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Canterlot Crashers

by Orcus

Chapter 10: Interview With a Campfire

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With two more brave souls in tow, the fearless and righteous group set off from the Crystal Empire that same day. After a fair few hour's worth of travel, night soon fell and they all agreed to settle down. Upon chopping down some logs to sit on, then gathering a great many dry branches and blocks of wood, Orange proceeded to use his magic to start a fire.

Placing a pot full of water over the now-roaring flame, Papyrus had busily and cheerfully set to making a dinner of fresh spaghetti for his comrades. The skeleton had quickly become downright chummy with his new cohorts, who found his optimistic personality to be quite contagious. Within a short time, the warm smell of the food indicated that it was done, and Papyrus served it on paper plates he brought for such an occasion.

"That was yummy," Red complimented, licking the last of the tomato sauce with his tongue before tossing his plate into the fire upon finishing his meal.

"Are you sure?" Blue questioned, a look of disagreement painted on his face as he finished his own. "It tasted kind of bland an-"

A proper smack over the head by Green promptly shut him up before he could finish voicing his opinion. Papyrus appeared to not hear him, as his perpetual grin stayed glued on his face when he turned away to pull the empty pot off of the fire. When he was done that, he turned to the sack he had been carrying throughout the journey and yanked out something.

"WHO WANTS... MARSHMALLOWS?" he shouted, showing off the transparent bag. In enough unison to imitate a choir, everyone; pony, knight, monster or otherwise raised their hands and shouted "ME!" Chuckling, Papyrus plucked out several marshmallows, tossing them to everyone in a pattern from left to right. Upon finding a few sticks lying around the woodpile, most of them began to cook the puffy sweets over the fire while a select few simply ate them raw.

"Since we're all around a campfire sharing such yummy treats, why don't we share stories about ourselves as well?" Derpy asked, her voice partially muffled by the sticky stuff currently in her mouth. "I'll go first, if none of you mind."

Swallowing the marshmallow (after some visible effort), the pegasus began her short tale as most of the group around the campfire listened in. "Before this dragon-guy came, I was just a simple pegasus mailmare living in Ponyville. I have a funny, but inventive and loving husband who's also a doctor, and an adorable daughter named Dinky."

"My turn," Undyne heartily started, once she was sure Derpy had finished, placing her cup of tea down nearby. "Back in the world Papyrus and I live in, the Underground, I started out life as a trainee for the royal guard dedicated to our king, King Asgore Dreemur. Now, I'm one of the mightiest warriors in the land, and head of the royal guard itself!" She formed a spear and struck a heroic pose on the log she was previously sitting on, causing a small bout of impressed chuckling to go out among the band. She soon let the spear disappear, sat down, and picked her cup back up, happily joining in on the laughter.

"AND I'M ASPIRING TO BECOME A MEMBER OF IT," Papyrus spoke next, lifting his marshmallow up to himself and blowing the flame out on it. "ALL I HAVE TO DO IS CATCH A HUMAN! ALAS, IF ONLY THEY WERE MORE PLENTIFUL... OH! AND I HAVE A BROTHER NAMED SANS. HE MAKES A BIT MORE PUNS THAN I CAN HANDLE AT TIMES, BUT I LOVE HIM."

He suddenly gave a curious expression and rubbed his chin, staring at the knights. "SAY... ARE YOU ALL HUMANS? YOU KINDA SORTA LOOK LIKE THEM."

"Oh, um... no," Green lied. "And now that I'm talking, why don't I go before any of you mugs egg me on. I'm just a part-time alchemist, but a full-on knight that graduated with highest honors at knight college. That's where I met these three guys, in case none of you knew. That's pretty much all I'll share. Red?"

He bumped the titular knight's shoulder, gaining his attention. After laughing to himself, Red rubbed the back of his head with a hand. "Me? Ah, shucks... alright," he started in a bashful manner. "I'm just a guy who was born to a tribe of traders in the north. My dad's a trade lord there, and when he saw my tenacity to UTTERLY DECIMATE, PILLAGE, AND DESTROY ANYTHING IN MY WAY TO DEATH, he told me I'd make a good knight and sent me south. Been there ever since until, well, now I guess."

Blue rubbed his fingers together. "My life's nothing too special. I grew up in an old kingdom in the west as the eighteenth son of an esteemed duke. To tell you guys the truth, I was born under a rather embarrassing name."

"Blue's not an embarrassing name," Derpy mentioned.

"That's not my real name!" Blue said in his typical cheeky way. "You actually thought that? It's just the titles we go by now, though I must say that I haven't heard my real name uttered by anyone for longer than I can remember. Thank goodness for that, heh."

"...And I guess that just leaves me." Orange's voice sounded surprisingly solemn. He lowered his head and took in a deep breath before raising it again. "I grew up in a rural town far away from the kingdom where I now live. My entire family line was centered in the art of baking. My dad was a baker, my grandfather was a baker, my great-grandfather was a baker, my great-great-grandfather was a baker... you get it."

"But by the looks of it, you became a knight," Undyne commented, putting her cup of tea down again, listening intently to what Orange was saying. "Why?"

"Because I felt like I could do more than just make bread for a living," he sighed. "After a heated argument with my dad, he... he disowned me when I told him that I was heading out of the country to attend knight college."

Everything was silent when he finished, save for the crackling of the wood in the fire. After a few seconds, Undyne coughed into her fist.

"I think we'd all do ourselves well by getting some sleep," she spoke. "We should make it to the castle by midday tomorrow, and whoever we see there is probably not going to give up without a fight."

Quickly nodding in agreement, everyone soon set about taking out their sleeping bags after letting a short bit of time pass. Fitting herself into her own, Derpy thought deeply about what Orange said, taking a peek at him from where she lied, only to discover that he was already sound asleep; cradling his axe in his clutches as a foal would a teddy bear. The image stayed in Derpy's head even as the warm feeling of the dying fire lulled her to sleep a few minutes later...


Everyone awoke early in the morning when the first rays of yellow sunlight showed upon them all through the clouds and over the damp grass. After eating a small breakfast and packing away their supplies, the team continued on with their trek through the countryside, unimpeded by the forested terrain. With Undyne pointing the way, they found venturing through the unkempt wilderness to be far easier than anticipated.

Derpy flew above the others, looking out for any possible oncoming dangers with her mismatched eyes. But as she flapped her feathered wings, she couldn't help but think of what Orange had told about himself the night before. Letting out a sigh, she lowered herself to the ground beside the Orange Knight and tapped on his shoulder with a hoof.

"Something on your mind?" he asked, turning to her. She rapidly nodded her head.

"What you said about yourself last night... I didn't know that much about you," Derpy whispered to him. Orange let out a small laugh.

"It's nothing very major," he said back. "I don't let something that small keep me down. I've found all happiness I want just crashing castles with my fellow knights."

He pointed to Red, Green, and Blue when he finished, each of which were traveling just ahead of Derpy and himself, and the three appeared to be saying something to one another. Orange went on; "They're the greatest friends I could ask for. Let me tell you, we've been together through everything. They're practically my brothers."

He smiled to the pegasus, who then smiled back, just before the sound of Undyne's voice went out from far in the front. "There's the castle!"

Turning their attention to her and making haste, everyone ran up to the ledge they saw she was upon, and witnessed the old tower that lied far away, which seemed to bear both an aura of abandoned wretchedness and venerability due to its aged appearance. Red was practically vibrating in excitement as his (for some reason) bloodshot eyes laid sight on it.

"Last one down's a rotten egg!" he cried out, jumping from the ledge and sliding down. Shrugging, the rest of the knights and adventurers followed suit, racing to get to the castle's entrance.

As soon as it began, everyone slowed to a crawl as they actually entered the final area between them and the tower. Not out of tiredness mind you, but because of the stony ruins they could see were now blocking their path. The place looked utterly desolate; not unlike what it appeared to be at first in the Crystal Empire, only there were no smaller buildings. It was just shattered ruins that lined a broken dirt road that in turn lead to the large castle in the short distance. As they started to wander through them together, Derpy felt a shiver of unease go down her spine.

"This place is making me feel jittery," she anxiously said. "I travel everywhere when I deliver mail, but I've never been here before. Even the Castle of the Two Sisters isn't as weird as this place."

"Have no fear," Red commented, patting Derpy on her gold-maned head, causing her to give a look of annoyance. "If anything comes by, I'll make sure to give it a good whack! Wait a second... what's that?"

Red had suddenly pointed to a tall arch looming above the path just ahead of them, and on there, perched on the crescent-shaped, moss-covered object like a vulture was the dark shape of a well-armored figure bearing a set of horns on its black-helmeted head. It took the knights a moment to realize who it was when the sun passed through the cloud and illuminated the shape, but the second they did, they each opened their eyes in shock, surprise, and anger.

"Necromancer..." Green growled, unsheathing his sword at the same time as his took out theirs. As Undyne and Papyrus began to form the same idea in their heads, the Necromancer, unfolding his arms, let out an unimpressed huff.

"Brave knights and warriors, welcome..." he greeted in a deep, uninviting tone, stretching his forelimbs out as his wings opened over his back. Flapping them in a single, brief motion, he flew directly over from where he once stood, letting his red eyes gaze at his foes menacingly as he pulled his equally-dark, jagged, evil sword out and pointed it at them.

"Yes, welcome... to DIE!"

Next Chapter: The Undead's Bite Estimated time remaining: 47 Minutes
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