The Knight

by TheStoveHater

The End of One Road

The steady clatter of metal feet on stone echoed throughout the forest, slowly becoming muffled and quiet as the stone road of a once beautiful castle gave way to forest.

The source of this noise entered the forest fully, its armored march muffled by the new loam and old dirt of a well worn path.

The creature itself stood at roughly twenty hooves, armored from top to bottom in solid plate, with only the smallest of indications that it was a living being, a small horizontal slash atop a conical visor across where its eyes may have been, for why would a creature without flesh and blood need eyes?

Sadly, the one arguing for this life, theoretical though they may be, would still be wrong. As the creature was not alive... At least, not anymore.

Chapter 1: The End of one Road...

It might rain today. I remark, waiting for a reaction from my other half. I can tell, since water is gathering inside of us, just tiiiiiny droplets that are running down and gathering in our boot's. Might have to stop and empty them if they get too full... Y'know, stop walking... Maybe sit down even... Shirk in our duty... I hold my nonexistent breath, only to let it out with a loud and obnoxious sigh, shaking my head slightly. Some haunted suits of armor just aren't all that into conversation apparently. Although with a sample size of two I guess I shouldn't be too judgmental... I mutter, reaching out and trying to brush the tips of our fingers against a low hanging branch, only to have a certain somebody yank our arm down.

After another ten exciting minutes of plodding along, our helmet shot up in excitement. I just remembered something! The Word of the Day is 'Seasons'. Seasons, they were... Times of the year... Fall, because of leaves falling! Winter... Because... frozen water? That doesn't make any sense... Spring... I don't really remember about that one either... And... Hm... I was sure there was another... It had something to do with... Heat... Warmth? Hmm... The Sun may-

"EVIL, HORRIBLE BURNI-" My other half growled before cutting himself off, not even missing a beat in our march. Yes that word. The giant ball of fire. It had its own season didn't it? What was its season called again? I ponder, my hand unconsciously reaching up to stroke the upper part of my bevor with a gauntlet, thinking deeply only to get sidetracked again. Why do I do that? I think, glancing down at my gauntlet. It seems to help, but why? And why am I imagining furry worms? Shaking my head and writing it off as question lost to time, I resume my pondering on the mystery of the fourth season.

Hmm... Some... Soomer? Summer! That's its name! Just thinking the word makes me... Hmm... I cant remember the name of this feeling, its happy, but its like my helm wants... To stretch? To widen? Maybe that was something I'd forgotten how to do, and you're no help Mr. 'I refuse to talk to thee after getting our body ripped apart by yon Manticore!' It's not like it actually managed to do any damage... And you have to admit it was kind of fun trying to walk with just our hands! ...Ugh, fine...

Another night another long march. At least the woods were as beautiful as ever, odd how darkness never seemed to bother me, in fact its almost as bright as day. "HOR-" Gotcha again! At least you aren't screaming it out loud like you used to, it's more of a harsh whisper. That reminds me, what was it again that made that manticore attack us? I could have sworn it was something to do with someone screaming into its ear as we passed...

Oh! Here come the stump! Aaaand its gone, next up the tree with the... Fruit? I think that's what they were called. Didn't they have different names than just fruit?
_____________
Unbeknownst to the creature, a dark blue, almost black, cloud hovered over the treetops nearby, watching it curiously. "How strange..." It whispered, its very presence darkening the area around it. "After all this time, it still follows my orders... Not that it had much of a choice, but I'm surprised it lasted this long~" With an invisible grin it descended into the creatures path.
_________

There goes the strange tree with weird fruit, and here comes the black cloud covered in stars, next up is- Wait... In that moment, we did something we've not done in... A really really long time. We stopped... Then, it spoke, and I remembered.

"Greetings, Knight."

My mind screeched to a halt. That voice, I KNEW that voice! But... From whe- "MY QUEEN!" Ah. Right. Well at least he remembers. Without a second to waste we slammed our knee into the earth, and bowed our head. "My Queen! This humble servant bows before thee! Right right, I forgot this was how we spoke. Hm. I think I'd prefer silence. We eagerly await thine orders!" For a reason unknown to myself I wanted to roll my visor. The cloud chuckled darkly, and from its tone I could tell it wasn't exactly 'Happy' to see us, but it wasn't necessarily 'Unhappy' either.

"I have a new task for you, soon We shall return to this world in all of Our Glory! For thine loyalty thou shalt be Our new guard Captain, thine first order shall to be to guard Our chambers against all ponies that mayhaps try to halt Our ascension to the throne! Is this Understood?"

"Yes Mine Queen! Thine will be done!" Well, it beats staring at dirt and grass all day and talking to myself... Literally.

.... Wait whats a Pony? Apparently my other half thought that was a valid question, as right before the cloud departed it raised one of our gauntlets. "My Queen... Ah... We seem to have forgotten what a 'Pony' is..."

There was silence for a moment, the black cloud roiling in place. Then an exasperated yell echoed down the path. "We are a pony! Hast thou forgotten so much already!? Ignore mine question! I shall check for Our self!"

Suddenly the world turned a dark blue, and our helmet was plucked from our body, the cloud turned the bottom of our helmet towards itself, giving us a nice view of the canopy above and the daylight streaming in between the leaves, and we felt a massive influx of power, our armor lost its dullness and instead became a deep blue that seemed to blend into its surroundings and absorb light, our armored boots seemed to weigh nothing at all, and made no noise as we shuffled about nervously, the last creature to knock our head off had made it land in a tree, took us days and lots of shouting to find it.

Even more interestingly was my mind seemed... Whole again, ignoring the giant chunk of my mind that was a dam/my other half of course.

"There! Thou art lucky the Everfree is home to such powerful latent magic, otherwise thine enchantments would have fallen apart sooner, and thine core would have unraveled even faster than it did! Now GO!" The large cloud, apparently called a Pony, roared.

With that we turned and sprinted away. Huh, I'm running, running running running, I remember that word! Hah! Spring! Summer! Winter! Birds! Timber Wolves! Manticore! Po- Oh we're here!

Author's Note:

My first attempt at a multi chapter story, feedback always welcome.

Edited 8/28/17

Just by the way the "Hooves" I'm referring to is just "Hands" (but yknow, ponified) a unit of measurement used to measure horses. 20 hands is roughly 6 feet 6ish inches. Also heres a useful link to what a "bevor" is. Please don't gouge out my eyes if I got it wrong anyway!

Comments

[Sunbro4life]

I'm hopping in for the ride looks good so far .

[Lonely-Unimportus]

Me likey

[readsponies]

Every time I look at "How to write fiction" guides, I notice the same bit of advice: "Don't be afraid of the word 'said.' It's how you indicate who is speaking." And every time I wonder whether it's really that much of a problem. Yeah, some people write conversations without using it for a little too long sometimes. But how bad could it really be?

Welp. Now I know.

[CV816]

the smallest of indications that it was a living being, a small vertical slash across where its eyes may have been,

I believe you mean "horizontal". Vertical is straight up and down.

[TheStoveHater]

8207311 Ill try to keep that in mind, thanks for the feedback

[Blank Page]

I've always been a sucker for stories with knights. This looks like it's going to be an interesting ride; can't wait to see where it goes

[CaliginousTheIllusion]

human knights and mlp......YES

[Detsella Morningdew]

...I am very disappointed in myself for not thinking of this one.

Anyway, you're doing a better job than I would have anyway, so who am I to complain?