The Healer, The Thief, and the Painter. Act 1 The Healer

“Aurora!”the smaller unicorn yelled and galloped to the pile of books that held Aurora. She reached him just as his head breached the leather bound novels. He had one of them impaled on his horn in a comical fashion. I would of laughed if the female unicorn hadn’t turned stiffly and focused her eyes on me. They blazed with an untold fury, and the tip of her horn erupted with a small sphere of light. It was purely white and I could feel heat emanating it like a miniature star

.“Twi…don’t…” Aurora said weakly, “we need him alive. What would Celestia do?”She breathed out slowly and the small star diminished and changed until it was topaz yellow and crackled with electricity. “Twilight!” he cried.

“Only a stunning spell…” she spoke calmly, “not even close to being lethal.” My eyes raced around the room looking for a route freedom. My sight finally rested on a door about a yard and a half away from me. It was a deep purple with what looked like vines carved into the wood. Twilight saw the door and growled, “Try it, I dare you…” I did the only thing anyone else would have done if they had an infuriated mythological creature pointing a stunning star at them. I ran.

I nearly made it to the door. But nearly, as my father used to say, nearly doesn't win you shit in the real world. As I reached out for the handle of the door, the stunning spell impacted my right arm and within a heartbeat my arm fell limp at my side. I shifted my newly acquired spear into my right armpit and wrenched at the handle with my left hand. The door opened and a warm breeze flowed into the library.

“Go!” Allumere practically screamed in my head. I didn’t have to be told twice. I burst out of the doorway and sprinted/hobbled as fast as I could across the cobblestones. I never looked back, but I heard a scream of frustration emanate from the library. I moved the spear into my left hand and tried to will its partner to move. All I could get from the arm was a mild twitch.

“Dodge left!”Allumere warned. I sidestepped and felt my hairs rise on my back and the heat of another spell speed by. I turned and saw Twilight looking at me with pure hatred and horn alight. Dear Christ, she really did want to kill me! I then noticed something in that moment of terror. The library was a tree, an old oak tree with knotted bark and leaves that were in the middle of their spring splendor. I then said something very, very stupid.“Well, I guess I’d better leaf then...” I tried to say without giggling manically.

“Really?” Allumere huffed, “Puns at this time of danger?”

“Hey,” the guy with the bad sense of humor runs the show, not you.” I said as I turned. And immediately stopped in my tracks and stared… as about fifty pairs of eyes stared right back at me.

Their owners were also ponies from the ones like Blade with wings, to the ones like Aurora and Twilight with horns. Some didn’t even have either of these extremities and looked like any other horse that I would have treated any day in Yorkshire, except for the fact that they were incredibly smaller, and I don’t think that I have met any horse with a blue coat like freshly poured water. They had formed an untidy half circle around a pegasus mare that was lying on her side on the uneven cobblestones. Her coat was ash grey, and her mane was butter yellow. It appeared that she was hit by the spell that I had just dodged because there were little arcs of yellow lightning coming off of her one outstretched wing.

“Sorry Derpy!”Twilight yelled, “This time I won’t miss.” and I could hear the crackling of another spell behind me. I then ran through the crowd of ponies, keeping my spear aloft as to not impale any of their small forms. They were still shocked about Twilight’s spell and made little resistance against me. I didn’t feel or hear any more stunning spells aiming towards me as I kept running and assumed that it was because Twilight didn’t want to hurt any more innocents. My limp arm flopped uselessly behind me as I kept limping quickly through the alleyway between two lines of small houses with straw roofs and beech wood walls.

The shade kept the early afternoon sun off of the back of my neck but did not provide much cover. I could hear small protests from behind me as Twilight apparently tried to worm her way through the crowd. I was more worried about Aurora following her, based on his uniform and calm dialogue in the time of an emergency he appeared to be military. This meant that he probably had more training in magic and specialized in long weapons like the spear in my hand. The alleyway abruptly ended and I flung myself into what appeared to be an open-air market. More ponies trotted by the stands and dealt out piles of gleaming gold coins. About twenty of these ponies stared at me as I kept limping quickly. “Stop him!” I heard Aurora cry out behind me. “Damn he recovers fast.” I muttered to myself and didn’t look back.

The ponies who weren’t shocked at my arrival reached out with their hooves to grab my scrubs, but hooves weren’t the best things to grab fabric with and I escaped them without much effort. “Look up!” Allumere stated quickly, and as I did a tower of ivory with a cap of pure gold caught my eye.

“Good defensible position,” I said, my military side kicking in, “one way in and one way out.”

“Yes,” Allumere stated, “now go!” I started jogging, which left my leg crying out in terror and left the creatures leading a futile attempt to capture me.