First Defender
Twilight trotted down the city street, book levitating in front of her. The small filly had only learned how to levitate objects a few weeks ago, but she picked it up as if she had been doing it her whole life. And what better use was there for the spell than to continue her reading? It was getting to the best part too; the evil horned monster with the arms of an ape was fighting the group of heroic ponies, and had just unleashed his beam of darkness. Twilight turned the page…
And crashed into another pony, sending her book flying. Flustered and disoriented from the sudden jolt back to reality, Twilight looked up to see a colt a few years older than she was looking down at her.
“Watch where you’re going, egghead!” he snarled. Twilight squeaked in fear as she recognized him. It was Ace, the ill-tempered sports jock she’d seen at school a few times. Behind him, Twilight noticed two of his friends looking down at her, sneering.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you,” she managed to mutter as she tried to pick her book up. The colt slammed his hoof down onto the open pages.
“What’s this?” he glared at Twilight, “some namby-pamby kid’s book?”
“N-no, it’s not!” Twilight stammered. The other two colts laughed at her obvious fear. Ace waved his hoof and they trotted forward slowly until they had her surrounded. Twilight did not like where this was going.
“What is it then?”
Twilight gulped. “It’s called, um, Rescue from Midnight Castle. It’s about these ponies on a mission to save their friends from a monster and-”
“Save it.” Ace interrupted. He grinned at his friends before looking back at her. “Well boys, looks like I’ve got some reading to do. You don’t mind if I take this, do you?”
“But… I was…”
“Great.” Ace said as he snatched it, turned around, and trotted away, his friends following suit. Twilight stared at him in shock as he trotted away with her book. Her book!
“N-no! That’s mine! You can’t have it!” Twilight cried after them. Ace paused and turned around.
“You want this back?” he said. Then he did the unthinkable. He grabbed a few pages and, with all the force he could muster, ripped it out of the book. “Come and get it!” he snarled as he threw the rest of the book into a nearby mud puddle. He turned around and laughed loudly along with his two companions.
Twilight just sat there in shock. He had just destroyed a book! DESTROYED A BOOK! In all of Twilight’s short life, she had never seen anything as horrible. It was more than she could bear. She collapsed to the ground and, as the colts continued to laugh mercilessly at her, she began to cry. Ace saw this and began to laugh harder.
“What’s the matter egghead? You want your mommy?” With that, his friends doubled over with laughter. Twilight
sobbed furiously, covering her face with her hooves. How could anypony do something so cruel? What had she done to deserve this?
Suddenly there was a loud shout and the laughing abruptly stopped. Twilight, crying, pulled her head up a little bit so she could see what was going on.
The three colts were fighting with somepony. Twilight couldn’t make out who it was through her tears, but they were definitely putting up a fight. She wiped her eyes and was able to make out a deep blue mane with an electric blue streak. Suddenly she knew exactly who had come to her rescue.
It was her brother.
“Shiny!” she cried out in panic. He turned to look at her and took a hoof to the side, knocking the wind out of him.
“Twilie… run!” He panted. The bullies seized the opportunity and began to pummel him into the ground. Shining Armor kicked and bucked at the colts, but he was outnumbered three to one. Ace delivered a swift kick to his head, and he collapsed. His opponents jeered at the defenseless colt lying on the ground, clutching his horn in agony.
Twilight was frozen in place. Sheer horror had taken over her and she couldn’t move a muscle. All she could do was look at Shining Armor as he laid there on the ground on the verge of consciousness.
“You’re still here, filly? Good. Round two, I guess,” Ace said viciously, advancing towards her. Twilight cowered in fear. The three bullies surrounded her again, their laughter filled with nothing but pure malice.
“You. Will. Not. Hurt. Her.” Shining Armor panted weakly. The grim determination in his voice made the bullies stop their laughing.
“And what are you going to do about it, huh?” Ace sneered contemptuously.
In response, Shining Armor’s horn began to weakly glow with magic. Ace laughed a little, but his laughter died as the spell grew stronger. The wind picked up all down the all but empty street, growing in power. Twilight looked up in awe at her big brother, whose eyes turned brilliant white with raw magic. Suddenly, there was an enormous explosion of magenta magic, sending the bullies flying down the street.
As the bullies picked themselves up and ran away in fright, Shining Armor collapsed to the ground. Twilight picked herself up and ran over to him.
“Big brother?” There was no response. She tried shaking him a little bit. “Big brother?” She pressed her ear to his chest.
She didn’t hear anything.
“Shiny?” Her lips began to tremble. “Shiny wake up. It’s me, Twilight. Your little sister. Come on Shiny, you’ve got to get up!” Still no response. She shook him as hard as she could. She pressed her ear to his chest again. Still nothing.
“SHINY!” she cried, tears starting to flow down her face again. She pounded on his chest again and again, hoping he would get up. He had to get up! He was her Big brother! He would always get up! He had to!
He had to.
“Please… please… get up Shiny.” She sobbed. “Shiny…”
Twilight pressed her ear to his chest one more time… and heard a very faint breath.
“Sh-shiny?” Shining Armor’s eyes opened a tiny bit.
“Hey there… sis.” He weakly whispered.
“SHINY!” Twilight tackled him in the biggest bear hug he had ever received, crying with sheer joy. “I thought I’d almost lost you, Shiny.”
“Wouldn’t… ever leave you Twi.” He smiled. Twilight smiled and hugged him tighter. Then she noticed something.
“Shiny! You got your cutie mark!”
“Really?” said Shining Armor, still too weak to move, “What is it?”
“A shield. It’s a shield with a star in it!”
He chuckled faintly. “How fitting.” He turned and looked up at Twilight. “Hey Twi?”
“Yes Shiny?”
“I love you.”
Twilight smiled. “I love you too, big brother. Now let’s get you home.”
