A few moments earlier...

Artorias was exploring the castle while avoiding Changeling patrols and trying to find the princesses. After another fifteen minutes of exploring and dodging Changeling patrols, he came across a large corridor with a large double door 'I guess this is the only part left unexplored' he thought. Just as he began to move towards the double door, he heard wing flaps coming towards him 'Damn! more of them.' he quickly hid himself behind a large royal guard statue. Shortly, four Changelings landed in front of the statue--still unaware of Artorias' presence.

"I knew this castle is empty!" exclaimed one of them.

" Yeah! this is the sixth time we scoured this place!" another one complained.

"Shut it you two, lets just go and report to the queen." the captain said sternly.

Then, another two appeared from the other side of the double door...annoyed.

"Where the buck have you guys been?!" one of them shouted.

"Exploring-the-castle-while-looking-for-some-royal-guards duh!" one random Changeling exclaimed.

"Shut it! Queen Chrysalis ordered us to look for you guys. She demanded an update." one of the new Changeling said.

"Okay, lets go then...don't wanna make her wait." the captain said while walking with his group.

'Queen Chrysalis? is that their leader? she must be in there.' Artorias thought. 'Alright, lets make this quick...the space is a bit cramped...so no greatsword, great.' Artorias thought while he slung his greatsword on his back. 'Hand-to-hand combat it is then'while it seemed like Artorias is only skilled with a greatsword, his mastery in martial arts was and still is beyond excellent ,even he held out against his best friend Dragonslayer Ornstein and Bishop Havel the Rock during a friendly match . With that, he made his final observations and saw one of the Changelings was lagging behind. He walked out of his hiding place, sneaked up behind him, extended both of his arms, and...

*SNAP!*

"What the-" The Changelings turned around and saw their comrade lying limp and lifeless on the ground with his neck twisted in an unnatural angle.

Their eyes widened in horror as they saw this, but what really scared them the most was a large-faceless bipedal creature with metal skin and a gigantic sword slunged on its back. Standing over the lifeless body of their comrade.

Artorias just stand there casually while taunting the rest of them with his hand "Come get some!" he said while smirking.

"Changelings, attack!" ordered the captain while taking the head-charge. As they sped towards him, he dashed towards them with every fiber of muscle in his body. Once they were in rage, he immediately grab the captain by the neck and another audible snap could be heard echoing throughout the corridor.

*SNAP!*

"It got the captain!" exclaimed one of the Changelings. This made the rest to attack Artorias even with more fury than before.

Two of the Changelings simultaneously attacked him, but he saw this and evaded their attacks whilst grabbing both of their forehooves and slamming them to the wall...killing them instantly due to the massive force.

'Heh four down, two to go' he smirked. He dashed towards two of the remaining Changelings which were cowering frantically towards the double door.

"Buck! send reinfor-" he was cut of when Artorias lifted him to the air and slammed him down with a bonecrushing force (literally) and stomped at his back and thus crushing his spinal cord with a sickening crunch. "AAAAARRGH!" was his last voice before lying motionless on the ground...dead.

"You MONSTER!" the last one exclaimed hysterically while readying his magic. An irony as well.

Artorias ignored his word and dashed towards the Changeling at a speed that will make Dragonslayer Ornstein pat him on the back. But, the Changeling was faster...it fired a single but scorching and powerful magic bolt at Artorias. The bolt impacted on Artorias' left arm and thus creating a scorching wound, his armor is miraculously unstached but the heat produced from the energy bypassed his armor and right into his skin . Artorias let out a small grunt of pain but nevertheless ignored the blistering wound 'Heh, this is just a flesh wound to me!'. And in lightning speed, he reached the Changeling and palm-thrusted him to a nearby wall the force was so massive that it obliterated his head beyond recognition with green blood and brain matter splattered around and leaving a crack on the wall.

'Me six, Changelings zero' he smiled triumphantly. As he catched his breath, he walked towards the double doors 'After exploring the castle, I haven't seen any of these princesses...in fact, all I've seen was more of those Changelings.' he thought 'But this is the last part left unexplored to me, and one of those Changelings mentioned that their queen is here...could the queen held the princesses captive here?' as he walked closer to the door 'I guess I am about to find out.'

After he reached the door, he extended his right arm to knock the door 'If the princesses are here, first impression is always the most important aspect.' As ridiculous as this may seem, Artorias was and still is a knight after all...he was trained to treat everyone with respect and dignity,especially nobles. Then he knocked.

*knock* *knock*

Then, an angry voice shouted in return "Who dares to interrupt me?!"

'That wasn't very friendly. That must be Queen Chrysalis.' he thought.

"My name is Knight Artorias the Abysswalker, open this door immediately or I will have to blast my way through." he said in a booming masculine voice.

Queen Chrysalis' P.O.V

"My name is Knight Artorias the Abysswalker, open this door immediately or I will have to blast my way through." as she heard this, she immediately flinched...knowing that she will soon come face to face with the killer of her subjects.

"COME TO ME MY SUBJECTS!" she bellowed.

In an instant ten more Changelings appeared from the windows and landed in front of their queen.

"What is it your highness?" one of them asked while bowing.

"All of you! defend this room at all costs and kill this 'knight'! We can't let him interfere with our plans!" she bellowed.

Just as the Changelings took their positions, the double door shattered into pieces...leaving the Changelings, the princesses, and the Main Six shell-shocked.

Artorias' P.O.V

"COME TO ME MY SUBJECTS!"

''Damn it! she is calling for reinforcements!'' Artorias cursed silently.

"All of you! defend this room at all costs and kill this 'knight'! We can't let him interfere with our plans!" as he heard those words, he knew there will be no more negotiations.

'Blasting through the door it is then.' he brought his talisman up again. This time, he extended his arms in front of his chest with open palms facing each other. Then, he closed his eyes while keeping his arms on their exact same position. Suddenly, a large energy sphere materialized in his arms. Drawing his breath , he moved his palms outwards and suddenly the sphere shot towards the door with an incredible speed and when it made contact...shattering it to pieces.

*********************************************************
As he rushed into the wedding hall, he is focused to a large Changeling standing on the wedding stage. 'This must be Queen Chrysalis' he thought. He made another quick observation of the room...there he saw two pegasi, two unicorns, and two ponies staring at him with their mouths agape 'Eheheh, I guess I could introduce myself later.'
and also two alicorns; a pink one on the stage and a white one trapped in a green cocoon on the hall's ceiling... 'Ah, they must be the princesses.' he thought. He also noticed a white unicorn stallion standing in front of a particular pink alicorn, he noticed that the stallion was staring blankly this made Artorias conclude that he was in some sort of...spell.

As she saw what came through the door...Chrysalis' eyes widened in shock and fear . It looked like a bipedal creature with no...face. It's skin was made of metal...every inch of it's body was covered with metal with an azure blue cape flowing from it's back. She also noticed that the creature was holding a small orb with what looked like cloth coming from the bottom on it's left appendage and a gigantic blue-gleaming sword slung on it's back. But what frightened her the most was that on it's armored appendages was blood, the blood of her subjects.

"What k-kind of creature are you?" Chrysalis asked, frightened.

Seeing this Artorias smirked, 'She is scared...just like her subjects when they saw me, maybe negotiations is still useful here.'

" Knight Artorias the Abysswalker, as much as I honor you as a queen... I am very displeased to see your army attacking innocent civilians. And I can see that..." He said while turning his head to the princesses "You are keeping hostages as well."

'Why am I, Queen Chrysalis afraid of this thing!?' Chrysalis thought. "I do not know what you are, but I am going to make you pay for the things you have done!" Chrysalis roared while shooting a bolt of magic at Artorias.

'So much for negotiations.'

His reaction was instantaneous. He immediately activated his talisman, this time a burst of harmless shockwave emitted from his body, deflecting the magic bolt and knocking the queen a few steps back.

Then, Artorias spoke with a stern voice " I suggest you surrender right now Chrysalis, or you and these ten here may end up like the rest of your subjects." he pulled his greatsword and pointed the tip at Chrysalis while glancing to six corpses of Changelings he killed with his bare hands. He noticed that the other ten were surrounding him on all sides.

"Changelings, attack!" Chrysalis commanded. As all ten of them leapt towards Artorias with opened jaws ready to rip him to shreds, he held his greatsword with both hands and did a 360 degrees spin with the blade protruding out, decapitating all of them in a single blow. All of the hall's occupants even Chrysalis herself were staring with disbelief and horror.

"My offer is still acceptable, leave this city now and never return." Artorias said sternly still brandishing his divine greatsword.

" I shall avenge their deaths, now DIIEEEE!!!!!" Chrysalis roared furiously while rearing up to deliver a bonecrushing kick to Artorias.

Artorias evaded the kick, and with a deadly speed Artorias did a sweeping kick to Chrysalis' forelegs. Breaking them.

"AAARGH!!!" she shouted in pure agony. Artorias quickly walked over to her and put his feet on her ribcage while putting the tip of his greatsword on her neck. Ready to bury it in the queen's flesh.

Her life, now hangs at Artorias' hands.

Then, he heard hushed voices behind him.

""Quickly, go to him this is your chance!." Twilight said while freeing Princess Cadence from the sticky Changeling goo that had her hooves sticked to the ground.

Princess Cadence quickly made her way to Shining Armor; she looked at her husband and laid a hoof on his muzzle. She shed a tear and hugged him tightly. Suddenly sparks came out of her horn, and suddenly a small heart appeared and made it's way all over to Shining Armor's head. The heart popped in front of his head, freeing him from Chrysalis' mind-control spell.

"Huh? Wha-? what happened? is the wedding over?" he asked, she smiled in response.

" It is...over" Chrysalis said weakly.

Artorias didn't say a word. Instead, he applied pressure at her broken forelegs causing her to grunt in pain and silencing her.

"Why don't you just kill me?! get this over with!" Chrysalis said to him quietly.

"It is not my call to do that since you are a queen, it will be a shame but it is their call..." he said while glancing toward the ponies.

"Quickly! Preform your spell." Twilight said.

"No." Shining Armor said while trying to perform the spell. His horn gave of some sparks but no magic came out of it. "My power is useless now, I don't have the strength to repel them" he said with a defeated tone.

Cadence trotted over towards him and gave him a hug. "My love will give you strength." Cadence said while hugging him tightly.

Shining Armor closed his eyes and hugged her back. Suddenly Shining Armor's horn started glowing; Cadence horn did the same. Their horns connected with one another and a bright purple/pink light covered them. Cadence one's messed up mane and coat returned to its normal state and her energy returned, Shining Armor's energy seemed to have returned to him as well.

The light became brighter and brighter, suddenly Cadence and Shining Armor's eyes became a bright white and the light became so bright that everybody had to close their eyes. Suddenly a big heart appeared. The magical energy became bigger and bigger until it 'exploded' sending a huge wave of magic across Canterlot. The magic didn't seem to affect the ponies nor Artorias. It seemed that this magic, has properties that could ward off all evils in it's vicinity. Suddenly all Changelings in the area dead or alive are thrown outside of Canterlot by the magic, even their sticky goo were fading away (this included the cocoon Princess Celestia was trapped in) . "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!"Chrysalis screamed while she was sent flying of the wedding hall with her broken forelegs dangling.

'This is amazing, I've never seen any magic like that before...not even at the Duke's Archives!' he thought while slinging his greatsword on his back.

Cadence and Shining Armor hugged each other. Twilight quickly trotted over towards the recently freed Princess Celestia.

"Princess are you okay?" she asked with concern present in her voice.

"I'm fine Twilight, but now we have a real wedding to attend to." Celestia said in a motherly tone.

Artorias just stood there, trying to digest what has transpired before his eyes. He snapped out of his trance when he heard a raspy feminine voice.

"Whoa! wait a minute." Rainbow Dash said.

"What is it Rainbow?" Applejack asked.

"I know we're all happy and all, but we still don't know what that thing is!" Rainbow Dash said while pointing her hoof at Artorias.

"Huh? What is that thing?!" Shining Armor asked with fear.

Then, all eyes fell on Artorias.

Author's Note

And that was another chapter!

If you guys find anything wrong, let me know in the comments so I can fix them

About his hand-to-hand combat ability, I think it's pretty useless if you have skills in fighting using a sword but can't fight using hand-to-hand combat. So yeah, he is very capable to kick some ass even without his greatsword.

In the next one, Artorias will int-

*Door slams open*

Havel: Held out?! he beat the crap outta me!

Ornstein: That's just you old man.

Lightning Spear : umm, guys?

Havel: Who are you calling old? *eyes twitching slightly* *lifts dragon tooth*

Lightning Spear: GUYS?!?!

Ornstein: *readies dragonslayer spear*

Lightning Spear: GAAH! *takes a barrett m82a1*