1. The 5th horseman returns
3rd person
On one particular day that most would be familiar with twilight sparkle is going through all the books in her room, which amounts to a personal library before going to Ponyville for the summer sun celebration.
“Ah! Elements, Elements, E, E, E...” Twilight sparkle said as she flipped through a book called predictions and prophecies. “Aha! Elements of Harmony, see: Mare in the Moon?” she continued on with her search.
For those that many not know twilight is a lavender coloured anthropomorphic unicorn currently wearing a bluey purple shirt with dark purple skirt that goes to just above the knees. She has a dark purple main and tail with a purple stripe, including purple eyes. Also for those that ask why anthro? Well that’s so they can use stuff easier.
“Mare in the Moon? But that's just an old ponies' tale.” Spike replied sitting on the floor surrounded by books DE shelved from the search. Spike is a purple dragon with a green eyes, belly, ear fins and spines going along his back. There is a difference with him from the original series though. He is a quadruped like classic dragons; think the cartoonish drawings of dragons on deviant art. He also has his wings as well but they are not developed enough to fly. He can balance on his two back legs as well of carrying stuff.
“Mare, mare... aha!” twilight exclaimed as she found the page. “The Mare in the Moon, myth from olden pony times. A powerful pony who wanted to rule Equestria, defeated by the Elements of Harmony and imprisoned in the moon. Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about night time eternal!” she gasped pausing for a second to process the information. “Spike! Do you know what this means?”
“No” he tilted his head to the side.
“Take a note please, to the Princess.” She told him as if it was very important
“Okie dokie.” Spike than went and took a piece of paper and a pen off the nearby table.
“My dearest teacher, my continuing studies of pony magic have led me to discover that we are on the precipice of disaster!” she started to pace back and forth.
“Hold on. Preci... preci...”
“Threshold.”
“Threh...”
“ Uh, brink? Ugh, that something really bad is about to happen! For you see, the mythical Mare in the Moon is in fact Nightmare Moon, and she's about to return to Equestria, and bring with her eternal night! Something must be done to make sure this terrible prophecy does not come true. I await your quick response. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”
“ Twi... light Spar... kle. Got it!” he exclaimed as he finished.
“Great! Send it.”
“Now?” he said questionly .
“Of course!”
“Uh, I dunno, Twilight, Princess Celestia's a little busy getting ready for the Summer Sun Celebration. And it's like, the day after tomorrow.” He said not thinking it would be a good idea to disturb her.
“That's just it, Spike. The day after tomorrow is the thousandth year of the Summer Sun Celebration! It's imperative that the Princess is told right away!”
“Impera... impera...”
“Important!” she almost yelled getting impatient.
“Whoa! Okay, okay!” with an inhale and a whoosh the letter was sent in a burst of magical green flames. “There, it's on its way. But I wouldn't hold your breath...”
“Oh, I'm not worried, Spike. The Princess trusts me completely. In all the years she's been my mentor she's never once doubted me.”
Spike belched getting the reply
“See? I knew she would want to take immediate action.”
Spike clears his throat preparing to read out the letter. “My dearest, most faithful student Twilight. You know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely.”
“Mm-hm!” she hummed happily at the compliment.
“...but you simply must stop reading those dusty old books!”
Twilight gasped in shock
Spike continued. “My dear Twilight, there is more to a young pony's life than studying, so I'm sending you to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in this year's location: Ponyville. And, I have an even more essential task for you to complete: make some friends!”
She sighed in disappointment at her concern being brushed off and the order to socialise.
“Look on the bright side, Twilight. The Princess arranged for you to stay in a library. Doesn't that make you happy?” spike said trying to cheer her up.
She was about to reply when she noticed some text she missed. “And before this event occurs the 5th horseman will return to signal the start of the apocalypse.”
“What does that mean?” spike said trying to look at the page.
“I don’t know spike, something bad. Something really bad…”
[...GAP…]
In the old memorial grave yard at the base on Canterlot Mountain a large monolith engraved with thousands of names from a time long forgotten shimmered as one of the stars that would aid in nightmare moons escape passed directly over it.
A few minutes passed without any thing happening. Suddenly an armoured hand shot out from the front face of the monolith followed by the rest of the figure.
Artoria stepped out from her prison which she had been trapped in for who knows how long. She had red eyes and long blond hair that was tucked in to her black full plate Armor. A red crystal on a gold chain was tucked into her Armor.
Looking around she found she was in a large grave yard at the base of the mountain which had a large stone platform on the side supported by massive pillars, smaller platforms seemed to circle the mountain some further or lower on the mountain than the main one, all connected by large stone bridges or direct contact. Nothing could be seen on them from her current angle. She then looked back at the prison she stepped out of.
“In memory of those that fort and died in the war of the horseman… dam Celestia use my prison as the marmoreal stone? Not sure what to make of that.” She then looked back to the disks which she guessed belonged to canterlot city.
Concentrating for a minute Artoria looked at what she was still capable of doing after so long of being imprisoned. “hmm still have all my class features and obviously no items on me apart from the necklace. Level 3 and up spells are locked for some reason… except innate spells that’s good at least.” She paused for a few seconds before deciding to cast locate object.
She looked up at the city after a second. “Great. At least it’s nearby, let’s make this quick.” Holding out her hand, Artoria used her level 20 class feature to summon an skeleton version of the nightmare from D&D. the mount rose out of the ground and stood there waiting for its masters command. It had red flames on its hooves and its main and tail was made out of them, while its body was covered in its own dark plate Armor which she had acquired during the war.
Smiling she patted the skeleton horse before getting on and mentally commanding it to enter the ethereal plane with its ethereal stride ability. The reason Artoria was using this was because in the ethereal plane you can move up or down as easily as walking. It would also allow her to move through solid objects and remain invisible; it did have its down side of vision being limited to 60ft / 18.28 meters. But she knew where she was going so it did not matter that much.
On her trip there she passed over ponies; mostly unicorns on her way. She also passed many fancy buildings, not seeing any more of the city because of her obscured view. Eventually arriving at what looked like a museum, it is made of white stone with large stairs leading up to it. The roof is in the shape of a triangle with stone columns supporting the structure.
Entering the structure it was a typical museum with exhibits focusing on history. Riding along over the ponies going about their day she eventually came to a room dedicated to old and ‘mythical’ wars. Near the center on the room was what she was looking for, a round shield. The shield was made out of a light black stone with a face of what some would describe as some sort of demon in the center, its eyes and open mouth glowing red. Surrounding the face were a ring of runes and cracks spiralled out from the middle with additional runes on seemingly random places of the shield; every rune and crack glowed red.
Walking up to the exhibit she looked around at the visitors and sighed, seeing as they were not going any time soon and she did not want to wait for several hours Artoria decided to just take it. Appearing followed by the screams of the panicking crowd and smashing her hand into the glass case she acquired her trusty shield. It was light and indestructible since it came from the concept of her original costume that was not surprising.
She also took a long sword from another exhibit before leaving everyone to their panic and returned to the ethereal plain. Going back to the edge of the city and exiting the plain again she surveyed the land looking for where to go next, seeing the tree line of a forest in the distance.
“Well if this is canterlot than that’s probably the everfree or the hollowed woods…” while all the locations from the original show did exist this equestria was on a larger scale with there being more in-between, otherwise there would be only 13ish city’s/ towns in such a large country. Granted a surprisingly large amount of equestria’s land was uninhabited even it was all documented.
Deciding the castle of the two sisters in the everfree forest would be her next destination for finding her stuff. Artoria re-entered the ethereal plain and started on her way. This will take a few hours…
[ …GAP… ]
Several hours later during the temporary eternal night.
“The Everfree Forest!” all of the main 6 said as they stood at the edge of the dark and imposing everfree forest. Other ponies description not included because it’s not too relevant at the moment, also most should know them all ready.
“Whee! Let's go!” pinkie pie said happily bouncing up and down on her two legs.
“Not so fast. Look, I appreciate the offer, but I'd really rather do this on my own.” twilight said not wanting to go into the spooky forest with a group of people that had not given her the best impression of themselves so far. Especially those that may or may not be on some ones mental patient list.
“No can do, sugarcube. We sure ain't lettin' any friend of ours go into that creepy place alone. We're stickin' to you like caramel on a candy apple.” Apple jack said trying to assure twilight.
Everyone agreed to that except twilight. “I met you for a grand total of what, less than ten minutes? How does that classify us as friends?” twilight thought to herself.
“Especially if there's candy apples in there. What? Those things are good.” Pikkie pie said getting looks from every one.
Twilight sighed excepting the inevitable. “Defiantly on someone’s mental patient list.”
[ …GAP…]
At a different entrance to the everfree.
“Well it defiantly got bigger” Artoria said looking up at the large trees in front of her. “ I guess it makes sense it was supposed to be scary for anyone who entered.” Last time she was here the forest had been the size of a normal forest, its dangerous animals only just starting to appearing for some reason.
Now it was several times that size, big enough for an ancient dragon to walk through under the tree canopy. Well the largest trees anyway, there were several types of them. The largest ones were spread out there branches creating a thick canopy that blocked out light in most places. The rest were a mixture of trees she could not discern the type of and bushes that clogged parts of the under growth.
Shrugging she continued on toward the castle, its highest towers poking up above to trees; that sight was lost as she entered the forest. As she travelled she noticed that the forests density seemed to change regularly, from extremely dense to some clearings and everything in-between. She did not see any wile life though which is odd.
She continued on for a while before casting locate object again to get the castles location. What did she try to find? The old thrones since there was no guarantee any of her stuff would be there. After a few minutes Artoria was abruptly forced out of the ethereal plane.
Falling with her mount she looked up to see the entrance to the castle just outside of the visible range she had in the ethereal plain. “Dam must be some sort of field to keep people from spying…” she told her mount to stay before heading in to the ruined castle.
The castle its self was quite run down but more of it was intact than what would be expected. Crossing the bridge she entered the main room which had the two thrones at the end, one blue while the other was gold. There were also old and decayed tapestries that lined each wall, while they were to worn to tell what they were. Artoria knew they would have shown past important events like the stained glass windows from the show.
Just then she heard laughter from further in the castle. Running to the noise she found something she was not expecting, but should have.
The main 6, Twilight sparkle, Rainbow dash, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie and Fluttershy were all spread out on the floor looking bruised with what looked like magical burns. Night mare moon was not far away from them. She was wearing what looked like leather Armor but with plates of light blue metal attached to it. She also had her helmet, a long sword in one hand and a large scythe on her back.
“You little foal! Thinking you could defeat me? Now you will never see your princess, or your sun! The night will last forever!” nightmare moon cacked up laughing at with that gloating in her apparent victory.
Artoria looked over the seen. “Well I did not expect to come back now, I mean what are the chances? Dam it looks like I’ll have to step in. I get the feeling they won’t be able to do this… however they did this before; it’s been a long time hasn’t it?” shaking her head Artoria leapt over the main 6 and swung her sword at nightmare moon surprising every one. But nightmare recovered fast enough to block the blow.
“Another one? Well you at least look like you know what you’re doing.” She started laughing again as the sword fight ensued. The fight was even for a while before Artoria got a hit in. the main 6 are basically stunned watching at the moment. Well? Some random person in full plate just come out of nowhere and basically saved them. Anyway…
“Shit immunity to non-magical damage.” Artoria jumped back as nightmare moon just looked at her with a smile.
“HA! Do you think some mortal could hurt a goddess such as myself?”
Artoria just gave her a neutral look before lunging to her chest with the sword pointed to stab her. Nightmare moon just stood there not expecting it to do anything, but at the last second Artoria cast magic weapon on her blade piercing through the centre of nightmares chest.
The mane 6 gasped in shock while nightmare in pain stumbling back. Artoria stepped back noticing the wound already healing.
Night mare moon took the time to have a closer look at her opponent before smiling. “Looks like ill have a challenge after all, I was beginning to think no one of this age could put up a fight. Hmm you somehow look familiar… never mind.” She shrugged the feeling off before attacking with her sword.
Artoria cast protection from good and evil on herself which made it harder for certain beings to hit her, provided she could concentrate on it. Looking at what she was fighting she did not think she had many spells that would affect her. So she just had to use what she did have affectively.
Blocking with her shield she used her innate spells dimension door to teleport behind nightmare. Swinging at her back and using unholy smite to increase the damage done with her blow, dark red and green exploding from the blade.
Nightmare moon retaliated with the spell cone of cold followed up with a bolt of shadows.
Artoria blocked what she could before the shadow bolt send her flying and breaking her concentration on the spell. As she got up a blade grazed her cheek, drawing some dark dead looking blood.
“Just what I suspected you reek of undeath, I’m surprised up did not notice earlier. You have quite a bit of experience hiding it don’t you?” she sneered pointing her blade at Artoria.
Artoria just looked at the blade than proceeded to slowly raze her sword hand to her cheek. It glowed with dark red and green necrotic energies for a second, the cut healing its self as if it never happened. She then stood up strait and looked nightmare moon in the eyes. “unholy aura” she said quietly before her body got a faint sickly yellow glow.
Nightmare raised her eyebrow. Just then Artoria leaped at her with incredible speed, continuing the fight.
The fight continued for a minute with them trading blows, Artoria using some more of her spell slots to cast unholy smite when she got a hit in and took some damage herself. Despite Artoria’s increased in speed nightmare was casually keeping up with her speed.
As for the 6 anthropomorphic ponies watching they barely kept up with what was going on before. Now it was just a blur to them, sparks and bursts of wind coming off every clash of blades. Seeing this was not going well for the mystery knight twilight decided to refocus on getting the elements to work.
“I have had enough of this!” nightmare moon declared pulling her scythe off her back. The handle of the weapon was made out of a shiny black substance as long as nightmare while the large blade was in the shape of a crescent moon made of the same light blue metal her Armor had. There were also runes along the outside edge of the blade that glowed a bright dark blue and a spiked pommel was on the end. The entire this was ornately decorated.
She brought down her scythe as Artoria went to block with both her blade and shield. The sword shattered on impact while her shield took the blow braking Artoria’s arm and sending her flying.
“Impressive shield. I’ll have to keep it after I take it from your shredded body.”
When nightmare moon was in front of her latest victim. Artoria kicked nightmares legs out from under her than proceeded to spin around herself and punch the black Alicorn in the face, her fist irrupting in energy.
Nightmare was sent flying a few meters before getting up. “well you defiantly don’t give up, but that’s one of the hallmarks of a knight. Even a dead one apparently.” She then razed her scythe above her head, both hands on the handle. “Perhaps I will show you what I can really do?” she said with an evil laugh.
Nightmare moon then got twice as large. Getting a repapers coat and her entire body covered in blue and black flames including her scythe that had gotten more elaborate.
Just as she was about to bring it down upon Artoria there was a rainbow flash from behind her. Nightmare moon just had enough time to turn around to see a rainbow impact her.
“NNNnnnoooooo…” she yelled before disappearing, leaving a small light blue Alicorn in her place.
Artoria blinked for a second than looked over to see the 6 ponies that were inspecting their new necklaces. The original crown is not included, why? Just so it’s more even; the shapes of the gems are all circles, though still are their original colours.
“Gee, Twilight! I thought you were just spoutin' a lot of hooey, but I reckon we really do represent the elements of friendship.” Applejack said looking at her new necklace and its orange Chrystal.
“Guess I was too focused to hear the speech.” Artoria though.
“Indeed you do.” Celestia said appearing in a flash of light as the sun rose behind her through a window.
Twilightgasped seeing her teacher appear before her and her friends. Just in case you don’t know all or the others did something on there was through the forest to prove themselves to her
“Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student. I knew you could do it.” Celestia said with a smile.
“But... you told me it was all an old pony tale.”
“I told you that you needed to make some friends, nothing more. I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon's return an-” Celestia stopped dead in her tracks and looked at Artoria before sighing. “That explains the museum…” she whispered to herself.
Artoria just looked back for a second before teleporting away using her last available spell slot.
Celestia just shook her head than turned to Luna. “And as for you my little sister Luna. Can you forgive me for my past mistakes?”
“YES!” Luna cried as she jumped into Celestia sobbing into her chest, being possession is a traumatic experience.
“um excuse me not that I want to interrupt your moment but who the hell was that?” rainbow dash said pointing to where Artoria had been.
Celestia glared for a second making rainbow dash wince but then the just sighed. “That is Artoria”
“And what is she princess?” twilight asked curiously.
“That my faithful student.” Celestia said in an even tone bordering on hateful. “Is a Death Knight.”
Every one gasped… t
Author's Note
so that was the first chapter. is showed a few of Artoria's abilities and she is a powerful character. she is level 20 in d&d terms but its just a approximation. nightmare moon would be several level above so that's why she was making it look easy.
