"Twilight, are you sure this will work?"
A flurry of book flew through the air as Twilight pulled a plethora of references and legends and spells out of the wall. The wet dirt beneath her feet was hardly ideal for her to cast spells in, but at the moment...she had to make due with what she had. A harsh red light shined through the only window in her basement, illuminating everything from the purple dragon to the similarly coloured unicorn to the collection of roots and plants stuck to the walls. Heavy bags sat under Twilight's eyes but she knew that she was nearly done. All that was left was to cross reference herself and she could fix all this. Just a moment more.
"Spike, Celestia says that the four knights are one of the strongest forces in Equestria. They've stood against Discord on his own ground, tackled Chief Iron-Horn mid charge and even faced Chrysalis before, back at the dawn of the world. Granted, she did call them a bit...unusual, but how strange could they be? If they can't stop Chrysalis now...well, let's not waste too much time."
Glancing over to a blackboard built into the wall, Twilight ran over her plan. The first step would obviously be the hardest. She'd teleported things before, even live ponies, but she'd always been there to make sure that nothing went wrong. Nor had she ever teleported something this large before. If something went wrong in the procedure, the statue could be damaged beyond repair, and all hope would be lost.
Cracking the knights out would be easier, but only just. She'd only used the spell once before to break ponies out of their own stone skin, in an incident involving an angry cockatrice and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. This would be entirely different too; the knights weren't sealed by simple cockatrice magic, but a spell infinitely more powerful than Twilight herself. She'd need to put everything she had into cracking their stone shell off.
Stepping forward, Twilight got herself into position. Each of her legs was spread out as far as it would go in an attempt to balance the weight she knew was coming. And with a determined grimace, Twilight began the spell.
The room exploded in a flash of purple light, and Twilight swore to herself softly before returning to her work. She couldn't think about that, couldn't think about how a flash like that would bring every changeling in Ponyville right to her door. She needed to put all her work into summoning the statue. Dirt built up against her hooves as she was pushed into the ground by the magic gathering on her horn and, with a whimper, Twilight released it all in one fell swoop.
It was like an out of body experience. Twilight could see herself beneath her, struggling to keep the spell steady, before she was whisked away. Suddenly, she was in the royal gardens. The worn stones beneath her feet formed a path, one that twisted and snaked through the garden, leading to the one thing Twilight was looking for. A single statue was resting at the end of the road. A statue wrapped in purple magic that was tugging at it from all directions, edging it forward to where it needed to be. It jumped and bounced from the power Twilight was pumping into it until finally, something gave. With a loud crack, the world was replaced by a painfully white explosion and Twilight found herself thrust backwards.
The pain spreading across her back signalled that her out of body experience was over, but it soon dulled as she noticed what was now in the centre of the room, completely undamaged.
"You did it, Twilight! It worked!" Spike shouted, rushing over to help Twilight back to her feet.
"Thank...thank you Spike, but that was only half the job. We still need to wake them up."
Wobbling on her feet, Twilight stepped forward again. Absent-mindedly, she ran a hoof along the base of the statue. Here it was, just like she remembered it. It had been...nearly two years since she'd last seen this statue. If someone had asked her what made this statue so much more important to her than any of the others, Twilight would be lost for words. There simply were no words to describe what she felt when around this statue. Safety, perhaps? Or a lick of random chaos? Twilight herself wasn't sure, maybe she could invent a word once the world was safe.
But first, she needed to investigate the statue for damages before she woke them up.
The red knight stood at attention, a long sword clenched tightly in his hand and a thick shield slung over his back. His arms were thick with the strength only war could give you and his very presence seemed to inspire Twilight to fight back. His armour was the deepest red, with the symbol of a sword engraved into the middle of it. Celestia had said that each of them had chosen the pose they were to have until they woke up again. And for the leader, there could be nothing else but a pose that would inspire others to lead.
The green knight stood behind him, with an arm slung around the blue knight next to him. His posture was one that was extremely relaxed, his armour was marked and dented unlike the others, a single arrow was engraved into his chest and the bow to go with it was lazily strung along his fingers. Twilight liked to imagine he was smiling under that helmet, and for the archer, it only fit.
The blue knight was sitting cross-legged behind his leader, a ball of, what Twilight assumed was ice, sitting in his open hand. She couldn't tell whether the knight was amused, annoyed or angry at the green ones intrusion into his space, since the knights head was buried deeply in an open book built into the base. An icicle was the symbol he'd chosen to adopt, and for his pose...what better pose for a wizard than one of endless study?
And for the orange knight...Twilight giggled to herself. No matter what age she was, seeing a figure of legend and endless power menacingly brandishing a fresh sausage at his friends while simultaneously face palming never ceased to amuse her. Blushing as she suddenly remembered what his symbol was, Twilight stood back. And for the wisest of all four...who could guess why he chose the pose he did?
Twilight breathed in deeply; tried to calm her nerves. She needed to finish her spell. Equestria wasn't safe until she saw the knights walking around.
Taking up her familiar pose again, Twilight lowered her head. For a brief second, she couldn't feel her magic. Normally she would be frightened; she was the element of magic, she practically breathed the stuff; but she knew something like this would happen after such a powerful spell. She just needed to wait a moment for it to return. And just like she anticipated, like a river breaking through a dam, it rushed back stronger than ever, ready to obey her wit and call. Light tendrils of purple wafted through the room as Twilight got to work.
Something smashed against the door to the basement, and the magic faltered as Twilight choked. "Spike! I...I need more time. Hold them off!" she shouted or whispered or said or something, she couldn't tell with the sound of magic rushing through her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her assistant rush up the stairs; a pile of heavy books in his hands. Twilight released her pent up breath as she set back to work.
Spike would do his job, and she would do hers. Nothing was going to stop her, too much was running on her succeeding. Her friends, the kingdom, the Princess, every single pony out there who needed a saviour, or a hero or someone to call upon in their times of need. The magic began to worm its way into the statue, and Twilight concentrated harder. She wanted to help those ponies, more than anything, but she needed someone to help her. She needed someone who knew how to lead, or how to fight, or how to stand up to those against them. She needed...
The door exploded open with a flash of green magic, and changelings started to flow into the room. Almost instantly, one of them went straight for Twilight. Everything seemed to slow down as the changeling flew closer. She wasn't done yet, it was too late. She could count each individual tooth of the changeling attacking her, but she didn't have time to finish the spell? That just wasn't fair. All she wanted to do was fix everything, and she screwed that up too. Why did she always have to screw everything up? She just wanted to help her friends, that's all she wanted. Impossibly slowly, the attack landed. All Twilight could do was utter a quick 'help' before being forced to the ground; the magic in her horn dissipating into the air.
Gritting her teeth, Twilight started to fight back. It didn't matter that she couldn't possibly win, she wasn't just going to lay down and become food. She was going to take as many of them down with her before that happened. Pain spread through her neck as the changeling on top of her bit down, embedding its teeth into her coat. Blotches of black began to mark her vision and she couldn't find her magic again. Why did that always happen when she least expected it? Kicking out randomly, Twilight couldn't even see her attacker through the blurriness and black marks. She didn't want to admit defeat, she couldn't if she wanted too, but it was clear she wasn't a fighter. She needed her friends, she needed help. She couldn't even beat one changeling, much less an army, what was she thinking? She couldn't save Applejack, or Rarity, or Pinkie Pie or any of her friends. She couldn't help Celestia, or defend Equestria, she could barely even use her element. Why had she even tried? It was hopeless from the beginning.
A dark red blur rushed past her, knocking the changeling off her and tearing a small chunk of her neck as it did. Pushing herself up hastily, Twilight had already taken the position she needed for magic, dropping it when she saw it was clearly not needed.
The red knight was alive! Stone was still flaking off of him like a coat of paint, but he was alive! Glowing with an unseen power, he hovered across the room impossibly fast for someone of his size; the changeling in front of him being carried along for the ride on the end of his sword. He stopped for a brief moment, pulling his arm back into the air before slamming it down on top of the changeling. Dirt and spiders fell from the ceiling at the force of the collision and even more peppered the two when the changeling hit the ground. The distinct sound of bones snapping in half echoed through the room as the changeling rebounded back into the air. The knight didn't even give it a second of respite before continuing his barrage upon the animal.
The two creatures travelled across the room again, until eventually, the knight decided he was done. With a wordless attack, he slammed the changeling back into the ground, much lighter than before. Another loud crack flew through the air as it landed, the wind obviously being punched out of it's lungs. It only got the chance to recover for a brief second before a seemingly endless wave of thunderbolts struck it, sending it into a convulsing fit before finally, finally the knight landed on the ground next to it. With simply a stare at the poor creature, the red knight reared his head back and slammed it down on the creature. A final sickening crack lingered in the air for perhaps a second longer than it should as the changeling finally chased the birds around its head.
Twilight flapped her jaw for a few seconds; she wanted to say something, wanted to congratulate or thank or question the knight, but no matter what she though, it always ended up as an empty fog. Glancing around, Twilight noted that all the changelings had left the room. A brief respite, but they would be back as soon as they realised they outnumbered her three hundred to one. The red knight glanced around for a second, seemingly searching for something, before walking towards Twilight. She took a step backwards from sheer reaction, but the red knight was already up in her face.
And slowly, as if he'd done this a thousand times, he gave Twilight a long passionate kiss on the lips. Blood rushed into Twilight's cheeks and her ears flicked back and forth as she realised what was happening. Twilight swore she could hear some kind of victory music. Almost tentatively, she tried to push the knight off but she just couldn't seem to get her hooves in the right position to push. This was...this was beyond embarrassing for her. It didn't matter who it was that was kissing her, that kind of horseplay wasn't a part of her house. A faint aura built up on her horn, and just as it did, the red knight leaned back, breaking their embrace.
From behind her, the three other knights moved forward, passing by her hastily. That was when Twilight noticed a few important things about them. They didn't have helmets on. Instead, their foreheads stretched so high up Twilight automatically assumed they were wearing helmets. You couldn't blame her, nearly half their body was forehead. They also didn't have mouths. It was nearly kind of freaky, Twilight had never met a creature before that didn't have a mouth; how did they even eat?
And finally, not a single one knew what to do next.
Forcing herself to smile, Twilight knelt down. That's what you did to legends, right? Knell down in front of them? Rummaging through her brain for the right words, Twilight finally spoke. "Oh great...um, knights, I beseech you for your help. Chrysalis the changeling queen has kidnapped my friends and taken over all of Ponyville, we need your help!"
Twilight peeked up to see if her words had any effect and could physically feel her heart drop when she realised that the knights weren't even paying attention. The green one was poking Spike expectantly, motioning for Spike to follow him into the battle as if he were some kind of pet, the blue one was...picking his nose, the red one was occasionally glancing up at the door and the orange knight was nowhere to be seen.
Twilight wasn't about to give up though. "Please, we need your help. You've already proved you can do it, you're the only ones left. I don't know what happened to Celestia, or Canterlot, or the other princesses, but I think Chrysalis might have kidnapped them! We need your help, please! Equestria is in danger."
At the word princess, every knight in the room seemed to freeze. They traded glances, slowly at first but increasing in intensity. A few of them wrung their hands together awkwardly. Twilight didn't understand, why were they so nervous? Something moved in the corner of her eyes again, and she focused on the red knight trying to capture her attention. He was rubbing the back of his head slowly while walking forward, a kind of fear in his step. With a single fluid motion, he made a series of gestures. He pointed at his weapon, then shrugged, waved it in the air a little as if duelling an invisible opponent, shrugged again, pointed at the door, pointed at his weapon and finally nodded his head and cocked it to the side.
It took a moment to register, but when it did, Twilight snapped her mouth shut and nodded excitedly. "Yes! Yes, yes, the changelings are out there. Please, you need to fight them, there's no one left. I just...need you...too..."
There wasn't even anyone left in the room. At the simple word of yes, each of the knights had charged out the door with the speed and fury of a train. It crossed Twilight's mind that she should stop and search for Spike, just to make sure the green knight hadn't actually grabbed Spike and pulled him into the melee with him, but that thought was put on standby for the moment. There were more important things than Spike at the moment, she needed to see if the knights could actually save Equestria. With a hesitant grin, Twilight trotted up the stairs leading to the exit.
She took in a single deep breath of air; invigorating and full of life. She'd done it. Or at least, she hoped she'd done it. Only time could tell now whether or not the knights would live up to their legend.