Chapter 22

Colt in Shining Armor

Pinkie Pie, Concerto and Rarity entered the Hobby Horse and were met with a sorry sight; Roller was sporting a black eye and picking up the pieces to a game of Horses and Heroes while muttering something under his breath. X was at the counter with a small figurine in front of her, trying to paint it while holding the brush in her mouth when she noticed them.

"Hello, Rarity," X greeted them as she put her brush down, "So, you've introduced Concerto to someone have you? That's lovely! Saves me a lot of work," her attention then turned to the pink pony she hadn't met before, "Hi there. What's your name?"

Pinkie darted up to the pegasus and a series of sounds that could have been words erupted from her mouth at a rapid pace. She continued making these noises for almost a minute until Rarity spoke up, "Pinkie, mind your manners. Have you been eating chocolate-covered coffee beans again?"

"Yep!" Pinkie answered, "You should really try them sometime. I had like, six before getting off work today."

"Six beans?" Roller asked from his seat at the table.

"Six BAGS!" Pinkie cheered.

Roller put down his game pieces and asked, "Um, is that safe? I mean, that much caffeine really can't..."

Pinkie cut him off with a wide-eyed stare and a cry of, "I CAN SEE FOREVER!" followed by a hushed statement, "There is no fourth wall."

Concerto looked to Rarity and asked, "Is she always like this?" with a voice full of fear and concern.

"She's usually not this hyper, but she also doesn't gorge herself on coffee beans either," Rarity answered before letting out a sigh, "Ah well. It'll wear off eventually."

Pinkie looked at the pieces on the table and then back to Roller. He could barely understand her with how fast she was speaking, but he could understand, "Were you playing H and H just now? Can I play? Can I? Can I? Huh? Please? I promise not to..." and then the sounds all blended into another long strand of ceaseless noise.

Roller looked at the door of his shop, then back to Pinkie, then grumbled and told her, "If I set the board back up then you have to stop leaving your hoof prints on the fourth wall. Got it?"

In a flash, Pinkie, Rarity and Concerto were all sitting around the table and a board was set up before them. Their character sheets were present as were several sets of dice and pencils. Pinkie smiled and said...

"Got it! Can we start now?"

Lady Styles and Pin Kay wandered the halls of a grand palace. The walls were richly decorated with paintings, drapes of red silk hung from the windows and chandeliers lit their way. Guards stood at every corner and every door, eying the two ponies as they walked and occasionally straightening their stance when they got too close to certain doors. The smell of cooking vegetables wafted through the air.

"Mmmmm," Pin Kay licked her chops, "Who's cooking? Do you think dinner is almost ready?"

Styles replied just above a whisper, "I'm not sure we should stick around for supper. Something about our host's sudden hospitality doesn't seem right."

As they turned another corner, a stallion in plate armor stepped in front of them. His coat was auburn and his tail was pure white. His voice seemed to echo inside his helmet as he told them, "Lady Styles, Lady Kay, the lord of the castle wishes for your presence in the dining room."

Styles shuffled her hooves nervously. "We're not hungry," she said while taking a step back, "I'm afraid that you'll have to tell the lord that he'll be dining without us."

The stallion lowered his head enough to peer directly into Style's eyes. "This was not a request," he told her in a low voice, "This was an order."

The look in the knight's hazel eyes didn't seem right. It didn't match the malice in his voice at all, instead seeming kind and sorrowful. It was almost as if he were sorry for something, but she couldn't tell what.

Pin Kay shook the thief from her thoughts, "Well, you heard the guy. Free food!"

"R-right," Styles replied as the stallion turned and started leading them down another corridor. As they walked, the smells became stronger. Soon, the group came to a pair of double doors that seemed to open on their own as they approached.

The room before them had a high ceiling and a large table in the center with many chairs surrounding it. At the head of the table was the mysterious, robed figure that had captured them. Their host and captor greeted them, "So nice that you could make it, Lady Styles and Lady Kay. I did miss the pleasure of your company. Come in! Have a seat."

The thief and the bard did just that as the armored stallion took his place at their captor's side. The robed pony continued talking, "I'm so sorry that we had to meet on such bad circumstances. Why, I don't think we even got a chance to properly introduce ourselves. Of course, I already know who you are. You are probably curious as to my identity though. Right?"

Lady Styles turned up her nose and scoffed, "I try not to associate with ruffians. After all, a mare has to keep up appearances."

Pin Kay tried to copy her friend, "Yeah. Ruffians," but after a moment of quiet, she asked, "What's a ruffian?"

Their captor tapped on the table a few times and a bowl of soup appeared before either of his dinner guests with a puff of black smoke. He smiled as he told them, "You should really eat something after that little mishap in the tunnels. You're probably starving."

Styles pushed the bowl away. Peering down her nose of the wizard, she said, "I'm afraid not. You can simply give my food to the dogs instead."

Pin Kay did not follow the thief's example, her face already half-covered in foodstuff by the time Styles had noticed her odd silence. "Pst!" She whispered, "Pin! Stop eating!"

"What?" Pin looked up from her dish with a confused look, "It's good!"

The robed pony started talking again, "My chefs prepared this dish fresh for you, my dear ladies. They've been slaving away all morning on it. It would be a shame if it went to waste as rations for the guards."

Styles shook her head. Her voice was heavy with disdain, "Listen... whatever it is your name is, I'm on to you. You captured countless ponies in those mines, made my friends into your prisoners and for some reason or another had yourself blindfolded when you picked out those drapes. Ugh! So tacky."

"I assume that you're getting to a point, my lady," the robed figure's voice chilled her to the bone from across the table, "If so, now is a good time to make it."

Style's cheeks turned red with anger as she spat, "You're absolutely horrid! Who do even you think you are?"

He smiled wickedly as he answered, "So sorry that I've failed to introduce myself. My name is Faust. You would do very well to remember it as it is the name of Equestraland's future king."

"Ha!" Lady Styles mocked him, "I don't suppose you keep up with current events, but we already have a ruler. Queen Solaria and her court are doing very well without you, Mr. Faust."

Faust's smile vanished and his voice boomed, "LORD Faust! Not Mister! LORD! Soon to be King and your queen has little say in the matter."

"Didn't your mother teach you not to raise your voice at the table?" Styles asked rhetorically, "Come, Pin Kay. We're leaving."

Styles began walking out the door, but soon realized that her friend was not following. "Pin?" her voice shook as she turned back around and she saw the bard sitting perfectly still, soup still dripping from her chin. "Pin, are you alright?" She asked.

The bard didn't respond to her friend's voice or her approach or her gentle nudge in the side. Pin Kay was completely motionless and the only voice in the chamber was Faust's low, menacing chuckle. "What did you do?" Style's yelled to her captor as her horn began to glow and the silverware on the table rose up next to her and pointed at him.

"Me?" he replied, "I didn't do anything. Your friend on the other hand was foolish enough to eat Lotus Soup. Assuming that you've studied alchemy, you know that it puts ponies in a dream-like state and makes them very susceptible to verbal commands," he then ordered, "Pin Kay, sing for me."

Styles was about to charge Faust, but then she heard a few notes of a familiar song come from behind her. Pin Kay was singing, "Dancing bears, painted wings" Styles turned around and looked on in horror as her friend sang in controlled, mechanical pitches, "Things I almost remember."

"Pin?" Style's was at a loss for words after her friend's name. The thief didn't even notice as the armored stallion trotted up behind her. Pin Kay continued to sing, "and a song someone sings, once upon a December."

Faust's low chuckle turned into outright maniacal laughter as he saw Style's nearly reduced to sobbing at the site of her friend's fate. Pin Kay's lyrics went on uninterrupted by the thief's silent tears, "someone holds me safe and warm. Horses prance through a silver storm."

Suddenly, a deeper voice joined the song. The armored stallion started singing along, "Figures dancing gracefully across my memory."

Faust's laughter stopped and her glared at the knight. "I didn't order you to sing!" He scolded, "Get back over here!"

The stallion shook his head, as if just waking up from a nightmare. "No, M'lord," he stated, "I don't believe I will."

The robed pony's jaw dropped and he managed to say, "Uh-Oh," just before the armored stallion kicked one of the chairs by the table at him. The furniture smashed against a blue bubble that suddenly appeared around the magic-user and the knight ordered Styles, "Run!"

The thief and her new friend bolted from the room and darted down the twisting halls of the palace, dodging the guards' claws and spears as they did so. Eventually, they made it to the front gates and could see the draw bridge being raised.

"Wait!" cried Styles as she stopped in her tracks, "We can't leave without Pin!"

The knight shook his head and told her, "No choice. Sorry, but if we're leaving then we're leaving now. I promise that we'll rescue her later."

"What about my other friends?" Styles was clearly panicking.

"Leave them!" the knight gave another order, "What's important now is getting out with our own lives and free will. We'll come back later."

Styles looked back at the palace before nodding and following her knight in shining armor to the drawbridge, leaping over the gap between its edge and dry land on the other side. The two kept running along the road with the howls of Diamond Dogs growing more faint as they went. Eventually, they were alone a small town could be seen on the horizon.

"Well, that was clo..." the knight started to speak, but Styles struck the side his helmet with one of her front hooves. She screamed at him between tears or anger and sorrow, "Why couldn't we do that before Pin ate the soup! Where was all this derring-do back in the hallway?"

The knight blushed and apologized, "I'm sorry, dear lady. My mind was not my own until I heard the bard's song. Allow me to at least introduce myself; I am Sir Beopony, Hero of Equestraland."

"B-Beopony?" Styles stuttered, "Great hero you turned out to be! Three of my friends, maybe even more are still locked in there! I'm just a thief and not very good in a fight, but you're a knight in shining armor! What's you're excuse for not trying to save them?"

"Lady Styles," Beopony replied, "We will rescue them. Why, I bet my friends are working on it right now and just waiting for me to lead the charge."

The two started walking down the road towards the town, passing farmland as they did so. The thief warned Beoppony, "You'd better be right. For Pin's sake."

A/N: The song is Once Upon a December from the animated movie Anastasia. See you next week.