//------------------------------//
// Castle Crashing the Road 
// Story: Castle Crashing Canterlot 
// by Nazkan 
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Twilight was the kind of pony that preferred to be alone. She'd been that way all her life. It wasn't out of any concious choice, she just...didn't like to hang around strangers. It wasn't until she finally moved to Ponyville and met her friends that everything began to change. While she would still prefer a quiet session of study to the wild glamour of night life, she would never deny a chance to spend time with her friends.

What would she do without Applejack's dependability? Or Rainbow's confidence? Or even Pinkie's sheer energy?

That said, if someone had asked her if she wanted to have four separate Pinkies, each with their own personalty but never lacking in the same amount of energy and nonsense, she would have kindly reminded them of the incident with the mirror pool, before shoving them unceremoniously out of her house for making her remember the incident with the mirror pool.

Waving her hoof forward to urge the knights on and direct them forward, Twilight revelled in the plain normalcy of what was happening. Just five creatures, slowly trudging forward towards the city in the distance. No distraction, no pulling horns out of hammer space, just simple walking. The knights, other than a few bruises and scratches given by their leader to keep them in line, showed no signs of tiring or stopping, only one goal on their minds. Twilight wished she could say the same.

An ache had developed in the bottom of her legs, she never claimed she was the fittest pony, and had wormed its way into the rest of her body. Despite this though, she knew she just needed to keep walking. Place one hoof in front of the other until she either fell down or reached her destination. Between panting breaths, Twilight tried to argue with the creatures walking next to her. "You know...I can just...just teleport us to Canterlot. We don't need to walk all the way there."

She received no response, not that she was expecting one anyway. The knights didn't even bother to look at her, just keep walking forwards. Resigning herself to her fate, Twilight spun her head forward again. Her heart skipped a beat when another voice rose against the sounds of the road, one that was extremely familiar. "Yes, we know you can teleport, because you've mentioned it six times already. I don't think they even care." 

Looking around, Twilight focused on the small lizard. "Are you still here, Spike?"

Hovering himself away from the blue knight temporarily, Spike landed on Twilight's back. The sudden weight caused her to falter in her steps, but not enough to make her trip. "I couldn't leave you alone. Someone here has to be the smart one."

"You think you're the smart one?"

"Hey, I can do a lot of smart things. Like my times tables. Or the dishes."

"Dishes aren't smart."

Spike shrugged. "Dishes are too smart, don't you remember the time you..."

Perking up suddenly, Spike glanced through the woods. Twilight followed his lead, more to figure out what he was trying to find. All she could see were shadows twisting through the trunks of old rotten trees and patches of scraggly grass and flowers.

"Did you hear that?" Spike asked.

Twilight stopped; her muscles crying out in relief. Her ears flicked back and forth, trying to locate the source of the noise. Despite her hardest, the trees seemed intent on scrabbling any incoming noise until it bounced out of the woods at every angle. She spared herself a quick glance behind her at the knights, just a second.

Two of them were running around in circles swinging their weapons into the air, with the other two poking each other lightly while eating the orange knight's sausage. Twilight didn't know what she was expecting.

A loud crack rang down the road, freezing everyone gathered for a split second. The red knight stepped forward, taking a place next to Twilight. With the back of his palm, he pushed her backwards until she was resting behind him. Twilight understood why as another crack ran out from the forest. Something was coming.

The ground shook as the monster rushed forward; a dot on the horizon that slowly came closer. Four heavy paws beat along the cobble path, leaving indentions with the sheer weight behind them. Two wings, bat-like and powerful stretched taut out of the creatures back. Each of them rose into the sky as if to proclaim them the creatures domain. To complete the terrifying appearance was a large stinger instead of a tail, quite out of place on the beasts flank. With nothing more than a roar, it charged closer, intent to close the gap between him and it's prey.

Twilight mouthed the word 'manticore,' before she was shoved back yet again, this time by the orange knight. Then the green knight. Then the blue. To Twilight's relief, the red knight gave her a gentle pat, before pushing her back for the fun of it and rushing forward.

It was like something out of Twilight's books. The terrible manticore versus the noble knights.

Or it would have, if any battle had taken place.

Instead, the orange knight was the first to arrive on the scene. Roaring at him, the manticore issued his challenge to the heavens, as a warning to all who would oppose him. The orange knight didn't even let him finish; slapping him across the face with the half eaten sausage.

The manticore was dazed for a moment; a moment the orange knight used to jump over his head and land squarely on his back. He dodged to the side hastily as the stinger came down on him, and delivered another soggy whack to the back of the monster's head.

Whimpering, the manticore paused for a moment. It didn't want another sausaging, not again. It held itself absolutely rigid, not daring to do anything against the strange creature on it's back. And slowly, the knight took his hands off the back of the manticore, raising them into the air. Pinky and pointer in the air, the orange knight leaned back as if cheering.

The other knights shook their fists angrily, but there was nothing they could do. They'd missed their chance; orange had claimed the first ride.

And then, with a swift whack to the manticore with his legs, the orange knight rode into the sunset, never lowering his hands. It was amazing; awe inspiring, especially since it was the middle of the day.





"Well, this isn't good."

Twilight sighed and turned to her only vocal companion. "No Spike. No, it is not."

The changelings were smarter than they thought. There, in the middle of the road and wedged between two snow capped mountains stood what one could only describe as a poorly thrown together fortress. Nearly all the trees in a three mile radius had been cut down and latched together in a vain and rushed attempt to barricade the road against anyone hoping to travel across. To make things even worse, the only place that wasn't covered in sharpened spears and rocks was the entrance, which was sealed and welded shut by a gigantic metal sheet.

If there was one good thing about this though, it finally gave Twilight time to catch up to the orange knight.

"Maybe be could just walk around it?" Spike offered.

Everyone gathered froze for a moment, just to stare at Spike angrily. Even the blue knight stopped what he was doing to turn around and give Spike a hard glare. Twilight rubbed her head, the very thought tearing her brain apart. "Walk...around? Spike, I just...seriously Spike."

"What?"

"There's only way one into the mountains, and the changelings decided to build a blinking huge castle on it, that's 'what.'"

Trotting closer to the entrance, the dints and holes in the door became apparent. Thick punches that had warped the metal inward, not enough to break it, but enough to stop it from being a straight sheet. The manticore wasn't looking so good either, with its tail bent backwards behind it.

The knights immediately went to punching the door with all the magic, weapons and random assortment of items they'd conjured from nowhere they had. Which was lucky, because it gave Twilight enough time to hear another familiar voice calling out to her.

"Twily!"

Looking up at the top of the 'wall,' Twilight nearly chocked in surprise. "Shining Armour!"

"Twily!"

"Shining Armour!"

"Twily!"

"Shining Armour?"

"Twily!"

Shaking her head suddenly, Twilight got back on track. "Shining, what are you doing up there? I thought...is Celestia all right? Can you let us in?"

Shaking his head, Shining pulled back a bit as an arrow flew past his head. "No can do, sis. Nopony comes in or out. Those are the rules, and I can't change them for you, or Celestia or anypony else. Celestia's fine, by the way, I made sure of that personally."

"But you have to let us in! Changelings have taken over...changelings have...hang on. Are you just a changeling trying to trick me?"

"You're too smart for us, Twily. You're too smart for us."

Twilight felt something build up in her chest. It felt...hot. Hot and spreading. Stretching out from the bottom of her heart to every section of her body; from her ears to her hooves. Twilight knew what was happening. Shouting wildly into the air, Twilight tried to focus her magic on the changeling impersonating her brother. "Stop calling me Twily! You don't have that right. Only Shining has the right to call me that, and you're clearly not him; so change back before I come in there and make you!"

Shining turned around and leaned against parapets, ignoring the creatures attacking the door beneath him. "Whatever you say, Twily, but I think I'm going to stay as I am. Besides, none of you are beefy enough to break down this door, and there's no other way to Canterlot. So good luck saving your princess, because she is royally screwed."

And with a wave of his hoof, Shining jumped backwards and disappeared behind the wall. Twilight probably would have rested her head in her hoof if it wasn't for the fact that she couldn't feel her feet from the rage. Fire was licking at the top of her mane from her anger, she just wanted to rip and tear something. Preferably something big. 

At the very least, the changeling still retained Shining's love of bad puns.

Coming down from her rage high, Twilight noticed that all the knights had stopped attacking the door. Just as she'd come to expect from them, they'd returned to the same aimless pose they always had when they didn't know what to do. Well, most of them did. With a click of his fingers, the red knight started to move again.

He placed two fingers on the top of his head and kicked his feet, trying his hardest to imitate a...cow maybe? Or perhaps a minotaur. He followed it up with a swift chopping motion downwards before ending with a slow pat on his stomach. Twilight was confused, to say the least.

"You want to...eat an entire minotaur? How can you be hungry at a time like this?"

The knight shook his head and tried again; this time placing more emphasis on the chopping than anything else. That chopping, what did it mean? Maybe...chopping, chopping. It dawned on Twilight at last.

"Bread, that's bread. You want a...cow sandwich?"

Nodding happily, the knight pumped his fist in the air.

"But...but cows are alive, you can't eat something that's alive. It's inhumane! Unless it's fish. Or eggs, but then we've gone further than I'm comfortable."

The red knight's shoulders sagged as Twilight told him the news. Half heartedly, he pointed at the door and weakly flexed his muscles. It was clear what he was trying to say. "Without a cow sandwich, nobody is getting through there."

And then an idea started to spread in Twilight's mind. A brilliant, genius idea that only someone as smart as Twilight could have thought up.

"Um, Twilight...why are you looking at me like that?" Spike asked as Twilight moved closer.

"I have an idea, Spike." Straightening her back and pushing herself into the air, Twilight faced the aimless knights. "I have an idea everypony. But you need to do exactly what I say. Where we're going, it's very dangerous so we need to be care..." Twilight stopped as her eyes rested on the orange knight, still riding on the back of the manticore. Slowly, almost like clockwork, her hoof collided softly with her face. It didn't matter where they were going, nothing was more terrifying than the knights themselves.

"Alright then. Follow me."





Zecora was a very peculiar pony; there was no way one could deny that. She lived alone in the most dangerous place in Equestria, mostly kept to herself, spoke only in sick rhymes and brewed potions and insane concoctions for a living. There was no way one could spin that in such a way to make her look even the least bit normal.

But there was one thing important about Zecora that made her extra important today. Zecora had a large collection of knicks and knacks from around the world, even from beyond the land of Equestria. And in that collection, there was one thing in particular that Twilight hoped had remained untouched. Something she needed desperately. 

If they could ever get there, that was.

To the relief of her feet and general well being, the orange knight had been kind enough to give her a ride on the manticore. And as long as she could ignore the angry glances of the other three knights, Twilight was sure to enjoy every minute of it. It was kind of like when she was younger and Shining used to give her rides on his back, only Shining didn't have the potential to go crazy and stab her in the back with his freaky scorpion tail. Most of the time.

"Only a few more miles and we'll get there, don't worry. This is a good plan." Twilight said. She added the end part mostly for her own benefit.

Since there was no real path to Zecora's shack, they had to forge their own. Red knight, always the one to be saddled with the hard work, was at the front of the pack, cutting his way through the thick foliage and vines to clear a road for themselves. It took Twilight a moment to find the green knight, but a small trick always managed to do the job. That trick was, he was rarely not around the blue knight, who choose to hang at the back of the group instead of pressing forward.

It was unnerving to say the least. To know that, at any moment, a dangerous monster could leap out of the underbush and attack them was a very uncomfortable thing to know indeed. It was slightly mitigated by the fact that they had actually already met one of the dangerous creatures, and the knights had waited all of two seconds to turn it into an advanced teapot ride, but that didn't make the sudden threat any less real.

Almost as if it could read her mind, the trees around the group began to shake. The red knight stopped for a second and stepped back; his eyes locked on something rushing through the leaves above them. Twilight tried to track the same object, but whatever it was had clearly moved too fast for her.

The air around Twilight shimmered and she jumped back on instinct as something flew past her nose. It made a strange noise; like a frisbee would make if it had been cut in half. A second later, it didn't matter, as something fell out of the tree directly above them.

A dark brown baboon with an oversized bone in its hand. Laying next to it was the device that had knocked it out of the tree. The red knight calmly raised his hand and simply willed the boomerang to return to him. In another shocking blow to Twilight's sanity, it did; flying through the air in an arc back to the knight's outstretched arm.

Twisting upwards like a snake, the baboon got back on its feet; weapon and teeth bared, only to find that the knight had already thrown his boomerang again. It connected with a swift thunk and knocked the baboon back to the ground. Clearly not one to be deterred by a simple blow to the head, the primate got back to his feet. And right back into the path of the red knight's boomerang.

Twilight could only watch as this practice was repeated again and again. It was incredible, really, how the baboon would always get back up to try and fight, only to fall back down as the red knight stared on. Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight watched the green knight sadly hand over a bag of money to the blue. Twilight frowned; why was she being left out of the draw?

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the monkey decided that enough was enough and stopped moving. The green knight, in a rare display of optimistic energy, appeared next to the body and gave it a light poke. He took a moment to shake his fists at the sky, before appearing back at the blue knight; a bag of bits already in his hand.

Not breaking stride, the red knight turned around and went back to hacking at the overgrowth; nearly falling through as the woods opened up for them. They had arrived.

Urging the manticore forward, Twilight and the knights shuffled through the trees into Zecora's back garden. Despite brief glances through the window as they walked around the tree Zecora called a house, no one was sure what to expect when they went inside. Changelings had invaded Equestria, who was to say that they hadn't taking Zecora too?

The knights suddenly turned on a serious face, for a reason that Twilight couldn't explain. Rolling over to the outside of the house and pressing himself against the wall, the red knight stood back up. His hands were clutched together, with his pointers sticking outward like some sort of barrel. Breaking his hand sign for a brief moment, he faced the other knights and  pulled his fingers towards himself twice in rapid succession, and the rest of the knights rolled over to him in sequence. They too placed their hands together in the same way the red one did and waited for further orders.

Twilight watched them blankly as they inched closer to the door; lowering her head again as she noticed Spike was also copying the hand movements of the knights. Ducking under the window, the knights waited just to the left of the door.

Then they just kind of stood there, until Twilight realised what the problem was.

Sighing, she calmly trotted over to the door and pushed it open for them.

The four immediately commando rolled into the now open room, fingers at the ready. Together, they covered every inch of the room in their pointing; all suddenly locking onto the same target as something moved from the other side of the building.

"What are you doing inside my house?
You're lucky I didn't turn you into a mouse!"

Shoving past the knights, Twilight gave a gracious smile at her friend; a sense of calm coming over her as she realised she was okay. "Zecora! I don't have time to explain, Celestia is in danger and we need your help!"

The strange black and white pony across the room didn't turn around as she continued to mix the contents of her desk together. "And what, pray tell, would the problem be; that you would need to come to little old me?"

Twilight swallowed and tried to ignore the knight currently sifting through all the potions gathered around him. This was the hardest part. "I need to know if you have any of...it left. We really need it."

"What a strange request of me you ask, for making it's a difficult task."

Twilight nodded. "I know, but...I believe, perhaps foalishly, that these knights know what they're talking about.

Moving closer and staring into Zecora's eyes, Twilight tried to show how serious she was about this. "Zecora, I need you to make me some moon banished tofu!"





It never ceased to amaze Twilight how time seemed to go by extra slowly when you had to make sure four easily distracted and borderline super-powered knights from destroying the house of the witch-doctor they were currently staying in. It certainly didn't help that they had spent a whole twenty minutes fighting over a single bottle filled with red liquid, only to realise it was filled with raspberry juice and subsequently drinking the entire thing in one go.

But finally, finally, Zecora returned, a bag full of sandwiches slung over her back. Twilight took them graciously, smiling all the while. "Thank you so much Zecora, you have no idea how much you've helped me. How much you've helped everypony."

"There is no need to thank me, Miss Twilight. I am merely doing what I think is right."

"But if this works, you'll have helped so many! I just...can't thank you enough." Turning around, Twilight whistled loudly. The knights stopped what they doing, if only for a moment, so Twilight could speak. "Alright, I hope this works. Let's head back to the fort and just...hope, everypony."

Trotting forward, Twilight was suddenly stopped when something grabbed her from behind. Turning around, Twilight nearly pulled back as Zecora leaned right into her face. With a nearly unnoticeable flick, Zecora slipped a small bottle to Twilight. "It's a dangerous world to be out there alone, this will stop all danger from being set in stone."

Twilight glanced at the red liquid in the bottle. "Thanks?"

"Just be wary of where your adventure takes you, lest it lead you right into a...stew." Zecora said, moving backwards and returning to her original position above a large cauldron. Twilight had to fight back the urge to comment how cheesy it was. The stew, of course.

Shrugging, Twilight casually threw the bottle into her bag of sandwiches and trotted out the door. "Come on, knights. We have a fort full of changelings to crash."





The five...sorry, forgot Spike counts, the six of them arrived back at the changeling fort without any incident; save for a particularly humorous moment when red knight got his head shoved into a bee hive, it was quite funny; you should have seen it. And then the bear came along; ah, good times.

Anyway, walking towards the door again, Twilight wasn't sure what she was supposed to do next. Frankly, she didn't understand any of this. How were sandwiches supposed to help them break through a solid steel door? It didn't make sense.

Breathing deeply, Twilight turned around and levitated one of the delicious lunches out of her saddlebags. "So, I just...hand it to you?" 

Surprisingly, the blue knight was the first one to grab it, shooting a short burst of ice magic out of his feet to glue his companions in their places. The vein on the red's face was beginning to surface again, and only got bigger as blue moved his lips closer to the food.

And then, to the silent cries of his leader, the blue knight bit down on the sandwich.

A sudden burst of light eclipsed the sun, forcing Twilight to cover her eyes and step back. What was going on? Did all tofu do this? Her ears flicked backwards as a pained, ear splitting scream echoed through the forest. And though she had her hoof placed in front of her eyes, Twilight was still able to grasp small glimpses of what was happening to the blue knight.

In the middle of an explosion of light, he was changing. His arms, already tough as iron, ripped outward even more; popping out to obscene sizes. His chest burst out, rippling with obvious strength and power. Twilight swore she could see the outline of a mouth in the explosion, but disregarded it as her imagination. The knights didn't have mouths. His head and feet remained the same size though, but Twilight wasn't about to tell him that. The knight looked like he could snap her in half with a wayward glance.

As the light faded into the air, the blue knight didn't bother to explain what had happened, or show if it had hurt or not; simply running up to the metal door and grabbing it tightly with his two beefy arms. The veins on his arms popped and beat as he pulled, throwing all of his new found strength into breaking the door out of position. And with a final shout, the door flew through the air backwards, nearly crushing Twilight as it landed.

It was surprisingly dark on the other side of the blockade. Perhaps it was a side effect of changeling occupation, or maybe Twilight had just spent too long in the light. Granted, it wasn't dark enough that she couldn't see anything, but the difference was still notable.

Once again, Twilight found herself shoved backwards as the three knights behind her de-thawed their feet and moved to take her place. A puff of smoke filled the road, and suddenly, the blue knight was small again, his muscles and strengths fading into the air. And rising to replace it was the sound of charging chitin and an almost maniacal laughter.

Bursting out of the hole ripped in the wall, Shining Armour sprinted forward as fast as his legs could carry him. The knights prepared themselves for a fight, but found themselves lacking in one as soon as Shining changed course; heading straight into the woods. Stopping his laugh for a minute, Shining back-pedalled into the woods. "Haha, you know what? I don't care how you broke the door, you can have the blockade. It's not like you can stop it. We're all doomed anyway, me, you, red paint mcsquare head the fifth Czar of Scandinavia, everyone. So just...take your crummy fort."

The knights dropped their guard as they watched the changeling disappear into the trees. His laughter rang and bounced around the woods; a grim warning to anyone who wanted to travel through the blockade. All of a sudden, the darkness of the fort looked a whole lot more menacing than before. Coughing nervously, Twilight placed an unsteady hoof in front of herself. "I suppose we better...go in."

Turning around, Twilight felt like screaming again. Of course they were just waiting until she told them they could continue, why would they be doing anything different? Three pony sized creatures rushed past her, followed by a creature so big Twilight had to fight against the force of the wind rushing past her with it. Where in the blazes did orange knight find that manticore again? Twilight was sure they'd left it at Zecora's.

Swallowing her fear, Twilight chased the knights into the shadows.

The shadows felt constricting as Twilight passed the line between light and dark. Twilight had never walked the path to Canterlot before, she'd never had a reason too. Everytime she needed to travel back to the palace, Celestia would simply send a carriage down for her, or if that wasn't possible, she would take the train. The path was a total mystery to her.

Which is why it came as shock to her that it was so cold! A cold wind blew down from the tops of the mountains on her sides; even the heat of the sun had no chance to stand against something like this. There was a small tunnel in front of her, with clear ice walls lining the sides and connecting with each other to form the roof. Shaking a little, Twilight continued onward. From tales and stories, Twilight knew that they only needed to travel a short distance along the side of the mountain before arriving directly at the front gate of Canterlot.

And luckily for her, something embedded in the ice of the mountain had caught the knight's attention. Trotting closer, Twilight gave it a small glance. At first she wasn't sure what she was looking at. The strange creature resembled the knights, except where they had square heads, this creature had a bright yellow round one. With...was that an antenna sticking out the top?

Sighing to herself, Twilight continued further down the path; turning back occasionally. The knights behind her followed behind, there was no doubt of that, but they seemed intent on staring at every possible thing embedded in the ice. What could possibly be more important than getting to Canterlot? Didn't they understand that Princess Celestia was in...

Twilight froze when she finally stopped for a moment and concentrated on the ice, finally realising what the problem was. Why didn't she ever just pay attention instead of getting wrapped up in her own thoughts? It was staring her right in the face and she'd walked past it mindlessly.

It was changelings. Dozens or maybe hundreds of changelings, frozen stiff in the walls of the tunnel. Some were asleep, others were frozen in sheer terror, but each one was utterly and irreversibly encased in the ice walls of the tunnels. What could possibly have done this to so many creatures? It would have to be something powerful; something that Equestria hadn't seen since its creation.

A sudden cold wind blasted down the tunnel, so cold and powerful that hoof sized icicles blasted down the tunnel with it. It felt like one of the icicles speared Twilight in the heart as she stepped backwards. Or tried to, at least. Moving seemed hard for some reason. Almost subconsciously, Twilight started to breathe faster. Her chest beat forward, nearly unable to contain her heart as she felt the first licks of frost move up her legs.

The wind was relentless though, always carrying its message of death and cold forward. The casing of ice developing on Twilight finished with her legs and moved on to her torso; not caring about her frenzied struggling. In the corners of her vision, she could see the same thing was happening to the knights. That wasn't right, this couldn't be happening. The knights were supposed to protect her, were supposed to save Equestria, they couldn't be frozen along with her.

The suit of ice started to stretch up to her neck. This couldn't be real, she was dreaming. It was just too unlikely. She had four of the most powerful creatures on her side. Even if she didn't, she was Twilight Sparkle! She was the princess's student, she couldn't just lie down and turn into an ice sculpture. She was the element of magic, she was the most powerful unicorn in Equestria, she was...

The ice finished ensnaring her, capturing her perfectly in the dim reflective light of the cavern.





The air that rushed into Twilight's lungs was a god send. As soon as the casing of ice fell of her body, she immediately collapsed into a shivering pile, apparently too tired to keep standing. Had she just...no, it was impossible. She was still here, she was still alive.

Glancing away from the chunks of ice on the ground, Twilight looked up at her saviour. The blue knight was scanning through the cavern hastily. The usually cheery expression on his face had been replaced by a serious stare that penetrated deep into the cavern, searching for something. He didn't dawdle, or wait, or hesitate as he rushed forward, only a brief wave of his hand telling Twilight she should follow.

On unsteady legs, Twilight limped forward. She couldn't feel her tail, that would usually be concerning.

A sun shining on her skin was amazingly the first thing she noticed as she excited the tunnel. It was a weird thing to notice; she'd barely been in the cave for...what, a few minutes, and yet she thought she'd never feel the sun on her skin again. They were standing on the edge of a cliff; the forest far below them. The view alone was enough to suck Twilight's remaining breath away. The knight moved next to her though, a thin mist of ice painted around his fingers. He was prepared to fight, he just needed his opponent.

And almost as if it were reading a cue from a screenplay, the legendary windigo rose out from the woods below.

The wind around the windigo condensed into clouds nearly as soon as it appeared, hiding its entire back half in the storm. Small tornadoes and twisters spun around its neck, kept in place by the unique mix of hot and cold radiating from the creature. It roared with a mouth that was full of icicles sharpened to a point and charged forward, intent on stopping anything that could survive its icy winds.

The knight relaxed for a second and turned to Twilight. All he did was shrug as if he didn't understand what was going on and spun back to face the windigo.

Taking three steps back, the knight bent down to tap his toes. Twilight considered asking him what he was doing, considering they would both be wiped off the face of the earth in less than a minutes time, until it became painfully obvious. He was stretching.

And then he was off, charging forward to meet the windigo halfway. Time seemed to slow down as Twilight ran some calculations off the top of her head. It was a good thing she was so good at this sort of thing, because it caused her to realise a very important fact.

"Wait! Stop stop stop, you won't make it! It's too far away for you! Wait!"

To Twilight's shock, the knight only ran forward faster. Twisting his legs at the last second and pushing upwards powerfully, the knight launched himself over the edge. He seemed to hang in the air almost magically for a brief second, as the wind and the ice and the dust pushed past him as he flew forward. And eventually, straight down.

He disappeared from sight as Twilight gasped; what was she supposed to do now? She couldn't fight a windigo, it was impossible. They were just...too strong.  Just one of them had incapacitated three of the greatest knights in the land; she stood no chance against something like that. She needed the elements or her friends or something!

Bending her head down, Twilight gathered her magic. Never go quietly, not when the odds are in your favour, not when there are no odds at all.

She snapped back up and let her magic drain as a strange sound rose against the wind. Was that...Spike?

"Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

A bright flash blinded Twilight as something exploded from beneath the windigo. The monster only got a brief glance before what Twilight could only describe as a rocket ice-powered rocket knight rocket punched directly into its none rocket-powered chest.

The blue knight bounced back a few feet as the windigo screamed in shock and pain. The knight wasn't stupid though, he knew to never give an inch in a real fight. A small orb materialized in his hand as he took aim, rearing his entire hand back in preparation for his attack.

It seemed as if anything these knights did was enough to amaze Twilight. The ability to create something from nothing was a very difficult power to learn. Even creating something as simple as an orange would take years of practice and study, not to mention all the unexplored areas of magic you would need to develop and study yourself. Creating something from nothing was a feat she had thought impossible.

Until the blue had done exactly that, several dozen times a minute to attack the windigo. Countless arm sized shards of ice fired out of the knight's hand as the sheer force of the attack sent him flying backwards. And that was only the beginning of the attack. Twisting both his hands towards each other, the knight sent out a cloud of ice and pain towards the windigo. For a second, the horizon was blurred by a light blue haze as the attack stretched as far as Twilight could see.

The windigo wasn't expecting something this sudden. Twilight wasn't suspecting something this sudden. It would be a safe bet to say that no one in all of Equestria was expecting that much sheer pain to fly at them out of nowhere. It kicked and screamed as it tried to change its course, but it was already far too late.

With a rapid succesion of cracks and snaps, the windigo burst through the blue knight's magic, crashing into the side of the mountain and landing painfully. Dust kicked up around Twilight as the knight himself landed; not a second spared as he sprinted towards the downed creature.

Twilight had to double check to make sure what she was seeing was real; her hoof already raising itself to her head. Grasped in the blue knights hand, instead of magic or a sword, was her assistant.

"Look Twilight, I'm helping!"

Leaping over the collapsed body of the windigo, the blue knight got to work. A wayward hoof kicked out at him from the beast, but it was as expected and already countered by a swift wave of his hand. Content he was safe, the blue knight grabbed Spike's tail roughly, and pulled.

Green flames burst out of the dragon's mouth, bathing the windigo in fire. At first it struggled, kicked back and tried to stop it, but it was obvious it was pointless. The clouds surrounding it faded into the air as they heated and drops of clear water stained the ground. And as the windigo melted, so did all the damage it had caused. 

From deep within the tunnel to the fort, three creatures and a manticore raged against the ice holding them in place; hacking at their frozen feet in an attempt to break them out. Changelings of every size glanced around confused; a couple having the right sense to escape into the air before something else happened. Next to Twilight, back at the edge of the cliff, a huge chunk of ice fell from the mountain, revealing another shocking surprise. Twilight wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't been there to see it herself.

"Princess Cadence!" She shouted, waving at her foal sitter excitedly.

The pink alicorn rubbed her head for a moment, seemingly not hearing Twilight's shouts. "Twi...Twilight?"

"Princess Cadence!"

"Twilight?"

"We're not doing this again, what are you doing here?"

Shooting a glance behind her, Cadence walked forward. "I...I don't know. I was following Shiny, when all of a sudden this monster appeared and I...I can't remember anything after that."

"That's...that's amazing Cadence. I can't believe you're all...oh for Luna's sake Blue!"

For some reason, Twilight hadn't noticed the blue knight slowly inching over to Cadence. Far from the symbol of power and danger he was when he was fighting the windigo, he now wrung his hands together awkwardly and locked his eyes on the ground.

Cadence noticed him around the same time Twilight did. "Oh, who are you? One of Twilight's friends?"

A drop of sweat ran down the knights forehead. Luckily, Twilight was there to help him out. To be his 'wingman' one might say. "Haven't you met the knights before, Cadence? This is the creature that defeated the windigo and saved you. He can't...um, talk. Or open doors, but that's not important."

Cadence stared at the strange creature for a moment longer. She was no stranger to shy creatures before, hell, being the princess of love, she'd helped quite a few shy lovers get over their anxiety. This one would be no different. Glancing between his awkward shuffle and his nervous hands, it was obvious what she needed to do.

Smiling devilishy, Cadence moved closer. "Well then, a windigo is a dangerous creature. Mayhaps my hero needs a little...reward."

The blue knight took a tentative step backwards as Cadence rushed towards him. With a single flick of her wings, the blue knight was pulled closer to Cadence; wrapped in a warm embrace.

Leaning in close, Cadence whispered in his ear, 'just don't tell Shining about this,' and went in for the kiss.

Twilight couldn't watch this. It just felt wrong to watch her sister in law make out with someone who wasn't her brother. It was just weird, she didn't like it. Looking around, Twilight felt a twang of guilt as she noticed the red knight shaking his fists to the sky again while green and orange laughed at him. What was it with these knights and princesses?

Content that everything would be safe now, Twilight trotted a few steps ahead of the pack; leaving Cadence and the knights behind. 

She just needed to see Canterlot, needed to know what she was up against. Had the changelings damaged it? Had the guard held their own? She needed to know, just a small glimpse. And there, glimmering in the sun, she realised just how big of a task she'd cut out for herself.

Canterlot was nearly completely reformed. The river running around it from the mountains was stained a dark green and  makeshift walls reinforced by magic had been carefully constructed around the perimeter. The castle, usually a shining gem of the world, fared no better than the rest of the city. Banners and the occasional fire marked the pillars and spires of the palace; truly, the entire place looked nothing like she remembered it.

Jumping as the green knight suddenly appeared next to her, he too looked over the city. And instead of a sense of fear, or anger or anything a reasonable person would have, he simply poked Twilight in the side and pointed. And anyone with half a brain could tell what he was saying.

"Hey Twilight...Twilight, Twilight, see that city? Twilight, see the; Twilight do you see that city? Because, Twilight, because I'm going to, Twilight I'm going to crash that city. It'll be godlike."

It took a moment, a single glorious moment where everything was perfect, until Twilight sighed and hung her head down heavily. She was starting to see why Celestia imprisoned the knights in the first place.