On a Stormy Knight, He came a Knock Knock Knocking
" TWILIGHT! Where did you put the tongs? I can't find them anywhere in here." The sound of a young wyrmling echoed out from the kitchen with practiced force and projection, it's sound carrying from the bottom floor of the hollowed out living tree it's owner and their companion called home.
" They Should be in the drawer with the other specialized serving utensils Spike, like they always are!" The reply carrying down, was belted out with practiced and carefully placed precision by it's unicorn speaker, so as to carry it to wyrmling below with surety.
Twilight Sparkle, Unicorn mare, Personal Student to Princess Celestia. Spike, Amethyst Dragon Wyrmling, adoptive son/brother to Twilight. These two unusual, though humble, beings find themselves shut in for the night within Ponyville's library, Rainbow Dash's speed being their saving grace, as without her warning, Twilight and Spike would've found themselves caught outside when the monsoon like storm broke earlier. Twilight looked on from her balcony window as the rain water came down in sheets practically, the occasional sudden wind, seeming to turn the world on it's side with it's force, dragging the rain sideways at a nearly sheer angle.
" This is a pretty nasty storm, We must've been lower on water than I thought this season." Twilight lit up her horn, a violet light floating just beyond the tip as she tried to peer out into the streets, but got little more than her reflection and a flash of lightning in the distance for her efforts. With a sigh she dispelled her light and moved to the stairs, eying the table on the bottom floor where Spike was setting up their dining spots with practiced ease.
Looking up from his work for a moment, Spike reached into his apron's pocket and withdrew a pair of salad tongs. " You were right Twi, they were in the drawer, I must've missed them the first time or something." Spike chuckled lightly as he moved back through the kitchen door to fetch their meal for the evening.
Twilight simply chuckled lightly and shook her head at the minor turn of events and walked over to one of the bookshelves, her eyes scanning their contents with practiced ease and precision as she sought what would be tonight's entertainment so to speak.
Her thought's concerning the pros and cons between fiction and historical where shattered as hinge rattling, thunderous knocks came from her front door, the suddenness of it causing Spike and Twilight to drop their tongs and books respectively as they stared at the door like it had suddenly sprouted a mouth and said something crass. It only took Spike a moment to shake off the surprise before warily approaching the front door, looking back at his sister to get the ok to open it. Hesitantly, Twilight nodded with a raised hoof motioning for him to go ahead.
It happened quickly, no sooner had the door swung open than a lightning bolt flew through the air into the library, connecting with the Startled unicorn across the room and tossing her bodily into the bookshelves behind her, the force of the impact sending a cascade of books down upon her as he groaned through the pain of the impact.
" Twilight! Oh no! " Spike, ever loyal, was already running over to unbury her, and with his back to the door he never saw what hit him as he was slammed into the wall with a force he'd only ever felt after being run over by the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The force of the blow dazed him, leaving his wobbling on his feet before a pair of hooves connected with him, sending him flying into a different book shelf, the collapse of books doing well to finish off his voyage to unconsciousness.
Twilight's dizziness was thick, and the weight of the books on her weren't helping any, but she was slowly coming to her senses, even as the sound of more falling books met her exposed ear. Blinking he wrenched control of her body into place and stood shakily from her literary bedding and peered carefully across the room to where Spike lay in a pile of books, his assailant advancing on him with resolute intent. A solidly built stallion of dark grey furr, and emerald eyes stalking towards her dragon friend. The finned and barbed armor of Luna's Night Guard not going unnoticed by her as she brought mana forth, channeling it into a basic blast before sending the beam of kinetic force flying towards the armored stallion. Her Shot missed.
Instead, the Stallion now stood low the floor several feet back, having leapt and rolled out of the way of the blast and was now facing Twilight, His serpentine eyes betraying nothing more that nearly tangible levels of resolution. He Stood only partially, pawing at the ground, the only sign of his intent. Twilight reciprocated, channeling enough mana into her horn to illuminate the area around her with a violet glow. In the moment of the stalemate, Twilight noted several peculiarities about her attacker. The cracked and chipped plating, the unshorn fetlocks hanging out of his boots. The number of ragged looking ribbons hanging off the back of his armor, even the absolutely threadbare saddlebags on his back. Further details escaped her attention as the aggressor stood suddenly in a swift motion, widening his stance as every window in the library burst their locks, the gales force winds outside making their way inside, books and parchment taking flight in the strong currents, Twilight's view obstructed by the sudden distraction. She couldn't hope to keep track of her assailant in this flurry, and released a pulse of magic to clear the air around her... in time to see a pair of hooves connect with her face.
He watched as the Element of Magic fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes, the winds within the building dying down as he calmly and methodically stalked through the library, shutting windows and drawing curtains as he went, occasionally staring out into the streets with an unreadable expression. He shut the door, barring it firmly against those that would be prone to barging in. His securing of the building complete, he set about clearing off the table. a simple enough task, using a foreleg to simply swipe it's contents over and off the edge with a clatter and the breaking of glass.
His work was far from complete, but he was thankful he came prepared for the next few steps. Dropping his saddlebags to the floor he pulled out a trio of scrolls and set them on the table, a small wooden box that was iron shod and padlocked shut, and a small pull string bag. Eyeing the bag first, he nodded once and took it over to Twilight Sparkle, carefully hoofing the bag open he pulled out a small mound of powder before carefully blowing it into her face, making sure to get some up her snout and across her eyes before nodding to himself, crossing off another task on his mental check list as he turned back an moved towards the sleeping Spike.
A half hour later, and Spike was waking to a series of light smacks across the face from a rather rough hoof. " ugh... Twi, stop slappin' me, I'm up I'm up eesh." He stretched and let out a short yawn before the hoof came across his face again, the shock of it snapping him to full alert as he whipped his head back to face his waker, and met harsh green slits instead of the soft lavender of his motherly companion. " GYAH!" He tried to back up, but found himself pressed to the back of the chair already, a thin rope tying him in place, keeping him from wiggling away as the Stallion infront of him grabbed his face with his hooves.
"I'm only going to say this once Spike, listen carefully. I'm going to untie you, and you are going to send those scrolls on the table to the princesses of this land. You are NOT going to ask questions, you aren't going to stall for time. Do any of those things other than send the letters, and I will start cutting off pieces of Ms. Sparkle. It's quite simple. Do as I say, and nothing else happens. Try anything other than I have said, and off comes her ear, then her other ear, and so on and so forth until I have to beat the dragon fire out of you. Do I make myself clear?"
Spike could only stare in horror, transfixed and terrified of the Stallions calm and casual way of speaking as he made his demands and threats, tears welling up in his eyes at the mention of him cutting parts off of Twilight. Without much of a second though Spike nodded quickly, eager to secure his best friend's safety as quickly as he could. Even with those noble thoughts of saving Twilight in mind, he couldn't help but flinch as the stallion reached under a plate by his shoulder and pulled out a rather large looking knife in his mouth before using it to cut Spike's ropes and moving over to sit next to Twilight's unconscious form, the blade lowered and pressed against the base of one of her ears, a clear indicator that he intended to make good on his threat.
It was with speed to shame Rainbow Dash, that spike clambered up onto the table, crawling over tot eh scrolls and inhaling deeply before spewing flames across teh scrolls. The emerald flames actually searing the wood beneath as the mystical ashes flew out with such force that they bore a hole through a window before Spike could reach it to open it. Blinking once at the display of delivery speed and force, he turned uneasily back to the stallion and Twilight, and let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding as he saw the knife laying on the floor, Twilight unharmed. The Stallion in question was already moving calmly up the stairs to the upper floors
" Why did you do this!?" Spike screamed at the Stallion, the fact that it was him yelling at him was lost on the confused and distraught child.
The Stallion, halting mid stride in the middle of the stares, turned to look down upon the wyrmling, a million different thoughts and memories playing behind those eyes for the briefest of moments. " Because we are out of Time Spike. I can't wait anymore." The Stallion turned and finished his assent, moving to the balcony window to watch the storm play out as he awaited the inevitably quick reply to his missives. He could only wonder just how that would play out.
Dear Ruler of Equestria,
I have Twilight Sparkle.
Your world is weak.
Prepare for War.
Fetcher Ghoul
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