An Ordinary Night in Canterlot
1 Year before the wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadance...
Canterlot at night rarely saw trouble. The capital of Equestria usually found peace under the cloudless sky and inside the city’s walls. The regular patrols by the Royal Guard and generally positive demeanor of its residents contributed to that, and Shining Armor fit well into both categories. The young stallion had his spirits high and spear held pointed to the sky, standing guard on Canterlot’s Restaurant Row as the assorted businesses closed up and crew headed home for the night. His role as First Lieutenant usually meant he was performing guard duty with a small squad, but with the looming weekend and several hours’ worth of absolutely nothing happening today, he had dismissed the rest of his squad to enjoy their weekend a little early.
Shining Armor closed his eyes and sighed contently. It was too rare to have nights as calm as this.
A bloodcurdling scream perforated this serene calm.
Shining Armor nearly jumped out of his coat. Adrenaline shocked his system for a half second, but years of guard training spurred him into action. Spear transferred from hoof to magic as he galloped towards the source of the scream, which had sounded just down the street.
Screams of such shrill horror rarely were heard around Canterlot. His racing mind briefly recalled past engagements of fire rescue, earthquake drills, and stopping an attempted foalnapping. Even though he had saved lives in those moments, the screams of absolute terror ponies were capable of…they kept him up at night.
Restaurants zipped past him in a blur as the young guard sped towards the source of the scream, only stopping when he made it to a remote alleyway at the edge of Restaurant Row. He frantically looked left and right, before hearing a soft sobbing coming from the alleyway. Squinting and turning on a light spell, Shining Armor made out what appeared to be a shadow of a small pony form.
He smiled and collected himself; being calm but strong was key to dealing with scared foals. He slowly walked towards the sobbing form, subtly collecting his breath from the sprint he just ran.
“I’m Shining Armor of the Royal Guard,” he said aloud to the form, straining his eyes to try and discern more of her features. “Are you okay? I can take you home.”
The foal’s quiet sobbing continued, seemingly not hearing what he was saying. Even with the light of his horn, he could not make out any of her details. He stepped closer.
“It’s okay, I won’t hurt y-“
A wet glob of drool splattered on Shining Armor’s back.
His blood ran cold. His light spell vanished.
He barely had time to look up before hearing a deafening SCREECH, followed by large shiny, pointed teeth rapidly descending towards him.
The teeth collided against the shield with a sharp sound, mouth twitching in an attempt to grapple him regardless. Shining Armor exhaled a breath he didn’t know he was holding and shoved back against the horrible writhing weight on top of him, rolling them off of his shield. The unknown creature hissed as it rolled, landing on the ground with a heavy thump. Even with his light spell, all Shining Armor could see was the lens of the creature’s eyes and those horribly sharp teeth. If he didn’t cast his shield reflexively, they easily would have impaled him like a stake.
The young guard aimed his spear towards the threat, heart pounding in his ears, his eyes staring unblinking at the creature. He could barely hear the creature breathing, let alone moving. He took an experimental sidestep to his right; the creature slid soundlessly to stay aligned with him. He knew that if he took his eyes off this creature for but a moment, he would certainly be dead.
Shining Armor tried to keep both his breath and weapon steady; either he or the creature could strike any moment. His guard training made it crystal clear: the combatant who got the upper hoof first usually was the winner. He took a few steps back, giving him some clearance for his spear, now aimed forward and directly at the creature.
Teeth flew in a hissing rage towards him, with barely enough time for him to throw up his shield. He intercepted the attack straight on, then rolled his shield to his left to redirect the creature’s momentum. Its huge head thumped and slid across the ground, the rest of its body following with it. Seeing the creature’s body exposed, Shining Armor aimed his spear.
The creature’s serpentine tail sweeped under the young guard, striking his legs. He gasped in pain as he crumpled onto his barrel, the spear shooting out of his grip and rolling deep into the darkness of the alleyway.
He heard a slight shift in movement, and tilted his head up.
All he saw were those sharp white teeth, and a mouth wide open that was prepared to swallow him whole.
It was the hiss right before the strike that spurred Shining Armor to cast yet another shield. This time, he cast a small buckler right in the creature’s mouth, wedging it open. The creature hissed and made a muffled screech as it angrily attempted to clamp down on the shield. Shining Armor used all of his magical strength to keep the shield up, while also pressing his right forehoof against the creature’s snout, futilely attempted to keep that maw away from him.
The creature thrust forward, shoving Shining Armor backwards and into the alleyway side wall. That maw was mere inches away from his face, convulsing and using all of its strength to break his shield and pierce its caster with its teeth.
He shivered. Those horrible teeth, that could pierce his armor, and sink through his body like it were tissue paper. That’s not how he wanted to die, impaled and consumed to never be seen again-
Shining Armor’s eye went wide as an idea struck him. It was probably his best shot at living through this, after all.
Still holding the shield spell, he eyed over the creature’s left tooth, trying to see where it connected to the roof of its mouth. He cast a small telekinetic spell to feel for it near the top, until he found what felt like the thinnest part of that tooth. Shining Armor tugged and pulled with all the energy.
His assailant's eyes widened from confusion at what his prey was doing, with the lens of its eyes tightening in panic at realization. But it was too late.
Shining Armor gave one last pull, followed by a very fleshy ripping sound.
The tooth came free, now held in the young guard’s telekinetic grip.
The creature screeched in abject suffering, blood seeping from where the tooth once was attached. It had backed off a few feet away, trying to rally itself for a counterattack.
It was too late for it.
Shining Armor aimed the tooth straight towards the creature, and lept towards it, screaming inequinely and ramming it forward.
It struck home, sinking deep into the creature’s right eyeball. Molten hot red blood spurt from the initial strike, caking Shining Armor’s face and neck with copious blood spatter. He held on for dear life as the creature desperately writhed and twisted in an attempt to shake his prey off, blood seeping and sent flying all across the alleyway floor in their struggle.
Shining Armor didn’t know how long he was holding onto the tooth and gripping the creature, how long it tried to fight him off and desperately bite him. It could have been seconds, minutes, even a year. Eventually, he looked down and realized that he was standing on the creature’s face, said face laying on the ground with a frozen expression of shock. Blood pooled under the eye he struck, flowing out from underneath the creature’s corpse.
Shining Armor took deep breaths, then promptly fell on his hindquarters as the adrenaline finally wore off. For several minutes he sat staring at the creature, barely able to think beyond taking in what just happened. While he rallied himself, he finally took in what his predator actually was.
The creature appeared to be a giant snake. It had green scales with a black underbelly, and yellow eyes. If it could stand up and reach its full height again, he mused that it would be able to see Princess Celestia eye-to-eye. Its tail was as thick as one of his forelegs; no wonder it swept him off his hooves so easily.
Shining Armor was about to get up and leave when he got struck by a realization.
The foal!
The whole reason he came here.
Gathering his strength, he stood up and unsteadily trotted to the end of the alleyway. He did not yet have the energy to call out to the foal yet.
He finally reached the end of the alleyway, and recast his light spell. What awaited him at the end of the alleyway was a strange sight.
A blue stuffed toy was sitting on top of a crate. It appeared to be in the shape of a pony, just made out of plush. Even stranger, said toy was leaning against a small gramophone that had long stopped spinning.
Shining Armor raised an eyebrow. Who had done this? Out of curiosity, he rotated the crank, aligned the turntable, and put the needle to the disc.
A horrifying scream bellowed from the sound horn, making him recoil backwards. Was this a prank?
After a few moments, a deluge of cold dread soaked Shining Armor, making him shiver.
This sounded just like the scream he heard earlier. The one that made him rush here in the first place.
After a few moments, the sound of a foal sobbing emitted from the horn.
Shining Armor knew he was not as clever as his younger sister. He often got stumped on puzzles she could solve in her sleep, and had asked her to explain certain things that occasionally went over his head.
He knew that he would not need his sister to explain the meaning of all of this, however. The combination of the creature lying in wait, and this recording that brought him here, pointed to one obvious conclusion.
This had been a trap.
Shining Armor had no idea why somepony would want to do this. Even worse, this trap did not seem targeted; anypony would respond to what sounded like a foal in distress, and most likely would have become snake food.
He knew he needed to get out of here and report to the Captain ASAP. Hopefully, they could get the Royal Guard on high alert against any other predators lurking in the shadows in Canterlot.
Author's Note
Thank you for reading!
It's been a fair while since I submitted something here. I recently joined a writing group in order to chip away at my writer's block, and so far it's helping a lot.
This story is an exercise in writing an action scene that:
1) Was not confusing to follow
2) Gave the same sorts of feelings one would have watching an action movie
I used Kill Bill as my reference while writing this, which is a great movie and I recommend it a lot.
