Stretching out his wings he could feel the odd tingles of his muscles extending out. His brown worn-down bag patted against his side as his body shook. The world seemed warm again, colors felt vivid and for once, he didn't feel alone. Watching pegasi fly through the heaven they looked down to give a salute as they glided forward.

Chip just smirked as he looked away. Side-stepping around his garden, he tended to the soil. He had expected war but it was merely a few waves of what he now knows as "changelings".

Chip frowned at that new piece of information, changelings have never been once recorded as being a thing but it would align with many stories and tales.

'A creature that could change into anything.'

It was a terrifying thought, and yet, somehow the town felt confident in its comradery. They saw each other as ponies working together, they never doubted whether they were who they were even after the battle.

Chip found the thought to trust strangers at this time odd. But he found some kind of weird wholesomeness to it.

The lush grass graces tickled Chip's hooves as he continued tending to the flower bed. He felt content to just focus on fixing his small patch of agriculture.

During the invasion, it had been muddied and hit ferociously by a bolt of magic in a fight. While fixing a normal flower bed was fine, it had been engineered with magic to adjust to two flower types. This stray bolt had messed with the magic matrix of the soil, but Chip had not found it too horrible to be fixing the mess.

Chip's ears perked and twitched, turning around he saw two familiar faces of an earth stallion and unicorn mare.

He gave a courtly smile. "Hello, Mr. Jam and Ms. Peanut. How may I help the mayor and his assistant?"

The mayor spoke first. "We were wondering how you are faring during the past week." He directed his focus to my bandaged wing. "Straining a wing is never good and that's not considering how much you swung it around."

Chip chuckled. "Thank you for your concern, but it's my right wing." Dismissing the caution with his left one. "Nothing too concerning of it."

Assistant Peanut Swirl chimed in. "It's wise to not take it too lightly."

Chip nodded in agreement. "That's true, however, I have the problem well-" Lifting the wing just slightly, I resumed. "'under-wraps'."

The stallion gave a hearty laugh while the mare just gave a disappointed sigh.

Chip smiled with pride swelling in his chest. "While I would love for my ego to accept you'd come all the way here to simply care for me. A small voice of reason tells me there's another."

The mayor still held his heart on his sleeve. "While I had wondered how our hero was doing, I have to say you are correct."

Peanut lit her horn of warm chocolate brown, a small pin in its grasp. Three indigo blue feathers with dark cyan shadow with a heavily emphasized space that was the shape of a star.

"We found exactly what you had described, although it's dirty and the back pin of silver has rusted, it was somehow kept preserved."

Chip lifted his right arm with his hoof topside. The mare hesitated, Chip raised an eyebrow as she held it in the air. "This ribbon was nearly buried with our Town's hero, while I and many of us are grateful for your support. I- I can't simply hoof this to somepony who has no idea what meaning it holds."

The mayor rolled his eyes, "I'll be at the town hall if you need me."

Chip waved him off, focusing on Peanut. "I've already said I-"

She sighed. "Yes, your family was quite close with him and that reasoning has only made sense so far."

Chip was bewildered by how suddenly she became glued to how important this was. "You knowing of it was something else." Her face hardened. "But I will require more verification, I have spent my life trying to learn about this Knight. Even if others don't hold much value to it, I do."

Sighing Chip put his hoof down with a smile. "I admire how strongly you feel about this." He chuckled. "If you give me your hoof I can show you proof."

Peanut looked at Chip's face, gauging whether this was some kind of trick. Looking deep into his eyes she could see no malice, taking a deep breath she took her hoof out, putting the floating relic on her horseshoe. Chip dug into his bag before pulling out a small gold star.

Her eyes lit at the recognition of it. "H-how d-did you?"

Chip smiled, "Just wait till the good part." Putting the gold star in the faded socket brought a pulse of magic. Peanut didn't need to be a high-rank mage to feel it was ancient magic. The kind that slayed dragons and whole towns. A flash of light blinded her, sensations and and noises blurred before the world became calm once more.

Opening her eyes she could see the town, not the forest they were in nor the village she has grown to, the town long before.

Her eyes couldn't believe what she was seeing, homes of hay were lit on fire, glass shards Brazenly scattered along the road with blood splotches just as dispersed.

Her mind was trying to wrap around the experience, screams, yells and cries for help swirled together. The whole intake of the fresh new knowledge made her grow nauseous, she couldn't take it anymore.

Turning around she saw a corrupted timber wolf lunge right at her. Flinching, she shut her eyes with a scream. The sound of scraping metal echoed in the air, slowly opening her eyes she looked back to see a pony with a navy blue coat. They turned back to see Peanut. Her eyes grew like dinner plates at recognizing her savior.

The tainted cyan mane, the duo mismatched eyes, and that smile. Her great-grandmother's stories didn't do it justice. Her worries were soothed at the sight of the enthusiastic and cocky grin.

The ear-grating sound of metal scraping brought her out of her trance. Her ears folded and cringed at the nagging sound. Re-focusing her direction she saw the source of the horrible sound was a shield that a timberwolf was trying to bite down on. Its teeth were scraping the shield as it was lodged sideways in its mouth.

Star Night held firm as the wolf continued to move forward with its jaw full. She caught a glimpse of his movement, turning his hooves on the ground he side-stepped. The eyes of the creature widened at the sudden lack of resistance, the momentum became faster as he pulled the shield, swinging it to the ground. The motion pulled the body around in a circle before a hard 'CRACK' echoed in the air. His left wing was embedded into its wood shell, with small cracking sounds. As he dislodged his wing, Peanut was able to catch the glimmer of a purple hue.

Star Night panted as he took a hold of himself, in this moment she could also see his body in a proper light. His armor was less glamorous, only giving small slips of moonlight as he was covered in green fluids. Looking at his body it was surprising how he was able to even fight. Without the blinding shine, she could see he was barely covered in armor. The torso, hooves and wings were equipped with metal but his hind legs were exposed, nothing covered his horseshoes and his head was completely exposed.

Peanut could barely make sense of how he was able to fight for four days in armor that didn't even cover his most vital area. Her eyes widened as she gave a deep look at his body.

Bite marks on his neck and legs. She took a sharp gasp of realization, back then they knew nothing about DP's. So they fought with everything they could.

Not knowing they were venomous.

Their teeth and claws had probably dug deep into him, the venom was probably too far gone.

His face was sweating and he was panting. She could see he was weakly gripping the shield inside Its mouth. Stumbling, he took a few breaths before turning back to her, wearing a smile.

"You should really be more careful, Sir."

Peanut was confused. "I'm not-."

She flinched as she heard a voice echo in her mind. 'You saved me!'

Star let out a chuckle, "All part of the job." He grew serious, "You should go find wagons in the east, they are transporting villagers. Make haste, more will be coming."

The voice spoke before she could. 'What about you? Son, you look worse for wear. You must come with us!'

"Go with them!" She pleaded that he could hear her for just a moment. She knew she was reliving a moment in history. It's just- she couldn't see him die like this.

A small laugh brought her back. "I'm part of the Lunar Branch, this is what I do for a living." Even Peanut could see how weak he was growing, the small tilting of his legs, and the wobbling. It was a sign of the venom working.

'We are truly blessed by the Sun and Moon to have the Princesses form fine stallions like you. But I can't leave without knowing your name.'

Star just smiled, "I am Star Night. Now please, go with the survivors, this will be infested with monsters."

'Of course'

The sounds of hooves faded out of her mind.

With a step forward he already stumbled, nearly falling. His breathing was somehow stable even with how badly the toxin was working. A small part of her wanted to try something, anything to change even a little part of this situation.

The fire crackled but her ears swiveled to her left. The direction led to a dark alleyway, eyes like amethyst glowed with a guttural growl.

"Heh, you guys keep coming here, I'd imagine something draws you in, but for the life of me, I can't think of why. I guess we'll just consider this some character development." Groaning he turned to the approaching creature. His ears perked as he heard scraping. Looking around he could see more of them surrounding him, "You've got to be shitting me." He was becoming breathless. "God, if I get isekai'd again, please let the next life be better." The wolves ran forward, lunging at him from all sides, his shield glistened with a dark blue hue and his eyes shined.

Barks and howls whipped around as Peanut lost her sight in a flash. Yelping in surprise she shut her eyes, giving moments to calm her beating heart. She steadily opened her eyes once more. Soft light seeped through as she adjusted to the world.

Chip was tucking the pin inside his bag whilst humming a tune. Her mouth was agape, "How are you so casual about this?! We just saw one of the finest warriors from centuries ago fight in a clash against a wave of DPs!"

Anger subtly began to boil as he gave no care to the world of experience and history they had witnessed. She could barely process her own emotions but he was completely unphased!

He just smirked. "The world is full of many lost heroes and tales. Though I'm glad you have so much passion for your hero, I'm sure he would not care too much about being forgotten."

That did not set well with her at all. She had no care for restraint on her emotions.

"Excuse me? I have spent my life on this! A hero should be remembered and celebrated!" She stomped her hooves and shook her head in bewilderment. "How could you say something like that? Wouldn't you want to be remembered? To be praised and recognized for your sacrifices?"

Chip sighed. "Honestly," his face softened as he pressed his lips together. His voice was hollow, becoming a small whisper. "No."

Author's Note

I immensely regret the opportunity to not delve further into the idea of not knowing who to trust as a plot line in the political and personal affairs of the kingdom. Eventually I would like to rectify that in a re-write when I have the time. I will admit the time skip was an easy solution to focus onto our main character but it definitely was a missed opportunity to afford more views onto the princesses.

Speaking of princesses what about the Queen?