Chapter 9: The Rogue Knight- Part 1
What does a Hero Truly Need?
By: Zelkova48
Chapter 9: The Rogue Knight- Part 1
1 day earlier, Canterlot city
It was a bright and vibrant day for the city of Canterlot. Celestia's warm and bright sun hung over the great white city. The ponies of the city went about their day with comfort and relative ease. The smell of delicious and delectable meals were wafting from out of the busy restaurants that were crowded with locals and nobility alike.
The hustle and bustles of the streets were even greater than Ponyville's as massive shipments and deliveries were being hauled around warehouses and businesses all over the vast city. Even with the recent shaking and explosion, everypony appeared to be enjoying this rather glorious day.
Well, almost everypony.
Deep within the courts of Canterlot castle, home of the royal pony sisters, there was no joy at all.
Papers scattered across the room like dust being carried in the wind. The roaring outcry of angry and impatient nobleponies echoed throughout the castle with force that was comparable to the royal Canterlot voice.
Politicians and union workers were trapped within a heated argument while the nobility disputed with the common pony over laws and privileges. It was like all the pain in Equestria gathered to this one spot and began to violently convulse and spasm like a snake bitten rat.
And caught in the middle of it all were the very agitated and stressed out princesses.
"Sister?" a worned out Luna looked over to Celestia.
"Yes, Luna?" Celestia raspily replied.
"Is this what fighting Discord was like back then?" she whimpered.
"No, it isn't Luna. We could actually handle Discord and his chaotic rampage." Celestia grimaced. "This, this is the lord of Tartarus's method to break ponies and grind their mind into nothing more than mere grains of sand." She rubbed her temples with her hooves to hold back the migraine that was precariously hanging over her head.
Everypony just assumed that their kind and benevolent rulers could handle these petty session simply because they were powerful and omnipotent alicorns. Alicorn or not, nopony in the history of Equestria or the history of the ever expanding universe can withstand bureaucratic squabbles and incoherent jibber jabber of selfish politicians. It's a wonder how Celestia managed to withstand one thousand years of this torture without help from her younger sister.
Luna, fed up with the constant shouting and yelling, decided to step in and settle the situation. She stood up atop her throne, inhaled deeply and bellowed a righteous command to her subjects.
"It has come to our decision that a recess is in order for all of us! Please meet back at the courtroom in exactly half an hour! Court is adjourned!" And with a bright zap of her horn, the entire room went from a battle scarred war zone back to the pristine courtroom it once was.
Everypony respectfully departed the courtroom but not before sending a few nasty glares to their enemies. Celestia and Luna sighed heavily and retired to their own chambers.
"Honestly, Tia? How did you survive one thousand years of this without me?" Luna asked as she took a great big bite out of a ruby red apple.
"It was tough, that's for sure. I could move the sun and the moon yet I am powerless against politicians. But somepony had to do it." Celestia chuckled as she face Luna. "Are you sure you're alright, Luna? The shaking ended quite some time ago, so you can go back to sleep and not suffer the ravages of day court." She gave her sister a assuring smile.
"It's alright sister, I can't really go back to sleep right now anyway. I'm still worried about that fallen object." Luna finished her apple and chucked the core into a nearby wastebasket. "What if it turns out to be something dangerous? Twilight and her friends will be in danger." Celestia walked on over and hugged her sister.
"Do not worry, Luna. Twilight and her friends have proven time and time again that they can defeat even the foulest of evils." She smiled at her sister. "They are the elements of harmony after all. Besides, if they run into any trouble they could always call us to assist them. It's been a while since we battled evil hasn't it?" She laughed.
"Hmm, it has, hasn't it?" Luna laughed alongside her sister, their laughter ended prematurely when they both peered at the clock. They were ten minutes late to their own meetings. "Maybe it's a good time to head back." She turned to Celestia.
"Yes, yes it is," Celestia and Luna both blinked from their rooms and back to the court where they were greeted with soft murmurings from their subjects.
"Well, now that we are all here, court is now back in session."
Court went on much more smoothly than it had earlier. Rather than the hectic environment from before, everypony waited for their turn to submit their reports and request before engaging in brutal debates with their political enemies. Everything was much more orderly and sustained so the princesses breezed through all the issues paperwork with relative ease.
The sooner they can finish court, the sooner they can get on over to Ponyville to assist with the investigation.
There were only a few more issues to talk over. Right now, Celestia and Luna were dealing with an elderly gray earth pony with a small stack of books for his cutie mark.
"You proved many valid points today, Mr. Textbook. The public schools around the outer areas of Canterlot have fallen into disrepair over the course of the last decade. We would be more than happy to divert resources and funding to fix them up for you and the young fillies and colts attending them." Celestia then stamped her seal of approval upon his document.
"Thank you, your majesty." Mr. Textbook bowed. "Your long term investment will not go to waste, that I assure you." He then turned around and made his way back to his seat around the courtroom. Celestia looked through her list to check the final issue of the day. When her eyes finally caught the name she frowned deeply, Luna looked aside to check and frowned as well.
"*Sigh* Up next on the list is... ugh, Prince Blueblood..." She felt her stomach do a flip flop as she mentioned the name of her pompous nephew. When she did, a statuesque unicorn with a white coat and perfectly groomed blond mane stepped up to his aunt. He wore an immaculate black suit and had a double star for his cutie mark .
With a winning complexion and a very arrogant smile, he bowed and greeted his aunts. When and where did it go wrong in the family tree? He looked good on the outside that's for sure. Mares swooned over the prince, but if only they knew the truth.
Underneath his pompous exterior was a very selfish and unbearable noblepony who only did good to protect his image and to maintain his social standing throughout the nobility. Both the princesses rolled their eyes and called forward his companion.
Another unicorn stepped up to the princesses. He had a light brown coat and a styled white mane. He wore a suit just like Blueblood only he had a top hat and a monocle to go along with it. His cutie mark was an image of a top hat and a cane.
He was a noble pony, everypony could see it in his eyes and in the way he dressed. His personality didn't differ far from his companion, he too was selfish and pompous in a way that felt obnoxious, and performed charity every so often to improve his image. But unlike Blueblood he openly flaunts his wealth and power for others to be jealous.
"And his fellow companion, High... pfft... pfft... High... pffffft." Both Celestia and Luna covered their mouths to stifle their laughter.
This pony's name was far too funny, it was hard to try and not laugh laugh at it. Even for princesses that was suppose to exemplify proper mannerism, they couldn't help but feel an uncontrollable laughing fit arising in their lungs. Yet they somehow managed to regain their regal composure and announce his name.
" ...Mr. High Horse." Then everypony (the princesses included) in the room broke out into a frenzied bout of laughter that could be heard all over the city.
"Pffft... Hi... Hig... Highahahahaha!" If there wasn't such a silly scene to occur over in the history of Equestria, there was one now.
The laughter continued uninterrupted for a few minutes before everyone calmed down and returned to the matter at hand. High Horse looked downright annoyed at everypony for laughing at his name. It wasn't his fault the name his mother gave him fitted his special talent, and that was apparently being an aristocratic pony.
"...Well, now that we've gotten all that out of the way, about our issue, your majesty?" High Horse asked. When he did, Celestia and Luna's frowns returned.
"Ah, yes. Your... tax break." Celestia struggled not to groan.
Why was it again that rich and powerful ponies never had to pay their taxes like their hardworking brothers and sisters again? Whatever the reason was, it made her feel nauseated. She gleaned through Blueblood and High Horse's document, shaking her head as she did so. This was an enormous tax break, several hundred thousands of bits were going to stay in the aristocrats' expensive pockets while the rest had to pay up like everypony else.
Sadly, their reasoning and logic were sound within the document. Heck, they probably didn't even write it, they probably paid off someone smarter than they were to write out this series of elaborate clauses and conditions that only a braniac, and that one pony named Braniac, could pull off.
But she begrudgingly had to follow her duty as princess and approve it. She levitated on over her stamp and hesitated with her action, she swallowed the lump in her throat and brought down the stamp onto the document.
Blueblood and High Horse had the smuggest smiles on their faces, their tax break was about to be approved. It was only mere moments until it happens. The stamp was only a quarter of a centimeter to the paper.
Any second now...
*Crash!*
Something large crashed into the room and startled everypony. Debris fell from the roof in mismatched chunks, dust clouded the center of the room as everypony gawked at the large hole in the roof. The impact of the crash sent papers and all sorts of other objects flying everywhere, scattering them to the wind.
The document within Celestia's hoof flew out of her sight and out of the room, never to be seen again. Blueblood and High Horse diverted their attention from the hole to the paper that flew out of the room with a look that was a mix of shock and horror. No more tax break for anypony now.
The whole room had gone stark silent, the only sounds audible were the light pitter pattering of the ceiling hitting the floor. As the dust slowly cleared everypony could see whatever crashed into the room was. They were shocked to see that it was a pony, a stallion to be specific.
He was a massive specimen, rippling with muscles from behind his tailored blue shirt. He wore small collection of foreign armor pieces. On his left foreleg was a large, pointed, and engraved silver pauldron with a matching gauntlet. Upon his lower half were a set of matching cuisses, sabatons, and greaves.
His helmet was by far the most unique aspect of his appearance. It covered his entire face in metal with only two little round holes for his eyes. Then, there was these horns that jutted from both sides of his helmet, some ponies could have confused him for a minotaur if they looked from afar. The horns were fluted, which possibly served to enhance the wearer's hearing.
If anypony could say anything, they'll say that he looked like some kind of warrior, maybe even a knight.
Everypony still stared at the body, completely stunned. Was he dead? How did he crash here? These were the questions that were running through everypony's head.
By then, the royal guards had entered the room and formed a protective circle around the princesses. Shining Armor himself rushed into formation as all the other guards saluted him. He turned to the Princesses who were observing the pony.
"What the heck happened here!?" Shining asked the stunned princesses. His voice brought them back into reality as they shook their heads and turned their attention to him.
"Whuah? Oh, captain, it's you." Celestia replied before turning her attention back to the blue pony. "Something... somepony suddenly crashed into the castle. It's alright though, no one got injured. Although I can't say the same for that stallion over there." She motioned over to the blue stranger.
Shining Armor looked on over to the pony shaped crater, he was speechless when he saw the body lying in it. He, the princesses, and a majority of the guards approached the body cautiously.
Celestia and Luna leaned in to try and sense if the stallion was still alive or not, Shining and the guards followed suit to make sure nothing happens to their princesses.
Using their magic, they both checked the stallions condition. They had expected nothing at all, but to their surprise the stallion was stable. His heartbeats were normal and there wasn't a single broken bone in his entire body. The only thing that wavered was his consciousness. He was knocked out, nothing more, nothing less.
"What do we do about him?" Shining Armor asked as his guards surround the stallion. "We don't have a single clue as to who this pony is or why he... introduced himself the way he did." As Celestia and the guards pondered the reason, Luna went closer to the sleeping stallion to further examine him. She noticed he was holding something peculiar in his left hoof.
It was a massive sword, so huge that it looked like it would take a group of four guards to even lift it, let alone wield it properly.
The sword was also the most unique that she'd ever seen. This sword in particular had a very long handle with a ring in between the handle and the blade. The blade was gargantuan in size, almost as big as the stallion himself. It was about as wide as she was and even wider near the top.
From basic observations, this blade uses it own weight to drive more power in its strikes. Ingenious in design yet difficult to handle. She wouldn't want to imagine what would happen to somepony if they met the receiving end of such a massive sword.
As Celestia and the guards discussed their plan, Luna crept on closer to the stallion. She reach over to check his sword but was completely taken off guard when the stallion suddenly grabbed her hoof and brought her to his covered face.
Luna yelped as she was brought face to helmet with the stranger, he lifted his gigantic sword with almost little to no effort at all and pressed it against her throat, the cold metal chilling her flesh. Her mind raced as to why the stallion was acting as he did, fear welled from the core of her being as the raspy breathing behind the pony's helmet grew deeper and more agitated with each breath taken.
With a deep burly voice slightly muffled behind his mask, he yelled at the dark blue alicorn.
"Where the hell am I!"
"What do you mean!?" Luna shouted back as the stallion grew more furious with each breath. "This is Equestria, your homeland! I am your princess! Unhand me you buffoon!" The stallion let go of her with an angry grunt.
"Gah! Homeland!? I was born in the Shadeshore Ruins!" He brandished his sword at her angrily. "And as for you princess, I follow no one! I am the Rogue Knight, proud in my exile!" He could say nothing more as Princess Celestia and Shining armor, along with the rest of the guards, blasted him square in the chest with some kind of powerful concussive force.
The stallion crashed alongside the wall of the room with a thunderous boom, causing everypony to run out of the court in fear. As the guards crowded around the dangerous individual, Celestia ran over to assist her sister.
"Luna! Are you alright?" The princess of the moon nodded, she was fine.
"I'm fine, Tia. I can handle myself." Luna dusted herself off. "I just can't believe that this foolish oaf actually had the gall to defy his own princess! And to hold a blade by my throat, I should have him sent to the moon for that!" she huffed angrily as something clicked in her head. "Why, I think we know his agenda now! He's an assassin!"
"An assassin, princess?" Shining Armor asked. "If he is, then he's probably the clumsiest killer I've ever seen. Falling through the roof like that, is this guy serious?" He laughed, but his laughter was cut short when Celestia stepped in wearing a stern look upon her visage. Gone was the gentle and motherly princess, left in her wake was a furious and protective ruler.
"Looks can be deceiving captain, remember that. Right now your main priority now is to get this deranged psychopath out of here and transported straight to Gladius Prison, is that understood?" Celestia ordered. Shining Armor saluted the princesses and proceeded to move the unconscious stallion. As Shining Armor joined his guards, Celestia glanced over at the blue stallion and scowled at him.
"He called himself a rogue knight, and that he was prideful of such an outlandish position. How disgraceful. What a magnificent knight you could have been if I had known you..." She and her sister turned to head to their chambers when all of a sudden....
*Thwack!*
The loud sound of something being forcefully struck caused the princesses to quickly turn back. As they did they witnessed one of the guards flying across the room at mach speed, crashing into the princesses' royal throne, shattering it to pieces and leaving behind a badly injured pony.
To their growing terror the stallion had gotten up, and he wasn't too happy about being blasted like that. Several of the remaining guards as well as Shining Armor moved in to restrain the large pony. Being an entire group of unicorns, they attempted to trap the pony in a bubble shield.
Concentrating their power, the guards confined the assassin under an impenetrable magic dome, including Shining's own which was regarded as one of the most powerful shield spells in all of Equestria. By Equestrian standards, this ball of pure magic would be nigh impossible to shatter. But their target was not Equestrian in origin...
"Is that all you can do? Ha! Even Rylai is stronger than you pathetic lot!" The stallion then picked up his massive blade and let out a deafening warcry. "Raaaagh!"
The guards thought they were seeing things. Just as he shouted, they could've worn they saw sparks of lightning shoot out from his helmet's eye holes. With his courage heartened, he swung his sword directly at the bubble, shattering multiple layers in one swing.
"Feel my blade!" he shouted as the second swing shattered the rest of the barriers as if they were frail Hearth Warming Eve's ornaments.
The impact of swing sent all the guards flying back and crashing into the back wall behind the throne. Shining Armor remained somewhat resilient but his strength faltered as the rogue knight stood before him, sword in hoof. He was expecting a swift death, maybe even a slow one. But instead, all he received was an cruel insult.
"You call yourself a captain? You are not worthy of the armor you wear!" The stallion then turned amd walked over to his captors, muttering something beneath his helmet. "I guess they'll let anyone be a knight these days..."
Celestia and Luna gawked at the stallion with a look of shock and awe. Who was this stallion? He just survived crashing through their own castle roof, got blasted by Celestia and her guards, and yet he was still able stand up and then shatter an unbreakable shield with only two swings from his sword.
Whoever sent this assassin must really want the princesses dead. They both gasped when the stallion brandished his blade at them.
"Now, where was I before being rudely interrupted by the Ezalor imposter over there?" He tapped on his helmet.
"Who sent you assassin!?" Celestia shouted. "Who is your mysterious benefactor that demands our head!" The two princess entered a combat stance, awaiting the stallion's response.
"An assassin?" The stallion looked around. "I don't see anyone here except for us." The princesses glared at him. He was practically making fun of them.
"We're talking about YOU, you fiend!" Luna shouted. But as threatening as she sounded, all she received in return was a hearty and slightly wheezy laughter from her would be killer.
"Ahahahaha! *wheeze* Hahahaha!" the stalllion laughed. Luna, growing increasingly furious at the her killer's antic's, decided to take action.
The clouds darken around the castle and a lucent bolt of lunar energy descended from the sky, through the hole in the roof and struck down upon the blue stallion, creating another crater in the room. She smiled as the sound of the crackling bolt dissipating ensured her that the assassin was no more. She walked on over to admire her work.
"Aha! Not so tough now, are yo- *clang!*" From out of the dust, the stallion swiftly struck Luna in the face with the flat end of his blade.
She flew all they way across the room and into the back wall that was so popular with ponies at the moment. The force of the strike was so incredible that the entire back wall crumbled as if it were made of glass.
The moon princess struggled to stand up, flicking away the debris as she did. She had several cuts and bruises scattered all across her dark blue body and retained a bloody nose that was dripping with the crimson fluid.
Luna rushed up rejoined her sister, she was beyond livid. Her eyes glowed bright white whenever she grew angry, the small storm around the castle grew more and more turbulent with each passing second. She huffed angrily as both Luna and Celestia stared down their killer, they were no longer patient with this assassin and they were prepared to take him down.
The stallion himself had already gotten up on his hooves, the pure rage that was emanating from him greatly dwarfed the princess's own. The savage air that was around him stilled the princess's heart.
Without warning, he charged towards the princesses bellowing another one of his savage warcry.
This time Celestia unleashed her own magic against him, a powerful beam of light that was channeled by the very sun that she controlled. She would hope to end this stallion's rampage with one shot.
Her horn lit up with a bright, luminescent yellow glow as she charged up her attack. Without a moment's notice she let loosed a powerful bolt of magic that struck the charging stallion directly. But nothing dramatic happened.
The bolt did hit him but it didn't appear to have damage him much. Panicking, both princesses unleashed a torrent of magical blast and energies towards their killer. The killer took each blast as if pebbles were being thrown at him. The princesses maintained their magical onslaught until finally, after almost one hundred blasts collectively, the stallion went down.
The princesses exhaled deeply at their success in stopping the rampant assassin. It may have taken more force than they initially thought but it worked out in the end. However, the sheer resilience the pony had displayed kept them on edge. He could withstand several blast from the alicorn princesses themselves, this was no small feat and it terrified them to the soul.
Shining Armor forced himself back onto his feet, he rushed on over to ensure the princesses' well being while every single member of the royal guard poured into the room from every possible corner there was.
All the guards quickly detained the assassin and began transporting him to Gladius prison. Celestia began to heal Luna of her wounds as Shining gauged the devastation that occurred. Members of his own squad were easily tossed around like trash and one of the princesses was wounded in the process. Luckily, nopony died.
"Ugh, what a mess. Someone get a clean up crew in here, and some doctors. Scratch that, get the whole hospital staff down here, pronto." He surveyed the room once more before addressing to the princesses. "Who the heck was that pony? He was unnaturally strong, even for an earth pony."
"Remember when I said looks can be deceiving captain? Well, this was it," said Celestia as she finished healing the last of Luna's injuries. "As for who this rogue knight is, it can wait until he is properly sealed away before we begin questioning his motives. We wouldn't want him to break out and go rampant again. As for Luna and I, I have a letter to go write. Your sister needs to know what happened."
Shining Armor saluted to the princesses as they left the room and back towards their own chambers. It had been a long stressful day for them, but unbeknownst to everypony there, it was only the beginning.
Canterlot, Blueblood's penthouse suite
"Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable!" Blueblood angrily shouted as he stomped around his home. "We were so close! So close! And then somepony just had to show up and attempt to murder the princesses!" He walked over to his arm chair and sat down, taking a swig from his glass of chardonnay. He rubbed his face with his hoof to get rid of any stress that stuck to his face.
"Calm down, Bluey. I'm sure we'll get another chance for our tax break to be approved." High Horse lounged on one of Blueblood's more luxurious couches enjoying a glass of red wine. "It's not the end of the world you know?" Blueblood pulled his face out from his hooves and glared daggers at High Horse.
"We needed that tax break now for our plans to go into effect!" Blueblood huffed. "Without it, how are we going to afford the resources necessary to see it done?" He gulped down his entire glass and groaned. "We would have to wait another six months to present our cause again. We don't have that kind of time, not when the great cleanse grows near!"
He poured himself another glass as he went over to the windows that overlooked Canterlot. "We've been waiting a thousand years for this day, one thousand years! What would my father say right now? What would the Descendants think?"
"Settle down Bluey, I can pull a few strings in the offices so that our tax break does go into action, no need to worry," High Horse said nonchalantly as he took another sip from his glass. "Our plans will go on as scheduled, I assure you." Blueblood stared at him, the kind of stare that said 'why didn't you say so earlier you dolt!?' This only elicited a mocking chuckle from High Horse.
"Aw, quit frowning like that, Bluey. That winning complexion of yours is going suffer for that." He sipped his wine. "I know what will cheer you up, how about a good old fashion fight down at Gladius Colosseum?" Blueblood simply sighed as he went back to his seat.
"Normally, seeing criminals tear each other apart would bring a smile to my face. Sadly, I'm not feeling it right now." Blueblood sipped on his wine just as he took notice to the wide mischievous grin that formed on his friend's face. "Alright, High Horse, out with it. What are you smiling about?"
"You know that assassin that tried to kill the princesses? Well, I heard he just got sent to Gladius prison." Blueblood raised an eyebrow, he didn't know where he was going with this. "And I know how angry you were when he disrupted the approval, so I called in some favors and had a very special show scheduled in a few days." Blueblood was interested in this special show, he just had to ask.
"And what, may I ask, is so special about this show?" he leaned back in his chair.
"Let's just say this rogue knight will be in for a fairy tale fight." High Horse kept on grinning, Blueblood eventually did as well when he caught on the hint.
"No, you didn't." Blueblood smiled.
"Oh yes, I most certainly did." High Horse raised glass his gulped down the entire thing. He then poured himself another and shared a wholehearted bout of laughter with Blueblood. They then tapped their glasses together and declared a toast. A toast to their princesses, to the Descendants, to all of ponykind...
And to the death of the Rogue Knight
Chapter 9 end
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SVENNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!
That's what you get for going 2v1 against two casters. Should of bought Hood of Defiance.
So how large is Sven anyways? I assume he's bigger than the average Pony, but still smaller than the princesses.
2046667 In my head, I'd wager only one or two few inches taller then good ol big mac. So yea, taller than the average stallion, yet shorter than the princesses.
Oh man, if he had a bkb then this fight would've ended much differently
I wonder what would have happened if it was Rubick fighting the sisters instead of Sven.
2054254 Believe me, the outcome would sound startlingly similar to Rubick vs Luna and Ezalor.
One shudders to imagine if it was Axe with Blade Mail in that fight. Or Troll Warlord. Or... Anti Mage...
"The Friendship ends here!"