//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Knight in Smoking Armor // by Mocha Jon //------------------------------// On a dark night in Equestria, six hooded young ponies were having a small adventure in the woods and brought along with them sets of candles, chalk, crystals, and a book. Upon removing their hoods, the ponies were revealed to be Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and Pip Squeak. The CMC decided to have a small sleepover in their treehouse to celebrate getting their cutie marks and help mend any fences faced against their new friends after the school election. “Alright guys, this book says we can only do this on a full moon’s night for it to work.” Diamond said as she signaled Pip Squeak to begin as he started drawing a circle in the dirt. “By the way, how do you have this book anyway? Seems a little strange for you.” Apple Bloom asked as she formed the crystals into a triangle pattern and drew a triangle connecting them. Silver Spoon rolled her eyes, “We bought it after we found out what’s fun at slumber parties, everypony says talking to the dead is a must, why, are you afraid?” She asked as she scowled at her. Diamond bumped Silver on the shoulder and gave her a look of disappointment, “Hey, remember, we’re trying to be nice to these girls now, no more insults okay?” Silver responded with a disgruntled sigh. “Besides, I’ve always wanted to do this, hearing all those spirits make a bunch of growls and howls as they possess one of our bodies and make all the stuff fly around the place!” Scootaloo said as she began to place the candles in between the crystals, drawing another circle between them forming a hexagram in the circle. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked a little nervous about starting this, they themselves don’t have a lot of experience with dark magic, but worked hard to convince themselves that it wa just a simple sleepover game. Sweetie used her horn to light the candles and the six sat in between the candles and crystals, “I really hope nothing bad happens with this…” Apple said to herself. “It’s fine Apple Bloom, I’ve done this with my friends a dozen times.” Pip said as Diamond began reading from her book. “Okay… On darkest days, and lightest nights…” She began as she passed her book to Silver. “Those of horror, those of terror, those of frights…” She them passed it to Pip. “Whether you have gone down or you’ve seen the lights…” He passed it to Scootaloo. “The past doings of wrongs and rights…” She them passed it to Sweetie Belle, who was shivering a little. “Your soul was tortured and you were vanquished of might…” She said as she passed it to an equally reluctant Apple Bloom. “Return from the grave and present yourself in sight!” She said as she lightly tossed the book into the center of the hexagram, which began to glow mildly, making Apple cover her eyes. As the hexagram began to glow, the candles began to burn brighter as more smoke was beginning to come from them. The six kids all looked around, this time all of them seemed a little nervous about what was to happen. They all looked around but could not see anypony rising from the ground and assumed the process was still happening. When they all reached their arms out and locked hands, they closed their eyes hoping that the unity would help activate the spell, however, whenever they opened their eyes, they found the hexagram stopped glowing and the candles had lost all their flames and left nothing but leftover smoke on them. “That’s it? Where are the ghouls and spirits? I wanted to see one of us get possessed and start floating with glowing eyes!” Scootaloo said as she kicked the dirt. “Where did you say you got that book again?” Sweetie Belle asked as she nervously picked up the book. “It was one of those independent stores that had no lights in it that said they sold cursed items, totally ripped us off!” Silver responded. “Whatever, let’s just head back to the treehouse, we could do something fun like play spin the bottle…!” Pip Squeak said as he began to walk away. “NO!” All the girls said as they began to follow him, leaving the tantric items where they were. After all the children had left, the wind began to pick up and the smoke coming from the candles began to condense in the middle of the hexagram as the circle itself began to grow a layer of small black crystals… ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the train station in the Crystal Empire, Princess Twilight and Spike were seen walking off the train and looking around, Spike himself seeming a little eager to return as he knew the Empire would ravish in his return. “You know, it’s great that you’re visiting Cadence again, but five bits says something will go wrong.” Spike said as he sat on Twilight’s luggage like a chair as she lifted it with her horn. Twilight looked back, annoyed at that comment, “First, do you even have five bits? I saw you spend a lot of money on those gems you were eating on the train. And second, why do you say that? You never seem that cynical.” Twilight responded as she saw a white hoof waving in the background. “I’m just saying, weird stuff happens every time we come here…” He said as Twilight got accosted by her brother and hugged in a cartoonish fashion, making her a little out of breath. When she was hugged she forgot she was using her horn and Spike fell off the luggage… “Wow… Ow...” When Shining Armor let go of his sister, he looked at her and apologized as he saw she was out of breath, “Oh… Sorry, I guess I don’t know my own strength…” He said as he blushed and scratched the back of his mane… “Well it’s still great to see you again!” As Twilight caught wind again and shook off, she responded with similar eagerness, “It’s great to see you too! It’s so nice to finally get to see you without needing to fight off some magical beast for once!” She jokingly said as she looked at Spike with a tone of sarcasm, then looked around again, “Where’s Cadence?” She asked. Shining Armor winced an eye at her asking that so soon, “She’s back at the palace, she has a habit of sleeping late on weekends, she should be there when we get there.” When Spike got back to his feet, he started leading the way, “Alright let’s go then! I want to get there before an evil grizzly bear shows up and uses his claws to send everypony here to another dimension or something.” Twilight and Shining Armor shrugged their shoulders and followed him. “Everything alright with him?” Shining asked. “Oh he just thinks something bad will happen that will happen during our visit, don’t worry, it’s just a little paranoia.” Twilight responded. Shining chuckled, “Heck knowing our track record I’d bet five bits something does happen to us.” Spike turned around and gave a thumbs up to Shining, “See this is why I love your brother Twy.” He said until he accidentally bumped into a Crystal Pony. The mare pegasus broke into shrieking as she saw Spike and Twilight, “Oh My Gosh! Princess Twilight and Spike! Oh My Gosh! Oh My Gosh!!! You two are my heroes!!!” She said as she formed a girly pose. Twilight smiled as she waved at the mare, “Well it’s great to hear that! I love seeing everypony I can, we’re visiting for a few days, maybe we’ll get a chance to hang out.” “Yeah, Twy made me plan three hours out of each day for miscellaneous time in case she gets impulsive…” Spike added. “Oh My Gosh! I would LOVE that! I live near the bakery, look me up!” She said as she walked past Twilight and Spike, but then noticed Shining Armor was behind them, and she broke her excited tone and just gave him a dark scowl and a small huff that Spike and Twilight didn’t notice. “Uh… Let’s just head to the palace now…” Shining said as the mare left, clearly not happy to see him.