//------------------------------// // Chapter 13 // Story: Rocinante and the Wedding at Canterlot // by Charliemane //------------------------------// Only a third of the way down the tower, Sassaflash found her cousin waiting for her with a smile across his face. “I was beginning to wonder if you were coming.” Sassaflash paused for a moment to look out one of the windows. Down below, the Elements of Harmony were racing towards one of the castle's other towers, dodging the enemy's attempts to dive bomb them with remarkable speed. It was a sight that helped Sassaflash to breathe a little easier. Between the Elements of Harmony, Princess Cadance, the Royal Guard, and most of all, Princess Celestia, there couldn't be too many changelings left for them to deal with. “The enemy is a bit late for breakfast, so you won't get to use your line, cousin. How about lunch?” “Ha! Excellent use of spirit! Come! Let us break the miserable foe under hoof with such fierce determination that they shall rue the day they ever dared dream themselves capable of challenging the forces of justice, virtue, and valor!” As they continued down the more of the stairs, Sassaflash took another peek outside and suddenly began to feel faint. Below them Twilight Sparkle and her friends were being escorted back towards the main keep and the guard appeared to be completely overwhelmed by all of the changelings swarming around them. “C-Cousin? Cousin, you need to see this.” Rocinante trotted up excitedly towards the window. “What is it? Surely the cowards have not surrendered yet.” “No... look. Maybe we should head back and get Princess Luna out of here...” Rocinante looked to his cousin with disbelief. “Abandon the field? Surely you jest, dear Sassa. We have yet to engage the enemy in glorious battle! Fear not! They will fall before my lance and tremble before my name!” “But there's so many...” “Ha! So many Changelings, and I have not even had breakfast yet! Fear not! For the more there are, the greater the triumph! Come Sassa! Onward, to glory we go!” Sassaflash couldn't help but notice the dread she felt in the bottom of her stomach, but Rocinante had not led them wrong so far. “This day...” As she searched for the right words to try and describe just how terrible this day had been, Rocinante smiled and leapt down the last few stairs before door leading out to the wall. With a puffed out chest and beaming grin, he looked back up towards her. “This day is going to be perfect, the kind of day that makes me prideful as a knight. For though the foe is all around, we have already lost the town, at last now I will get to join the fight!” With a loud and boisterous laugh, Rocinante threw open the door and leapt out onto the castle wall. Sassaflash had hoped the situation would be better than hopeless, but as she walked out the door behind him she saw the situation was unfortunately, as she had expected. Rocinante, still laughing, had pointed his lance toward almost every changeling they could see on the walls and in the courtyard below. A few guards were running about, but they were being pursued by an impossible number of changelings and most of the guards lay strewn about trapped by some form of green slime that pinned them in place. “Hear me now, vile and wicked shape-shifters and servants to evil and destruction! I am I, Rocinante! Flee now lest you be swept away by the ever powerful force of justice, virtue, and valor through my righteous lance!” Everypony, even the trapped guards, stopped and looked at this strange pony who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere with his absurd ultimatum to the entire changeling army. For a moment, time almost felt as though it had stopped as everpony waited to see if this crazed earth pony was even real. Sassaflash felt her knees begin to knock as hundreds of changelings crowded around them. Even the short distance back towards the safety of the tower and been filled with at least a dozen opponents. But despite all that had surrounded them, Rocinante's smile never faltered as he reached up with his spare hoof and straightened his famed helmet of Marebrino. “You cannot say that you were not warned, villains. Prepare yourselves!” No sooner had he spoken the words when suddenly a brilliant flash of light burst forth from the castle's main tower. It was over them and gone in an instant, but as Sassaflash reopened her eyes she saw that all of the changelings were gone and all of the guards were back up on their hooves. “What... What happened?” Rocinante turned to looked at his squire with furrowed brows and a look that, to Sassaflash's disbelief, appeared to be disappointment. “It would appear, my dear Sassa, that the cowardly foe has decided to turn tail and run instead of facing my wrath. Clearly my renown as a knight-errant for the cause of good has spread further than I realized.” The warm magical light pulsed through the entire capital, sweeping away all of the changelings, dissolving their cocoons, and purifying all of the magical poison in Luna's body. The Princess awoke with a start as she snapped up from her mattress. “Help me!” The room responded with an empty silence. Breathing heavily, Luna looked to the mirror over her desk. She had a bead of sweat running down the side of her face, along the edge of her brushed back mane. Was it all a dream? As the Princess of the Night, dreams and nightmares were something she was intimately familiar with, which was why she felt so disturbed to be unable to tell the difference between her nightmare and reality. Rising from her bed, she looked around. What time was it? What was she doing before she went to bed. She remembered Sassaflash, no a fake Sassaflash. Where was Rocinante? Where were her companions now that she needed them most? She had to find them. Luna swiftly opened the door and there, to her surprise, was the stunned knight-errant and squire. “Princess Luna!” “Noble Grace!” Sassaflash embraced the stunned Luna's foreleg tightly. As Sassaflash looked up at her, Princess Luna thought she felt a dampness where the squire's face had pressed up against her. Had she been crying? “Princess! I'm so glad you're alright!” Luna smiled as she returned Sassaflash's embrace and looked to her knight-errant for an explanation, but Rocinante seemed to have fallen back on his haunches as he sat there on the plush carpet floor in the stone doorway. The look of relief in his wide eyes was accentuated what appeared to be moisture. “It gives me great relief and pleasure to see that you are well, Most Gracious and Noble Highness. Indeed, we are both quite relieved to see you.” Though she wasn't sure what had happened or what was going on, Princess Luna held her free foreleg open with a tearful smile and her knight obediently and eagerly walked into her embrace.