//------------------------------// // 1. The Knight - Part 1 // Story: The Legend of Friendship - Outcasts // by Danieru //------------------------------// Five inhabitants of Equestria that lived completely different lives decided to group up and swore to abandon this world. Now they plan to create a new one to archive what they longed for so long... Happiness... But what could have led to that decision? Why would they consider to go so far? Will they succeed? Some of those questions might be answered in this story... Canterlot castle... A bunch of Royal Guards were sprinting around the castle for a good while now. All of them were heavily exhausted due to the already warm weather and the fact that they had to wear their armors while running around. Two members of the guards walked close to each other trying to talk to each other without their captain finding out, slowing down their speed in the process. “Can you believe that the captain made us run one hundred laps around the castle?” One Royal Guard member said while breathing heavily in the process. “I know, right?” The other guard replied. “He could at least have us take our armors of! I'm sweating like crazy!” “I guess it will be another one of those days where I instantly throw myself into my bed, once my shift is over,” “Tell me about it...” The two guards continued to complain while running their laps. But unfortunately, somepony overheard their little discussion. Somepony who was not supposed to hear their little talk. “You know, you could finish your laps much faster if you would concentrate on running instead of talking!” The two guards widened their eyes and began to rapidly increase their speed, once they began to hear this voice. The pony who heard them sounded very strict but once he saw his guards running again, he was quiet again and continued to observe the guards. “Honestly. There is always somepony who complains about some little training. Don't they realize that I am putting them through all of this so that they become proper Royal Guards?” The big stallion said rather disappointing before he focused on the guards again. It was a big Unicorn stallion with a light blue coat and purple eyes, wearing a body armor and a helmet which was hiding his mane. Instead of the yellow armor that every other guard wore, his armor was purple which only could be worn by the captain of the Royal Guards. And that's exactly what he was. The captain of the Royal Guards. His name: Fade Sol. Under some, he is often described as a mean and strict leader but those who were Guards for a longer time now deeply respected him. Not everypony is capable to become captain after all and Fade took his job pretty seriously, putting it above almost everything else in Equestria. Some would even go so far to say that he was married to his job which was indeed not too far away from the future. When he was training his guards, he expected no less from them as well. So of course, he was a little annoyed seeing two of his soldiers not taking their training seriously. But that didn't mean that he wasn't showing sympathy for them. Fade was by no means bitter or mean towards another ponies which was another reason why he was liked by the veteran guards. But when it comes to serving Equestria, those things can be a little overshadowed. While keeping a close look on his guards, Fade was approached by somepony. “I'm done!” The pony said next to Fade which turned out to come from one of his guards who was breathing heavily as he stood in front of his captain. “So soon again?” Fade replied surprised. “I didn't expect anypony to finish one hundred laps in the next five minutes,” he added a little surprised. “I may have giving it my very all from the very beginning...” the guard replied which probably should have sounded like an apology but that only made it sound more impressing. “Yes, I remember how you dashed out of the starting line at the beginning, as usual, Shining Armor,” “Yes, sir!” Shining Armor replied, accompanied by a salute, raising his head for the first time to face Fade. Though Fade was impressed by how much energy Shining Armor was putting into his training, he still had to remind him the purpose of it. “I'm glad that you take your training so serious, but running until you can barely breath might not be too smart either. There was no time limit for this. I mean, if I ever get to meet your family, then they will probably think that I am the one who makes you go all out and think that I am the bad guy,” Shining Armor understood but he wanted Fade to understand how important this training was for him. “I know! It's just that I can't afford to take it slow! Becoming a member of the Royal Guard was always my dream...and now that I am one, I can't just stop until I arrive at my next goal!” He explained while seeming to look into the distance while talking about this. “And that is?” Fade asked, having to admit that he now got a little curious. With a sparkle in his eyes, Shining Armor replied happily. “Becoming the captain of the Royal Guards!” There was a short silence between the two until Fade spoke up again. “Captain?” Fade replied surprised. He took a moment to take those words in and looked at the expression on Shining Armor's face. He could tell that he was one hundred percent serious about that. This caused Fade's serious expression to change into a smile. “So...you are trying to take away my job?” Shining Armor's eyes widened. “Oh! Uh...I didn't mean to...” His salute began to crumble and he became nervous once he realized that he just said that he wanted to become a captain in front of the captain. Fade began to laugh after he saw Shining Armor nervous like that. He put a leg on his shoulder and assured him that it was alright to have high dreams like that but he also reminded him that he is not easily giving Shining Armor his job that easily. “I won't lie. Determination and hard work are necessary, that is true but something is even more important than that to end up as the Captain of the Royal Guard,” “And that is?” Shining Armor asked, wanting to hear what that was really bad. However, before Fade could give an answer, somepony came running up to him and Shining Armor, saying Fade's name to get his attention. It was another Royal Guard member who was catching his breath once he was standing in front of his captain. Fade waited for the pony to calm down again and listened what he wanted from him. “Princess Celestia wants to speak with you,” the pony said once he could breathe again while saluting to his captain. Fade didn't feel like asking away what exactly that was about and attempted to walk away to meet the Princess. Shining Armor saluted again, once Fade walked away to talk with the Princess. He stopped in his track, however, and decided to say some last words to Shining Armor. “The need to protect...” he said without turning around to look at Shining Armor who was paying close attention to Fade's words. “Being strong, fast or determined. Having all those things are good but...” he stopped for a moment and turned around to face Shining Armor, showing a wide smile on his face. “Being a Royal Guard means that you need to use those traits to protect everyone in Equestria as best as you can,” With those words, Fade left and was now off to see Princess Celestia. Shining Armor took Fade's words in and smiled before he saluted one more time. “Yes, sir!” He said, as a thank for Fade sharing those words with him. In front of the throne room of Canterlot Castle... Being the Captain of the Royal Guards did not only meant that he stood on top of the guards but also since he was working for the princess for such a long time he earned the princesses deepest trust. If there was anything troubling her, Fade was one of few ponies she would talk to. This time was no exception. Fade entered the wide and open throne room by opening the giant doors in front of him. Princess Celestia was already waiting, sitting on her throne with some worry written on her face. On her right and left side, were two Royal Guard members who guarded the princess as usual. They both nodded slowly as soon as Fade entered the room, clearly showing deep respect towards their captain. “Fade,” she said, greeting the captain which he returned by bowing to her. “Your majesty,” he said as he kneed before Princess Celestia, his head lowered to the ground. “You wanted to talk with me?” Though he was allowed to speak freely a long time ago, when it came to the princess, Fade would always show respect and behave how he was supposed to. Then again, small talk was not really something that he was really good at which is why he asked right away why the princess summoned him. Princess Celestia stood up from her throne. She walked up to Fade and demanded that he would raise as well. He did what he was ordered to and listened to what the princess had to say. “There was another attack,” she briefly said. Fade instantly knew what that meant. He narrowed his eyes just by thinking about it. This was not the first time that the princess summoned him for this reason. There were a lot of attacks recently all over different areas in Equestria. And there was one thing that they all had in common. They were all caused by the same enemy. “Changelings...” Fade mumbled to himself. “Yes,” Princess Celestia confirmed. “Changelings were always on bad terms with ponies. But lately, there have been way too many incidents of ponies getting attacked by them. They were never this active before. I'm starting to fear the worst...” the princess explained while she looked out of a window to her right. “You think they will attack Canterlot?” Fade asked. His tone was a little boldly but there was also a truth in it, that could not be denied. “If this continues then maybe sooner or later...” Princess Celestia replied, feeling a little nervous just by imagining something like that. “I contacted the Storm Wings a few times to deal with them but there are way too many attacks and they can't deal with each of them,” she further informed. Fade knew where this was going to. The princess would not have mentioned this matter if it wasn't important enough. He soon figured out the reason. “You want me to do something against it?” Fade then interrupted boldly. “I don't intend to start a war with the Changelings,” Princess Celestia informed. “If things get out of hoof then who knows what their queen is about to do...” “Then we will give them a warning,” Fade suggested. “To let them know that they can't just do whatever they want to the ponies of Equestria,” Fade was determined to do something about those attacks. Changelings were a serious threat to Equestria. They seemed to have targeted Equestria recently, to feed off from the love of ponies. Whether Equestria was just unlucky to be their next target or if they were after something entirely else was unknown. The only thing that Fade did know, was that they had to know that they just can't mess with the ponies of Equestria that easily. There had to be something done. “Alright. I'm counting on you to take care of this,” Princess Celestia said, wishing Fade the best of luck. “Thanks, your majesty,” he replied, bowing down to his princess again. “I'll be on my way...after I visited her,” he added with a serious tone in his voice. Princess Celestia knew what Fade was talking about and understood. “Of course,” she only replied before Fade decided to walk away again. The two guards next to her looked at each other, having an idea what Fade was talking about. The room became very silent and Princess Celestia returned to her throne. She believed that Fade would be okay while being on this mission but she also was worried. She couldn't shake off this feeling that something could happen to him and that made her feel really bad. A little later... Fade walked through the castle silently. He was carrying a flower in his mouth while he was on his way to a certain room in the castle. Nopony except Fade and Princess Celestia herself were allowed to enter this room. Fade entered the room every day and brought a flower with him every time. He opened the door and what was revealed, was a small room, filled with flowers. At the end of the room was a window and in front of this window was a bed with a sleeping filly inside. The filly had a light orange coat and a yellow mane. Fade looked over at her before he placed his flower on a table somewhere in a free spot in the room. As soon as that was done, he walked up to the filly. He smiled but his face also showed some sadness. It always did, whenever he was in this room. “Still sleeping, huh?” He said as he looked over at the filly, putting a hoof on her forehead. “Daddy has to go on a mission. Some bad Changelings are attacking Equestria and Princess Celestia asked me to take care of them,” There was no answer, like always. There was no way that an answer could come from her. She was sleeping. And there was no known way that she can wake up. Eternal Slumber. That is what ponies call this condition. It's a very rare and almost extinct sickness that prevents you from waking up. Fade's daughter happened to catch this sickness just a little while ago and hasn't woken up since. The worst thing about that sickness was, that there was no known cure for this. There were times where Fade couldn't even say anything while being in this room but visiting it every day since the sickness started, it felt kinda normal now. Realizing that, didn't exactly make it better. It even scared Fade a little bit. “My little Solar Smile...Why did you have to leave me too? Were you missing your mommy? Or were you angry because daddy couldn't come and play with you that often?” Fade said as he looked at his daughter. “Of course, not...you wouldn't do something like that. You are a good filly after all. You just happened to have a really busy father who seemed to put more work into his job rather than spend time with his family...” Regret could clearly be heard in Fade's voice. Princess Celestia offered to take care of Solar Smile and gave this room to her. Fade was not going home too often because of his work and the castle was a lot safer too so there was no reason to not let her stay there. At least, then he would be close to her most of the time. Fade did spend some more time with his daughter but decided to leave eventually. He was still on a mission after all. “Well, daddy has to go now. But I'll be back tomorrow! Don't worry!” He assured with a smile on his face before he closed the door and left his daughter alone again. But as soon as the door closed, his smile vanished and was replaced with a serious expression that was determined for the upcoming mission. Later... After Fade, collected enough information about his mission, like where some Changelings have been spotted lately, he took some members of the Royal Guards and went to the place where the last attack happened. “Over there!” One guard shouted before he pointed towards a group of ponies. There were around twenty or thirty of them. All of them unconscious from what the group could see so far. “Is this where the attack happened?” Another guard asked. “We're about to find out...” Fade said before he led the way towards the group of ponies. It was a really open grass field in the middle of nowhere. No town was remotely close but it was still weird how nopony spotted this group and tried to help them. It was almost suspicious. Fade archived this thought in his mind and walked up to the group. With Fade, there were ten other guards with him. He ordered some of them to split up to take a look at some of the ponies. This, of course, made it a little hard to check up on every single one since there were three times more ponies than there were guards but everypony did their best to take care of most of them. Then things got a little strange... All the ponies got back on their hooves at the same time. Some of them positioned themselves around Fade and the other guards. Soon, the group was surrounded by the ponies. It was like a circle of ponies with the guards inside of it. Fade looked around and noticed that all the ponies had all really sinister smiles on their faces. One of the ponies stepped up and began to explain. “Looks like we gave you ponies more credit than you actually deserve,” he said smugly with a huge grin on his face. “Us ponies?” One of the guards asked confused. The rest of the ponies began to laugh slightly. Only moments later, all of them began to surround themselves with light green colored flames. It was exactly how Fade had anticipated it by now. The flames vanished and revealed the black insect-like creatures. Changelings. It was hard distinguishing Changelings from each other because they looked very similar to each other. Maybe the holes in their bodies or the slight differences in their horns were an indication but for ponies, it was very hard to tell them apart. The one that stepped up before however, was the only one who looked different. He was wearing a black armor on his body and a fitting helmet. He was clearly the one who was in charge of this group, judging from his get up and how he was the only one who would speak up. “We got you right in out trap. We knew that some of you would come running after us once we attacked some of you,“ Fade stepped up as well. “And now you are trying to feed off from us? Why do you keep attacking Equestria? And what are you after?” Fade asked, trying to get out as many information than possible. “That is not of your concern!” The Changeling leader replied. “No one of us is gonna tell you anything! We are loyal to our queen after all! Besides we don't intend to waste our time talking with ponies. Right now, you should better worry about your current situation,” the Changeling advised smugly. There was clearly hostility between the two groups. Changelings were not known to be too friendly at all and since the ponies from Equestria were attacked by them, there was no reason to be friendly towards them as well. But despite the tension between the two groups, Fade remained cal all this time and came to a conclusion how to deal with the situation. “If you won't tell us anything about your plans, then there is no more reason to talk with you,” he said before he raised his hoof up in the air. The Changelings wondered what this was about and looked up to the sky, trying to figure out what Fade was pointing at. On closer, inspection they noticed something diving down from the sky. They definitely didn't like what they saw. There were multiple Pegasus Ponies coming out of the clouds, maybe ten of them. Those ten ponies positioned themselves around the Changeling circle which again surrounded Fade and his men. “More of them?” The Changeling leader wondered as he watched how the strength of numbers they had before shrunk a little. Fade explained. “You think we didn't expect some kind of trap? We knew that you wouldn't set up a trap if there were more of us so I made sure to let some of our Pegasus guards keep a close look at us from the clouds. All I had to do was giving them a signal, which I just did,” Fade explained, happily sharing his plan much to the dislike of the Changeling leader who was just angered and growled at Fade. The Changeling leader began to smile again after a while. He clearly had another ace up on his sleeve. He engulfed himself in green flames again and then turned into Fade. The other Changeling's quickly caught up on what their leader was trying to do. Soon, there was a huge group of ponies that only consisted of Royal Guard members. It was the Changeling's ability to turn into other ponies, hence the name. By transforming, they tried to confused Fade and his men. The Changeling leader, which has transformed into Fade, grinned and was actually surprised that Fade saw through their trap. “Try to fight us now! We are also still outnumbering you if you haven't noticed,” he added, referring that there were still like ten more Changeling's then there were Royal Guards. Fade did not seem to even care about those words and raised his voice so that his men could hear him. “Listen! They may look like us but they are still Changelings!” He said, making sure that his men weren't discouraged. “I have three orders for you all! You better listen and follow them!” He added much to the Changeling's confusion who felt like as if they were being ignored. “Number one! Only attack anyone who looks exactly like you. That way you can prevent hurting your comrades on accident! Number two! If there is nopony who looks like you, then stand back and look if there are more then one of the same ponies going up against somepony. If two of the same ponies pair up, then they are Changelings!” Fade listed his orders as if there was all the time in the world. While doing so, he always kept his eyes glued to the Changeling leader who still looked like him. The Changeling Fade began to growl angrily and couldn't believe that Fade was casually giving out his orders while being surrounded by him and the rest of the Changelings. “Are you mocking us!?” He exclaimed angrily before he focused some magic in his horn, shooting it directly at Fade. The beam connected and Fade was hit. At least, that's what he thought. Soon the Changeling leader noticed a shield in front of Fade, protecting him from the magic beam. This only made him angrier. What made it worse was that Fade wasn't even fazed by it and casually continued with his orders. “Number three! If you see any pony that doesn't resemble any of us, then he is also a Changeling!” Fade continued, finishing his order and finally giving a signal to attack. “Get them!” Shortly after, the groups collided and the battle started. Fade's men did as he commanded and only went after those who looked exactly like them. Despite, being outnumbered, the Royal Guards were winning against their opponents. It was obvious that the guards were far more experienced fighters than the Changelings. The Changeling leader felt responsible to go up against Fade himself for all the mocking that he did towards him. He charged towards Fade and tried to tackle him but Fade simply jumped to the side. What followed were some magic beams that were shot towards Fade which he all avoided by putting up a shield in front of him. The two leaders were complete opposites. Fade was calm and analyzing while the Changeling leader was blinded by rage and bluntly tried to hit Fade in any way possible. “It's obvious that you have attacked only innocent ponies, judging from your fighting abilities,” Fade said. This only angered his opponent even more. “What did you say!?” He exclaimed before he shot another shot towards Fade. One he easily dodged by jumping to the site. “The Royal Guard will not be so easy to deal with as long as I am their captain!” Fade said, this time a little more angered but still not even comparable to the anger that the Changeling showed towards him. This time, Fade was the one who attacked. He charged up some magic in his horn and his opponent stood ready for whatever was about to come next. He fired a beam towards him which the Changeling easily dodged, even going so far, to laugh at this attempt, looking at the beam passing him which looked a lot smaller then the beams he shot out before. However, once he looked in front of himself, Fade was only a few steps away, charging at him with incredible speed. Fade tackled the Changeling and threw him away several meters. The impact was really painful because of the size and the armor that Fade was wearing. It was enough to almost knock the Changeling out and forcing him to transform back to his original form. It didn't take long till the rest of the Changelings were beaten too. The Royal Guard was victorious. The numbers of the Changelings didn't matter a thing compared to the fighting experience that Fade and his men possessed. Still, the Changelings proved to be pretty durable and got up again. Instead of forming a circle around Fade and his guards, they all gathered at one place, forming a big crowd of Changelings. Surprisingly, the Changeling leader spread his wings, which indicated only one thing. “We will not forget this! You better watch out!” The Changeling leader said threatening before he spread his wings and flew off. The rest of the Changeling's began to follow their leader quickly and soon all of them flew away, leaving Fade and the guards. Some of the guards attempted to follow them but Fade reminded them that their orders were just to give the Changelings a warning. “Good job, everypony!” Fade congratulated, relieved that everything worked out perfectly. Still, he was wondering if there was something bigger what the Changelings were after. The thought that they could one day invade Canterlot was something that heavily worried him. “Captain!” One of the guards said, getting Fade's attention again. “There is still one left, sir!” He said, pointing at one pony on the ground, not too far away. The pony on the ground seemed to be unconscious and wasn't a treat in the moment so Fade took the opportunity to get closer to it. It was none of his men, that's for sure. He asked his guards if they recognized fighting somepony who looked like that. His order was to attack everypony who looked different than his men. It was definitely a Changeling who transformed into this pony but the strange thing was that this pony didn't transform back. He was unconscious. Normally that would mean that a Changeling who is unconscious, can no longer hold up his transformation magic which only asked more questions why this pony didn't transform back. The thought that one innocent pony was caught up in this battle suddenly, crossed his mind. But if what his guards said was true, then that pony fought alongside the Changelings. Fade came to the conclusion that he wasn't getting an answer by thinking about this matter so he tried to wake this pony up to get his answers. However, before he was able to touch the pony, the eyes of the pony slowly opened, much to Fade's surprise. The eyes of the pony slowly wandered towards Fade and met his eyes. The pony didn't seem to think anything at this moment and just kept eye contact with Fade. Something was off. Fade looked directly into the eyes of this pony and could feel a really weird sensation. “What is this feeling? The eyes of this pony...they look almost...soulless,” The eyes of the pony widened even further and gave Fade a very nervous feeling. Then suddenly, the ponies eyes were shining in a white light for a brief moment, causing Fade to get even more nervous for a second. The pony then jumped on his hooves and attacked Fade with his hooves. Luckily, Fade was able to defend himself in time. He used his magic to levitate the pony away from him. Since it was an Earth Pony that he was facing, there was no way that the pony could get out of this so easily. But that didn't stop the pony to struggle heavily, in order to get out of this spell. The pony once more looked at Fade with a white light in his eyes, making Fade wonder what exactly that was in the first place. However, there would soon be something even more confusing happening. The struggling pony began to form some kind of black aura around it. Fade had no idea what that was but one thing was for sure. This pony in front of him was no Changeling. There was no reason to keep the transformation up at this moment. Also, Changelings had a light green aura when they used magic but the aura of the pony in front of him was sinister looking pitch black, something that he had never seen before. Suddenly, the pony began to scream in terror, making Fade walk backward a little in caution while still keeping the pony trapped in his magic. That is when he noticed something off, causing him to widen his eyes in shock. The aura around the pony began to slowly free it from Fade's magic. Shock, uncertainty, and confusion kept Fade from keeping a calm mind in this situation. He could only watch how the pony in front of him freed itself from his magic and engulfed itself further in this black aura. As soon as the pony was free, the aura around it came right towards Fade. The only thing that Fade could do in this moment was to defend himself with a shield spell. And that is what he did. He surrounded himself with a shield and defended himself from whatever magic that black aura was supposed to be. But unfortunately, the aura didn't even seem to clash against the shield and flew right through it, hitting Fade directly. There was some pain that he felt in this moment but it was nothing too critical. This aura looked far more dangerous then it actually was. However, instead of pain, there was more confusion. Fade found himself in some dark place all of the sudden. He was no longer standing on green grass with a clear blue sky above him but instead in an undefined place that could only be described by one word: Dark. He looked behind himself and found out that his men were nowhere to be found. While still being heavily confused about what just happened, there was no time to ask questions since there was one more thing that instantly caught his attention. All of the sudden, there were multiple ponies surrounding him, walking closer and closer towards him. All of them had the same black aura around him, like the pony from before. In fact, that pony was among them too. They came closer and closer and began preparing themselves to attack at any moment. If Fade would stay still like that, then who knows what would happen to him. With that in mind, he focused his magic and prepared to attack as well. As soon as the first pony tried to jump at him, he shot it with his magic, making it fall to the ground. The other ponies now charged at Fade too and he was ready to fire at every single one of them until he would be the last one to stand. More and more ponies would appear out of nowhere and Fade had to fight every single one of them to defend himself. “What is happening here!?” He wondered as he fought off waves and waves of random ponies attacking him. It took a few minuted but eventually, Fade was done. He defeated every single pony that tried to attack him and was victorious. Things seemed to turn around in his favor because as soon as everypony around him was defeated, the dark place he was trapped in, began to vanish as well, making him take a deep breath in relief. When he found himself back where he was before that first pony attacked him, he was convinced that this was some kind of illusion or a dream. It had to be. He immediately saw the pony from before laying on the ground before him, indicating that he or one of his soldier must have defeated it while he was trapped in this strange place. “I don't know what exactly happened but it looks like as if it is over...thank goodness,” he said in relief after this strange experience. Fade turned around to look at his soldiers, ordering them to return to Canterlot. However, he hesitated to give any command since the moment he turned around, all of his soldiers were looking right at him with nervous expressions on their faces. Needless to say, he was heavily confused about that. “What's wrong?” He asked confused. None of the soldiers wanted to answer right away and every one of them kept staring at Fade until one of them finally spoke up. “You tell us! Why did you do that captain!?” He shouted towards Fade with some fear in his voice. “Why did I do what!? Can you all explain why you are looking at me like I was a ghost?” He asked further. It was only now that Fade noticed that he only saw around half of his soldiers. Wondering where the others could be, he made a terrifying realization. The rest of his soldiers laid on the ground, only a few hoof away, defeated and hurt, attacked by something or somepony. Of course, the first thing he wanted to know was who was responsible for that. “Who did that!? Who attacked my soldiers!?” While keeping their distance right at Fade out of fear, only one of them spoke up. His voice heavy and full of shock while he answered to Fade, leaving him in shock once he heard the answer. “It was you...You did this, Captain!” Hearing this answer, left Fade speechless. Silence filled the place. There was no longer anything to say for Fade. Not only did he know what to say to this but also how to explain what he went through while fighting this pony. Right now, it was his own men against him. And there was only one question that was in his mind, right now. “What just happened?” To be continued...