//------------------------------//
// Ch 12. Fall of Canterlot 
// Story: Equestrian Knights 
// by HeatherIsBestPlayer 
//------------------------------//

	They had lost the very thing they had set out to get. The Goblet of Life was gone, and they would never get what they want. Prince Blueblood would become poor and homeless, Trixie would never become a powerful unicorn, Lightning Dust would never be a Wonderbolt, and none of them would become rich or immortal.
And yet, as they made there way back to Canterlot, these facts, even though they knew them, were hardly on their mind at all. The only thing currently on their minds was that Sombra and Chrysalis were back and planning to take over Equestria, and they had to warn the Princesses before it was too late.
They couldn’t take a train, since no trains traveled at night and they were all out of money anyway, and one of the Pegasi or Gilda couldn’t just fly there because they would never get to speak to the Princesses without Prince Blueblood with them, so they were forced to travel there on foot. Their trip back to Canterlot took them the whole night, and by the time they got there, it was the next morning, and they were all struggling to stay awake. They yawned as they ran through the streets of the city towards the castle, the early birds of the city looking at them curiously as they went by.
They made it to the castle gates. The guards stopped them out front.
“I need to talk to my aunt, Princess Celestia, immediately!” said Blueblood.
They stared at Blueblood and his companions. 
“Prince Blueblood? You’re filthy!” said one of the guards
Blueblood looked down at himself. It was true. His eyes were bloodshot, his fur and mane was unkempt and dirty, his hooves were covered in dried mud, and he looked like he was ready to pass out at any moment.
“I know. I’m not in any appropriate state to see her,” said Blueblood, “but this is too important! The fate of Equestria is at stake!”
The two guards looked at each other, considering, and then tuned back to Blueblood.
“Very well, your highness,” they said. They opened the gates.
Blueblood and company hurried through and ran into the castle.
“I can’t believe I’m going to meet Princess Celestia,” said Trixie as they followed Blueblood down a corridor to the throne room.
“Just let me do all the talking,” said Blueblood.
They burst through the doors of the throne room and hurried inside. Princess Celestia was sitting up on her throne. She looked up at them in surprise at there sudden entrance.
“Auntie Celestia!” said Blueblood, bowing before her immediately. The others all followed suit and bowed down as well.
Celestia raised an eyebrow at Blueblood and his unusual company, but she got up from her throne and walked down to them “What is the matter, Nephew?” she asked in her ever warm and motherly voice.
Blueblood and the others got up and stood normally. “Forgive my appalling state, auntie, but this is important! King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis have returned!”
Celestia’s eyes widened. “What?”
Blueblood continued. “Queen Chrysalis revived King Sombra, and they’re going to try and take over Equestria together. You have to stop them!”
“Nephew, how do you know this?” Celestia asked.
“Because we…” Blueblood stopped. He didn’t really want to let his aunt know about his recent scheme to find the Goblet of Life and become rich. He looked back at the others. The looks they were giving him indicated they shared his reluctance to let her know of their recent not so honorable scheme.
He turned back to his aunt. “Look, how we know isn’t important! What’s important is that Sombra and Chrysalis have to be stopped before it’s too late!”
Celestia stared down at him for a few moments. Then an evil smirk appeared on her face. Then she brought her hoof up and smacked Blueblood hard across his face.
Blueblood stumbled backwards, holding his face where she had struck him in pain. He and the rest of the group all gaped at Princess Celestia in utter shock at what she had just done.
“Whoa!” Gilda exclaimed. “I always knew Celestia was a bitch, but that was just harsh!”
“Auntie Celestia, why did you do that!?!” Blueblood asked her in complete confusion.
“You’re all such fools,” Celestia said, her motherly tone now gone and replaced by a cruel tone that was most unlike her.
Celestia was suddenly immersed in green flames. Realization hit the group too late as the green flames vanished, revealing none other than Queen Chrysalis standing before them.
“Surprise again!” Chrysalis said mockingly.
Everyone backed away from the Changeling Queen. They were too late.
“AW CRAP!” said Hoops.
“RUN!” shouted Trixie.
They turned to run back towards the doorway to the throne room, but King Sombra suddenly stepped out from behind the doorway and slammed the big doors shut with his magic, stopping the group in their place.
“Leaving so soon?” said Sombra. “But don’t you want to see the Princesses and the Element Bearers? That IS why you came all this way, isn’t it?”
“Well, here they are!” said Chrysalis, pointing over to a shadowy far corner of the throne room. The group looked at where she was gesturing and gasped at what they saw. Upper Crust let out a scream.
There stood Princess Celestia, as well as the rest of the gang, Princess Luna, the Element Bearers, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, Captain Shining Armor and his wife, Princess Cadence, and even the little baby dragon, all of them turned into black-crystal statues!
They continued to stare at what remained of their fallen rivals, not knowing how they hadn’t noticed them before. The statues all had horrified expressions on their faces, which the victims had apparently had right before they had been turned into statues.
“No!” exclaimed Blueblood in despair as he stared at the petrified form of what had used to be his great aunt, unable to believe what he was seeing.
“What do you think of our newest decorations?” asked Queen Chrysalis. “Quite nice, right? Although not as nice as these…” Chrysalis levitated six shiny objects out of nowhere to her. It turned out to be the six Elements of Harmony. She placed them on herself, wearing them like trophies of her conquest. “Those pour souls over there won’t be needing these anymore. I think they look quite lovely on me, don’t you think, Sombra dear?”
“Absolutely, my love,” said Sombra, still under the effects of Chrysalis’s love potion.
“How were you able to turn ALL of them into statues?” exclaimed Trixie.
“It was easer than I thought it would be,” said Chrysalis. “With Sombra and my power’s combined, and the element of surprise on our side, we were able to enter the castle and overpower them before they even knew what hit them! And with the Princesses and the Element Bearers finally out of the way, there’s nothing left to stand in my way!” She looked at the group. “And I couldn’t have done it without all your help,” she said to them.
“No,” said Blueblood. “No.” He and the rest of the group all felt the horrible realization wash over them that they were partially responsible for all this.
“Lets take em down!” growled Lightning Dust, getting ready to attack Chrysalis and Sombra.
“Don’t be stupid,” said Dumbbell. “Look what they did to them!” he pointed at the Princesses’ and the Element Bearers’ statues.
Lightning Dust growled in frustration.
“Now for a bit of redecorating,” said Chrysalis. She pointed to all the stain glass windows in the room with her hoof, which depicting pivotal scenes from Equestrian history on them, some of them depicting the Element Bearers performing their great deeds. “Lets get rid of these eyesores for starters.”
Chrysalis used her magic to blast all the stain glass windows on the left side of the throne room, shattering them into millions of pieces.
Sombra joined in and used his magic to blast all the windows on the other side of the room, shattering all of them as well.
“That’s much better,” said Chrysalis.
While Chrysalis and Sombra were distracted, Iron Will suddenly spoke up.
“Guys,” he whispered, getting their attention. He pointed over to the doors of the throne room, which were now unguarded. “Lets get out of here!”
They all nodded in agreement. With the evil King and Queen still distracted, Trixie used her magic to blast the throne room doors open.
“RUN!” she shouted.
They all bolted out of the throne room as fast as they could.
Sombra moved to chaise after them, but Chrysalis stopped him.
“Let them go,” she said. “They’re not important now. We have a kingdom to subjugate. Its time the ponies of Equestria bowed to their new masters.”

………………………

The group ran out of the castle. They came to the two guards guarding the castle gates and ran up to them.
“CHRYSALIS AND SOMBRA HAVE TAKEN OVER THE CASTLE!” Blueblood shouted at them. “YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!”
The two guards stared at Blueblood. Then they both grinned evilly. A second later, green flames ran up their bodies, revealing them to actually be two Changelings.
“Aw shit!” said Dumbbell.
The two Changelings hissed at them.
Gilda suddenly leaped forward and tackled one of the Changelings to the ground. The other one moved to attack Gilda, but Lightning Dust flew forward, spun around, and bucked the monster in the jaw with her hind legs.
“COME ON!” she shouted, motioning for them all to run. They all ran, or flew in the case of the Griffon and the Pegasi, past the two unconscious Changelings and away from the Castle.
They hurried down the city streets, ponies staring at them as they went by. They stopped after a few blocks and caught their breath.
“Okay,” said Dumbbell. “So getting help from the Princesses failed. What do we do now?”
“I don’t know!” said Blueblood.
Around them, they heard ponies begin screaming. Glancing around them, they saw ponies pointing up at the sky, terrified looks on their faces. They looked up and their mouths dropped open. Up in the sky, a massive swarm of Changelings were flying down from the clouds towards the city. There had to be hundreds of them. Perhaps thousands.
All around them ponies screamed and began running around in a panic to get away from the approaching Changelings.
“GO!” shouted Gilda. They began running again down the city street.
The Changelings flew down into the city, swarming the streets. They were everywhere! The creatures began terrorizing ponies, capturing the citizens one by one. Every other second, another pony was snatched from the ground and carried off by a Changeling. Some Pegasus ponies tried to fly away, but they were easily snatched out of the air by the monsters as well.
Iron Will punched a Changeling out of the air as it flew down at them, knocking it out cold onto the street. Trixie blasted another one with her magic, stunning it.
The group ran as fast as they could to get out of the city, trying to avoid the Changelings as they went. All around them ponies seemed to have the same idea. They could see some royal guards on the streets helping to evacuate the civilians, and trying to fight back against the attacking monsters, but failing.
It was the Canterlot Changeling invasion all over again, except this time there was no one who could stop it!
Suddenly they spotted several blasts of dark magic go flying through the air and strike down in the city, one of them hitting the street just head of them. They all could tell from the dark aura of the magic that it had come from King Sombra, but it oddly didn’t appear to do anything to the street, so they didn’t stop running.
Suddenly the ground began trembling. That caught them by surprise and caused them to slow to a halt.
“Whoa! What the heck is that?” said Score, the ground continuing to shake.
“Earthquake?” said Flim.
Several meters away from them, right where it had been struck by the dark magic blast, large cracks began appearing in the brick paved road. The ground then began to push upwards, as if there was something underneath, struggling to get to the surface.
“Now what?” said Gilda.
The bricks of the street were forced aside as something began rising up out of the ground. Something big! They watched, frozen in their places, as a massive monster made out of solid rock climbed up out of the earth. It kind of resembled a gorilla, and it was the size of a house. Magma could be seen between all the cracks in its ‘body’, and inside three holes on its ‘head’, which were it’s eyes and mouth, and all over it’s body, small black crystals could be seen embedded in the rock.
The thing shook the dirt and bricks from itself and let out a deafening roar.
‘Great. As if things weren’t bad enough!’ Trixie thought to herself.
“WHAT THE HECK IS THAT THING?” shouted Flam.
Trixie, judging by the dark crystals jutting out of it, guessed it had been created by Sombra’s magic.
“WHO CARES? RUUUUUUN!” shouted Dumbbell.
They turned and continued running, the rock monster behind them destroying an entire house with one of it’s massive fists.
As the group rounded a block, they were surprised to see another one of the giant rock creatures stomping through the street; only this one looked more like a giant scorpion.
“THERE’S MORE OF THEM!?” exclaimed Lightning Dust.
The rock monster shot a fireball out of its scorpion-like tail at a nearby house, instantly setting it aflame.
“THERE’S ANOTHER ONE!” shouted Hoops, pointing up over some rooftops. There they could see the top of yet another rock creature stomping about.
“LOOK OUT!” shouted Upper Crust, pointing at a couple of Changelings that were flying down towards them. They ran into a nearby alley as the Changelings swooped down and tackled a mare Blueblood, Jet Set, and Upper Crust recognized as Fleur De Lis, who screamed as she was subdued by the ugly creatures.
The group pressed themselves up against the wall of the alley, trying to stay hidden from the Changelings.
“Its no use! We’ll never make it out of the city!” said Trixie as they looked out of the alley at all the Changelings and flying around and rock monsters rampaging.
“Guys, I think I found our way out of here!” said Score. He pointed towards the back of the alley at a sewer grate in the ground.
“No way!” said Upper Crust. “I’m not going down there! It’s probably full of disease!”
“It’s either that or the Changelings!” said Lightning Dust. “Which would you prefer?”
Upper Crust looked out of the alley at all the chaos, then turned back to the bluegreen Pegasus. “Fine.”
They went over to the sewer grate.
“Looks like someone’s gonna have to use some serious magic to get this thing open,” said Trixie with a confident grin.
Gilda grabbed the grate by the handle and easily pulled it open.
“Oh,” said Trixie in disappointment, seeing that her magic wasn’t needed this time.
“Hurry!” said Gilda, not wanting to be caught by the Changelings.
One by one they leaped down into the sewer. Once they were all down in, Iron Will pulled the grate closed behind them so the Changelings wouldn’t spot it and suspect someone escaped through it.
“Oh, it smells like something died down here!” said Blueblood in disgust.
“Relax. It’s just a storm sewer,” said Gilda.
The unicorns all lit up their horns so they could see. It was your typical dark and dank storm sewer. Filthy water trickled beneath their hooves. Above them they could hear the terror going on.
“Come on, let’s follow this thing and see if it leads out of the city,” said Trixie.
“It should if we follow the water,” said Blueblood. He knew a few things about the city, having lived there his whole life, and being a part of the royal family.
They followed the sewer; going in the direction the water beneath them flowed. They eventually saw a light in the distance and sure enough, they found themselves out side. They looked out of the tunnel and found they were at a riverbank and outside of the city somewhere.
“We’re out!” shouted Upper Crust with relief.
They climbed out of the sewer tunnel onto muddy ground and looked around. They were indeed outside of the city just by the river. They could see the edge of the waterfall just downstream, plummeting down off of the mountain that Canterlot rested on. Behind them they could see the city in the distance. They all stared back at the nightmare they had miraculously managed to get out of. Smoke was rising up out of the city in several places. They could still hear the screams of all the civilians still inside.
“This can’t be happening!” said Blueblood as he stared back at the city… his home. He hoped that any moment he would wake up in his bed and this would all have just been a bad dream. “This just can’t be happening!”
“Our home!” Upper Crust said to her husband, who held her close to him.
Everyone was silent for a few moments.
“What do we do now?” asked Gilda.
“We get as far away from here as we can!” said Dumbbell.
“And go where?” said Trixie. “You heard what they said. They’re not going to stop with the city! They’re going to conquer the entire world!”
At that moment Upper Crust let out a tired yawn. That in turn caused the rest of them to yawn. They were immediately reminded of how exhausted they were. They had all been awake for at least twenty-four hours. They needed sleep.
“We can’t do anything in the state we’re in,” said Iron Will. “We can figure out what we’re gonna do later. For now we need to find a safe place to sleep.”
They all nodded in agreement.
“I don’t think anywhere is safe anymore,” said Blueblood as they started heading away from the city down the mountain, towards the forest.