Artorias observed that the city he was currently sprinting through was quite... grandeur. Golden spires and ivory towers dominated the skies overhead, while many of the other structures consisted of upper class restaurants, theaters, galleries, and the like. Were it not for the growing flames, pillars of smoke, and distant screams heard in the background, Artorias would have surely taken his time to enjoy the lovely city. "HELP! SOMEPONY HELP US!" The plea stopped the Abysswalker dead in his tracks. This was the person he had heard moments ago. The voice indicated that they were surely female, but the knight was more concerned with what she said. 'Somepony?' Artorias shrugged it off, as there were far more pressing matters to attend to, like saving a person in clear danger.

Arriving at the corner of a ruined coffee shop, Artorias could hear footsteps getting closer to his location. He was more than ready to spring into action, but he knew that jumping headfirst into a potential conflict without any prior information was certainly anything but a smart decision. So, instead of confronting them immediately, the Abysswalker leaped atop the nearby structure to assess the current predicament.

What Artorias saw next, made his jaw drop. He had expected many things, of course, but finding technicolor ponies held hostage by three other insectlike creatures of the same nature was not one of those expectations. He observed that three the insect equines had a black carapace rather than fur, unreflective eyes with no pupils or anything expected of normal eye anatomy, translucent bug wings, and a somewhat menacing, crooked horn appendage atop their heads, not to mention the doubly sharp fangs protruding from their mouths. The two 'normal' ponies looked drastically different than their captors. They were much more colorful and friendly in appearance than their bug counterparts. Out of the two, only one pony was about the same size as the bug ponies, while the other one was significantly smaller, suggesting that it was an infant of sorts. Hmm... What was the term... foal? Foal. The adult pony had white fur with a crimson mane, while the foal had the colors reversed. Artorias also noticed that both of the equines had strange marks on their hindquarters. The crimson one's mark was a highly styled rose while the white one's mark was a shimmering pearl, and he observed that the crimson pony had a pair of wings whereas the white one had a spiralled horn on its head. 'I thought pegasi and nicorns were only myths!' The Abysswalker thought. Based on their body shape, both seemed to be female. The two multicolored ponies were cowering in fear in the bug ponies' presence as they were closing in on them. 'It would seem that the insect-like ones would appear to be the attackers of this city and therefore hostile, whilst the multicolored ones are likely the victims and denizens of this city.' Artorias noted.

"Please, don't hurt us!" the Pegasus begged while tears began to crawl down her cheeks. The unicorn, which was already between sobs, was hugging tightly to one of the Pegasus's legs while the winged pony took a protective stance.

'Did it just talk?' he thought. Then again, this was probably to be expected from the get-go, Artorias realized. He resumed watching the events unfold.

The bug ponies laughed in response. "Believe me, little fillies, we have no intention of hurting you. No, we plan to feed off of your love!" One of the insect-like horses said, rather dramatically, and the the trio fired narrow green lasers at the two ponies, which then seemed to drain the two ponies, driving them into a state of overexertion.

As he witnessed this, Artorias knew it was time to act. He immediately leaped into the air and landed directly in front of the defenseless ponies, and activated his silver pendant. The result bathed the entire area in a brilliant, golden light and deflected the magic bolts. The sudden burst of light had also stunned the bug ponies, but didn't seem to affect the Pegasus and the unicorn.

As the bug ponies recovered from the blast, one of them shouted in irritation. "Who and what the buck are you?!"

Artorias didn't knew what 'buck' meant in this world, but he guessed it to be an insult "Who am I? I am the legendary Abysswalker and one of the Knights of Lord Gwyn, but you can call me..." he replied with a low but intimidating voice "Artorias." The creatures winced in response.

Seeing this, he smirked under the shroud of his helmet and chose psychological combat instead of immediately tearing them into shreds. They must be quite terrified to be in the presence of a large, sword-wielding, seemingly faceless entity with metal skin. "Now, you know my name...what are you?" he asked, pointing his greatsword at the three.

Their ring leader spoke up,"We? We are Changelings. Subjects of her majesty Queen Chrysalissssss" they replied with a hiss, for some silly reason. If it was meant to be intimidating, the Knight didn't even blink.

"Now knowing that we are all civilized here, I present to you three, two choices. First, you leave these two alone and never return to this city, or, second... you retaliate and fail miserably. Most likely dying as a result" Artorias replied sternly. "I suggest you take the first choice and leave." he paused, letting his words sink into their minds.

"Like hay we will! Changelings, attack!" exclaimed the leader. As the Changelings sped towards him, Artorias dashed forward with incredible speed and lifted his greatsword high in the air. With one swift spin his sword made contact with the flesh and bones of the Changelings, slicing all of them into pieces as green blood splattered on practically everything.

'That was far more easy than I expected.' he thought.

After he cleaned his blade and checked his surroundings to see if they were clear, he turned around to check the pegasus and the unicorn. When he reached them, the unicorn and the Pegasus looked at him with a mixture of awe and fear. Artorias kneeled in front of the pegasus, to make himself look smaller and less threatening, and then softly spoke "Hello there, are you both okay? Have you been harmed?"

"Y-yes w-we are okay, t-thank you for saving our lives," The Pegasus stuttered "b-but couldn't you have scared them off i-instead of... well... k-killing them?" The winged pony said the last two words hesitantly and quieter, almost as if they were foreign to her.

Artorias sighed and looked at them, "Unfortunately, I could not. Although it would have been preferrable, they chose to attack me, I merely defended myself, and most importantly you two in the process. I also suspect that they would've returned anyways, maybe in larger numbers. Better them than the both of you, no?"

She nodded, but the Pegasus spoke again with a worried tone "But I am afraid it's no use. The city is under attack, all of our Royal Guards have been captured; Canterlot is lost."

"Canterlot? Is that where we are now?" Artorias asked.

Both of the Pegasus and unicorn nodded.

"Is there some sort of leader I could speak to?" he asked.

This time the little unicorn filly spoke up "Well, there is Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, oh and of course Princess Cadence."

"But they are all the way up…..there." said the Pegasus while pointing her hoof upwards past Artorias.

He turned around and saw a large gold and white castle, with seemingly hundreds of Changelings swarming it. 'Damn! This must be a full-scale invasion!' Artorias thought while lifting his greatsword on his shoulder.

He then turned back to the Pegasus and unicorn, "Ladies, I suggest you hide in one of these buildings and stay in there until this situation has been dealt with; am I understood?"

"Yes, um... ar- Artorias, and thank you." The Pegasus replied with a grateful smile before taking hold of the unicorn and hurriedly walking inside the nearby coffee shop. Once inside, he heard the door click, suggesting that they locked it, and watched from the window as the dashed into another room for security.

Artorias drew his breath and sprinted towards the castle at an incredible speed. 'They seemed quite cordial, even to newcomers like me... l hope their Princesses will be just as friendly,' he thought 'and I hope they are okay.'

Author's Note

And that was chapter two!

Let me know if you guys find anything wrong so I can fix them.

Building critics and reviews are highly appreciated

The next chapter will be up soon, stay tuned and I will see you in the next one

• Lightning Spear