Knights of Equestria

by Jioplip

The Legend of Sunflare's Knights

In Equestria's distant past, long before the rule of Luna and Celestia, before even Discord and the endless winter, the three tribes of ponies lived united, but they were not alone.

Among the tribes lived another race, unskilled in magic, incapable of flight, and without the natural talent to farm, they relied instead on their strength, industriousness, and ingenuity to find their place amongst the ponies.

In their time they were known as great builders and artisans, a gentle hand molding the world of culture and bringing joy and shelter to all.

But history learned them by another name.

Knights, the great warrior race that faced the armies of Tartarus and perished in victory, or so the legend goes.

But legends are not facts, and neither is history, though it may strive to be so, and eventually all is lost to the unending flow of time.

Or so history says.

---

And so it came to pass that the Order of the Knights of Sunflare did march upon the gates of Tartarus, the great Knight Celerion at their head.

Onward did they march to Death and their demise, embracing death to destroy Death and find new life for those marked for death.

"Lyra, it's time to order."

Celerion's met Death at Tartarus, and the forces of death and Tartarus met those on the battlefield in turn.

The Knights met Death and death in turn, and through strength born not of strength, death became as Death had been.

"Lyra?"

Weakened by the battle against Death and death, the Knight's deed was far from finished, and drawing on the last of their strength born not of strength, they forced back the armies of Death and sealed them behind the Gate of Evil, so that none would again fear their might.

"Lyra!"

"What?" the mint green unicorn's head shot up, suddenly hearing her friend's voice, "Bonbon, what's the matter?"

The beige earth pony sitting across from her placed her hoof firmly in her face, "The waiter was trying to take your order."

Lyra blinked as she looked around in confusion, her eyes widening as she slowly recognised the restaurant around her, and then the impatient unicorn waiting.

"Oh, right," Lyra blushed fiercely as she spoke, "I'll uh, I'll have what she's having!"

The waiter mumbled something vaguely polite as he rolled his eyes and left the now rather maroon unicorn being scrutinized by her concerned friend.

"Hey Lyra, you feeling okay?" Bonbon bit her lip as she looked over her friend.

"Yeah! Fine! Why? Never better!" she stuttered out quickly in response, an insincere smile on her face, "Uh, why?"

"Well it's just that you don't usually get that spacy," Bonbon was used to Lyra's oddities and tended to cut to the heart of the matter, "I mean, most of the time when you space out I can get you back in just a few seconds, but you looked like you didn't even know where we were this time."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Lyra's blush deepened, "but it's just that I got this really interesting manuscript and..." she trailed off, averting her eyes and biting her lip.

Bonbon smiled slightly at her friend's actions, Lyra had a tendency to go off at length about whatever subject had caught her attention recently, though she tried to curb that tendency as most ponies were less than appreciative of her insight.

"You can go ahead," Bonbon waved a hoof as Lyra's eyes brightened, "I don't mind."

Lyra's face broke into a grin so wide Bonbon feared it might crack, and she quickly reached across the table to embrace her friend in a rib-bending hug, returning to her seat before Bonbon could even process what was happening.

"Well like I was saying I got this manuscript from Type Cast at the Amateur Historian's meeting yesterday, you know the one who writes historical fiction?" Lyra waited for Bonbon's hesitant nod before resuming her breathless monologue, "Well he got it recently during his trip to Crete, did you know he grew up there? Anyway, apparently the Minotaur historians had been keeping a record of one of the earliest known writings of 'The Legend of Sunflare's Knights' you know what I'm talking about right?"

"How could I not?" Bonbon couldn't help but grin at her near-ecstatic companion, "It's got to be your favourite story in the entire world, you've got what, eight versions of it at home?"

"Nine, counting this one." Lyra motioned to the small book laying in front of her, "As you know, the tale is highly allegorical, and it serves as the origin for the belief that the embodiment of death itself is sealed away in Tartarus."

"Which is unsubstantiated by any historical record, of course." Bonbon said in her best imitation of Lyra's excited 'lecturing' tone, "We've been down this road a few times before."

"Ah, but this time is different!" Lyra felt a moment of smug satisfaction take over as Bonbon looked honestly shocked for a moment, "By all accounts this version of the legend from Crete is the earliest known, not surprising that we didn't have it considering that our history is filled with Windigoes and Discord and who knows what else that could have transpired between-"

"Lyra."

The unicorn stopped, fearing for a moment that she'd somehow upset Bonbon, a fear that was lifted when she realised the waiter was waiting for her to clear her side of the table.

Lyra sheepishly moved the book from the table to her saddlebag, and the waiter once again mumbled what may have been a pleasantry as he left.

"Well, don't leave me hanging," Bonbon ignored her food in lieu of focusing on her excitable friend, "you were just getting to the good part."

"Right!" Lyra's grin faded as quickly as it returned, "Where was I again?"

"A tangent, but I'm more interested in how this version is different from most."

"Oh yeah." both Lyra's enthusiasm and her train of thought returned instantly, "Well unlike the other versions, the Death referred to in the passage may not refer to death as a concept as all."

"How can you tell?" Bonbon began idly poking at her food with her fork.

"Well for the most part, it's down to repetition, death and this thing called Death are both mentioned repeatedly, and there's also some stuff about death becoming death or something, I haven't had a chance to do an in-depth analysis yet though."

"Huh," Bonbon finally started eating as she mulled over the information, "so you think this thing called Death got lost in translation?"

"Probably," Lyra sniffed her food carefully before deciding to eat it, "it's an unfortunate pitfall for those whose names are common words."

"Yeah, if you ever did anything heroic your legend would probably live on as that of the mystical talking lyre that cast down the wicked wall of knowledge!"

"Hey!" Lyra said in mock indignation, "I do more than read you know."

"Yeah yeah," Bonbon smirked wickedly, "so, is there anything else different about this new version?"

"Well..." Lyra chewed thoughtfully, "It's longer than most, I'm only half-way through and the battle of Tartarus is already finished, and that's all there is to some versions.

"Other than that, it uses the more common Celerion for the leader's name, so fans of Celerity won't be happy."

"Why do you say that?" Bonbon had nearly finished her meal.

"Type Cast said he was gonna write a new book off this version and credit the Cretan Scholar's Society for the information," Lyra smiled victoriously "if it's confirmed by local historians to be genuine, which it will, then Inkwell'l have to eat his words the next time we meet."

Bonbon sighed in a resigned manner, Starless Inkwell was a Canterlot historian that Lyra had some history with, it seemed to Bonbon that they disagreed with each other just to be contrary.

With a wry grin on one, and a look of smoldering achievement on the other, the two finished and payed for their meals.

"Well, I gotta get back to work," Bonbon glanced at a nearby clock, "I'm twenty minutes late as it is, what about you?"

"Twilight couldn't make it to yesterday's meeting, so I'm gonna take the manuscript over to show her," Lyra smiled brightly, "if there's any historic fact in this new version I know Twilight will want to know about it for sure."

The two bade each other goodbye, their departure seeming to hold no more significance than any other, and yet it was that same departure that would help shape the very future of Equestria.

Author's Note:

Hey everpony and- Wait, wasn't I on an informal hiatus?

Huh.

Well, I blame 3Power and their excellent story My Little Mommies, that inspired me with its sheer awesomeness.

Comments

[MrAskAPirate]

myfacewhen.net/uploads/4006-continue.jpg

[CallMeEvil]

Who's Type Cast?

[Jioplip]

3217976 Will do Cap'n!

3217980 My OC, he probably won't appear in the story though.

[RedDeadElite]

Tracking

[Lurking Trickster]

I´ve always loved stories where humans and ponies work together.I find it quite sad that they are so rare.

[Shpoople96]

3218155
Yes they are, especially the 'I got this, you got that, let's work together!' kind, instead of the 'My thing is superior to your thing, Let me do it.' kind.

[Jioplip]

3218503 My head is too far in the gutter, all I can think of is a penis-measuring contest.

[Shpoople96]

3218512
So, I herd you like Penises, Jioplip!

[Jioplip]

3218519 Wow!

Your information is startlingly accurate!

[fire]

cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/126741/Knight.jpg
sunflair knight?

[WorldWalker128]

Welp, you've got more of my attention than just a track, now.