Shovel Knight stood tall and proud on the deck of the Iron Whale. Treasure Knight lay within, incapacitated, surrounded only by his ill-gotten wealth. Only three Knights stood between him and the Tower now.
The sun began to fade over the horizon, bleeding vibrant orange across the sky. Jumping from the Whale and landing with a heavy thud on dry land, Shovel Knight headed for the nearby treeline, coming to a halt at the closest tree. Readying his shovel, he powered it into the trunk, leaving a sizable dent behind as he raised it up to his shoulder again. He struck again and again, the mark growing larger and larger with each impact. Within minutes, the tree fell with an almighty crash.
Drawing close to the fallen form, he swung his weapon into it from overhead, splitting up much of the trunk into smaller, more manageable pieces, and one larger log, until he had enough wood for what he needed. Carrying the fruits of his work to a clearing in the trees, he assembled as many rocks from nearby as he could find around the wood in a circle.
Striking his trusty shovel against a stone rewarded him with sparks, luminous against the darkening surroundings. A couple of hits later, and the wood caught light. Shovel Knight headed back towards the tree, and rolled the log over to the fire.
He planted his shovel firmly in the earth, and lowered himself down as his blue armour produced a cacophony of clacks and clangs while he did so. With the weight off of his feet at last, he rested his head against the log, and fell into a deep sleep.
-----
A swirling mist encircled Shovel Knight as he looked around. As mysterious as this was, it was familiar. Recognising it, he gazed to the sky, a crimson figure standing out against the white backdrop.
A phantom voice commanded him, calling to him from beyond the mist.
"Save her."
As the words fell upon Shovel Knight's ears, footsteps echoed throughout. Shadows penetrated the fog, advancing on him - enemies he had slain in battle before.
In unrest, Shovel Knight leaped into combat, holding his own as best he could against the relentless horde of foes, striking hard with his shovel, and crushing them from above.
In the midst of the fray, he saw her. Falling. The red figure plummeting to the ground.
"Shield Knight!"
Racing past the countless enemies that stood before him, he leaped, as the world around him felt as if it slowed to a crawl.
As the pair drew closer, he saw the fear in her eyes fade, joy flooding in to take its place. Shovel Knight, with his arms outstretched, reached longingly for her as she called out for him.
"Shovel Knight!"
Falling into his arms, the mist around him began to clear, showing a boundless, empty white void. The adversaries surrounding him vanished without a trace. Shield Knight was safe.
The world around the pair of them faded into a hostile nothingness. Shovel Knight's limbs became numb, as the loss of feeling washed over his body. Looking around at the changed scene, he exclaimed as the source of the ghostly voice that had given him instruction was nowhere to be found.
And when he looked back down, neither was Shield Knight.
-----
Shovel Knight began to stir. Slowly pulling himself from the world of sleep, he was hit with a wave of sadness as he realised.
It was all a dream. Shield Knight was still beyond his grasp. She did not lay before him, only the glowing embers of the fire, and the charred, blackened wood. He was alone.
Drearily pulling himself to his feet, he pulled his shovel from the ground, and put out the smouldering remains of the fire as the wavy pillar of black smoke snaked its way into the sky.
Swarmed by sorrow, Shovel Knight looked off into the distance as the spire of the Tower of Fate peeked over the treetops. "I must persevere. This land needs saving." He reminded himself, the creeping depression threatening to crush his resolve.
Putting the dream out of mind, he went on his way further towards the tower, spying the lairs of the last three Knights - a Clockwork Tower, a Flying Machine, and a Stranded Ship half-buried in ice.
"Almost there. The homes of Tinker Knight, Propeller Knight, and...Polar Knight."
He decided to root out the first two Knights before making his way to the ship. It was inevitable that he and Polar Knight would share their final duel, but he wished to delay the end of he who had once been his friend for as long as possible.
Journeying towards the Clockwork Tower, Shovel Knight froze as he saw an unwelcome sight - his shadowy double, once his greatest ally, clad in his jet black and blood red armour, and...a dark figure, hovering before him, its presence dousing the area in darkness. Hiding behind a tree, Shovel Knight listened in, but only Black Knight's voice could be heard clearly. However, the unknown figure's voice, once heard, was unmistakable.
The Enchantress.
"I beg of you, take my words to heart. Your safety is my only concern!"
As soon as he had been sure of it, she exited in a powerful display of magic, leaving only Black Knight out in the open, turning to head off into the dense forest as the area around returned to light once again. Leaving his concealment, Shovel Knight ran over to Black Knight.
"Was that the Enchantress?! Tell me wha-"
"You!"
Black Knight turned and drew his shovel, pointing accusingly with it at Shovel Knight.
"Haven't you tired of this charade? Stay out of this!"
Black Knight was still clearly beyond being reasoned with. Gripping his own shovel tightly, Shovel Knight retorted.
"You never were one to blindly follow, Black Knight, but the Order and the Enchantress must be stopped!"
"Fool! You're headed down a ruinous path!"
"The only path I seek leads to the Tower of Fate, and I will reach it."
Readying himself, Black Knight prepared to charge.
"Never! Steel thy shovel!"
Black Knight and Shovel Knight bolted towards each other, determined to put each other out of their way. Jumping into the air, Shovel Knight plunged towards Black Knight, only to strike the earth as his opponent dodged back, swinging his shovel to connect with Shovel Knight's head.
As Black Knight's attack closed in, Shovel Knight pulled his weapon from the dirt and leaped over Black Knight's shovel.
Surveying vantage, Black Knight bounded away, and channeled his magic abilities through his shovel, firing a large purple bolt at Shovel Knight.
"The same strategy, again?" Shovel Knight thought to himself. Recognising this attack from their previous bout, he sprang over the bolt, but tensed up as he saw what was coming next.
This was not the same strategy, Black Knight had learned. And Shovel Knight was a fool for not anticipating this.
"Right where I want you!" Black Knight taunted his rival as he charged a second bolt at Shovel Knight, now incapable of dodging as gravity pulled him back down. Letting the shot loose, he grinned maliciously beneath his helmet.
The bolt slammed into Shovel Knight and exploded, sending pain surging through his chest as he crashed onto the ground. He struggled to get back to his feet, his futile attempt at getting back up cut short by Black Knight bringing his shovel down on his helmet, knocking him out cold.
"It is done. Have your way with him."
"He shall not be bothering us any more..."
-----
Shovel Knight's fingers twitched. Feeling began to return to his limbs, and his senses were gifted back to him. The world around him came back into view, but it was not the one he had left behind. He was in a forest, yes, but something felt...off.
This soil, these trees, this sky, it all felt strange, oddly familiar yet alien all the same. Lumbering to his feet, Shovel Knight looked around. The forest was like any other, trees crowding the view as far as the eye could see, grass covering the ground. The sun was on its way out of the sky, the horizon illuminated by its red glow.
Among the grass, there laid a tool, cerulean with gold trimming. Relieved to have his reliable shovel with him, Shovel Knight cast his gaze up, perhaps the Tower would be visible over the trees. And sure enough, there it was, the spire.
"So, Black Knight bested me and left me elsewhere in the forest? What is he playing at?" Shovel Knight mumbled to himself in thought. He headed in the direction of the Tower, determined to get back on track.
With the crunching footfalls rhythmically echoing in his head, Shovel Knight drew close to the edge of the forest, the concentration of trees diminishing. Between the higher, slimmer parts of the trunks, he could see what looked like roofs.
"I'm back near the village?"
Continuing on, he heard voices in the distance, and closing in. Townsfolk, most likely.
Drawing closer, he could hear their words more clearly.
"Hang on, I hear hoofsteps." A feminine voice spoke with a hurried tone.
Shovel Knight paused and thought to himself. "Hoofsteps? Is that what those bipedal equine townsfolk back at the village called them? ...Now that I think about it, I don't recall them having any different of a vocabulary."
"It's stopped!" A second voice piped up, a little bit more rough than the first, but still feminine like the one before it.
Shovel Knight barely heard the third voice, meek and quiet, speak up.
"...I think it knows we can hear it."
He carried on towards the source of the voices. Whatever they belonged to, they were surely mistaken - he was no creature, he was a Knight. Emerging from the trees, what laid beyond came into view. The buildings were not those of the village, or the armour outpost. The spire did not belong to the Tower of Fate, but to a strange castle on a mountain, but it was clearly not the Clockwork Tower. And before him stood a very peculiar sight, six oddly coloured horses, small in stature, only just above waist height. Two featured horns, two with wings, and the last two with nothing of the sort.
These were certainly nothing like the horse-like townfolk from the village - there was no way the voices had come from them. As perplexing as this discovery was, he refocused on his objective, which now seemed much further away.
"Strange, I definitely heard voices from over here."
Walking past them, he heard a fourth voice speak with notable intensity and a refined accent.
"How rude! How dare you dismiss us as if we are not worthy of notice."
Shovel Knight stopped in his tracks when the voice made itself known. He turned and looked towards the group and, lo and behold, the white horned equine seemed to be the source of the voice.
He stood and stared at them in silence, his mind drowning in questions, none more eminent than one thought bouncing around his head as his mouth remained sealed tightly shut.
"...What?"
"These things are sentient? And capable of speech?" Shovel Knight pondered to himself. "Where am I?!"
The same brash sounding voice from before made a second appearance, belonging to the sky-blue...pegasus? If he knew his mythology right, that was a pegasus, and the horned ones were unicorns. The blue pegasus, with a mane that could only be described as radiating exuberance, spoke quietly to the purple unicorn by its side.
"I'm not sure it knows how to respond."
To which, the unicorn, the owner of the first voice he had heard, turned and made a reply. "But we heard it talk not even a minute ago."
This was getting both more awkward and tiresome with each passing moment. Shovel Knight took it upon himself to bring this to a close. ""It" has a name." Surprised by his jarring outburst, the group in its entirety exclaimed and jumped back, shocking them into silence once again, with only quiet murmurs being passed between only the most talkative of the group, namely the white and violet unicorns and the blue pegasus.
"Well, it can respond, alright."
"What should we do?"
"I don't know, I've not done something like this before."
While they had seemed to be eager to take the first step, it was now Shovel Knight leading the conversation. If this could be called a conversation at all. From looking at them over his shoulder, he turned to face them properly, seeing how they now had his attention. "My name is Shovel Knight, of the Kingdom of Pridemoor. You have no reason to fear me, I assure you."
That seemed to work, as the amethyst equine stood more confidently, and spoke up.
"Well, Mr. Knight..." Shovel Knight chuckled covertly "...my name is Twilight Sparkle. If I may ask, what are you doing here, and how did you get here, anyway?"
"Twilight Sparkle? A peculiar title, but one I can address you by nonetheless. Well met." Shovel Knight looked back into the forest, retracing his steps as if any kind of answer lay at the end. "Sadly, I have no desire to be here, and I fear an adversary of mine may be the reason I find myself in this place."
"An adversary? Who? And what's wrong with being here?" Twilight responded. She seemed to be full of questions, which couldn't be helped. The only problem came in the fact that Shovel Knight had many of his own and couldn't get a word in edgeways. "A man who was once a great friend of mine, my dark doppelganger - Black Knight. Pridemoor was in grave danger, the Enchantress, a sorceress capable of terrible magic and her order of Knights - The Order of No Quarter - were out to wreak havoc across the land, an endeavour I took it upon myself to end."
"That's terrible! What's going to happen?"
"I do not know, but I fear the Enchantress's hold over the Kingdom will tighten without me to oppose her. If you don't mind, I have some questions of my own." Twilight's form shrunk slightly as she realised how she had been bombarding him ruthlessly with question after question. "Erm, sure, go ahead, sorry I've been running my mouth so much..."
"Think nothing of it. Firstly, I wish to know the names of your companions - if idle chatter is all I'm going to be able to do, then I wish to be able to call them by name."
"Well..." Twilight sidled closer to Shovel Knight, who caught notice of the strange marking on her side, turning and labeling each of the group by name from left to right, the white unicorn, who still looked rather sour, the cream pegasus who could barely be seen hiding behind the pink equine, exhibiting quite the contrary attitude, the blue pegasus and the orange horse in a hat. Strange, he thought, but stranger things have indeed happened already. "These are my friends, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie -" "Hello!" The one named Pinkie bounded impossibly high into the air as her name was called, and Shovel Knight swore his eyes were fooling him as he thought he caught a glimpse of some confetti. "- She's...she's like that a lot, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack."