi-toned 'Yes Sir!'s.

Shining continues. "Once we have located Nightmare Moon, we will load our chariots full of anti-magi unicorns of all sorts to help weaken The Nightmare. In front of them we will drop our strong earthen pony forces to assault The Nightmare with physical force, offering her challenge, and allowing our anti-magi further time to wear down it's magic. The pegasi will be flying the chariots, and when we arrive, they will unhook and attack from the sky. We CANNOT allow her any opportunity of escape. I myself will put an anti-teleportation spell around the area, so she cannot get far! Be wary, soldiers. The Nightmare is dangerous, and some may lose their lives; but it will be a sacrifice of grand honor! We can and will fight The Nightmare, because while alicorns are extremely powerful, and control astrological forces, we can defeat ANYTHING, if we work together as a whole! Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir!" Exclaims all the guards; some out of anxiety or nervousness, and others out of excitement and battle-born adrenaline- They haven't seen action much beyond a thief in a long time.

"Excellent. Now, first we will all separate into groups of two scouting chariots, with the exception of mine. Once in said groups, I will assign you your location! Hop to it, soldiers! MOVE MOVE MOVE!:" Shining commands like the drill sergeant he often has to be.

"Jeez, this guy yells a lot. Is he angry about something?" Janil asks Stalemate, obviously somewhat annoyed by the loud shouts of a royal captain.

"It is his job to yell, it helps put the soldiers in line. He is a leader, after all," Stalemate states plainly. Stalemate looks off in the distance, and he sees the lights of another town; Ponyville. Stalemate suddenly squints as he notices something. He sees a decently looking blue glow flying away from the town and into the nearby forest. It was a wonder Stalemate could even see that, it must have been a big group of smoke.

"Wait a minute... Smoke isn't just blue. Is that the dark creature that attacked the princess?" Stalemate wonders, before climbing the hill to Shining Armor, whom is observing the soldiers getting into their respective groups. He taps on Shining's shoulder, and when he has gained his attention, he points to the forest.

Shining Armor looks to the forest, but doesn't see anything, so he looks back to Stalemate with a questioning eye.

'Uy, okay, think think think... Aha!' Stalemate contemplates. He taps on his shoulder again, but this time he uses magic to create a 2D illusion of Nightmare Moon, and he shows her turning into a mist and flying into some trees. He once again points to the Everfree Forest.

Shining finally gets it, and nods to show so. He then walks off to speak with the guards about his new discovery; or to assign orders. Stalemate can't tell.

"You know, I wonder if this horrible, evil and wicked creature of evil stuff is actually something sad on the inside..." Janil points out randomly.

"Janil, I think that is not that probable. Some evil deeds may come from sadness, but often times it is the corruption of the soul by a more powerful force, and hatred," Stalemate remarks to his partner's silly 'revelations'.

"Alright soldiers, there is a SLIGHT change of plans. You all will still be assigned to your intended locations, there just wont be me to return to. One of our recent visitors has identified what could be Nightmare Moon entering the forest. It may have been an illusion, so I will not call off the full sweep. However, I and said visitors will be investigating it ourselves. Do you understand?" Shining informs them.

After the assorted yes sirs, Shining Armor starts assigning the guards locations. Some go to Manehattan, others go to Ponyville, and some go as far out as the edges of Equestria, especially along the southern and northern borders, which lead to land instead of water. Finally, the soldiers set off after being informed that a pony named Golden Scout is whom they should report to after they find something. Most of the royal guard leave, with a few being left behind to guard the castle. As well as Golden Scout ready to be told what is going on. Golden was often set to be in charge in Shining's absent, and he didn't do half bad at it, even though he still needs to learn to be a bit more tough on the soldiers. Shining often tells him he is being too lenient.

Shining Armor returns to Janil and Stalemate, before motioning them to follow him to a much bigger chariot with 3 pegasi mounted instead of 2, and another unicorn is there to ride with them as well. All four of them load into the golden monstrosity, and they start to fly off.

Shining looks to the two creatures, one of which seemed gleeful, and the other oddly un-emotional. For some reason, Shining Armor had a bad feeling about this.

'Well, here goes nothing.' He thinks just as they fly over the Everfree, and toward the old castle where they can have an ideal place to land.