Rammus, the Armordillo, walked along the path by a small lake with a sense of tranquility in his strut. He had spent a long enough time in this land of green and polite equines, but as of recent times, he longed to return to the world of Runeterra. He missed his desert of home of Shurima, where the sands flew freely and his favorite cactus flowers grew, and so he had set off to find a way to get back to it, or at very least find a better substitute. With a sack of what few belongings he possessed hoisted over the heavy, spike-covered armor lining his back and most of his green-scaled body in general, he lumbered forward at a mild pace.

As he walked over the trail, Rammus turned his red eyes over to the pond lying nearby with a typical lazy mien about him. There was a lovely stillness to it that set his simple, epicurean soul free. Birds sitting in the trees were singing delightful little tunes, dragonflies buzzed about his head, keeping those annoying mosquitoes out of his face. It was nice.

As his mind drifted off in the harmony surrounding him, the birds suddenly went silent, and many of them began to fly off from where they once roosted. Upon catching up to the present, Rammus also then realized that the dragonflies had also vanished. Taking his view off of the lake and looking around briefly, he could hear a whistling noise grow louder from overhead. Not 'whistle' like a bird call, more like... something big falling through the air. It reminded him of the time not several weeks ago when a large rock had somehow come crashing down on him from the air, and when his thoughts left that moment, he decided to look upward.

There was a large, dark, stony shape coming upon him from the sky, and it was getting bigger as it descended down to earth. Pretty soon it was close enough for the Armordillo to discern that it was a giant... castle of sorts. With all he had seen before this, it didn't surprise the Armordillo if the precipitation in this place called for the occasional castle.

"Hmm..." he mumbled unenthusiastically, mere moments before the odd sky-castle came directly down on him.

As the thunderously ear-shattering sound of the fortress falling to the earth like a meteorite finally began to subside, a thick mushroom cloud of dust and debris rose from the remains of what vaguely appeared to be a castle. Bits of what was left of the main tower shook and toppled to the ground, crumbling into a pile of broken brick.

From what little there was to be seen within the foul throne room, now having collapsed into the first floor of the castle, the interior of the fortress was barely intact. The shapes of several of the brave fighters who bested the Evil Wizard managed to lift themselves up from the jagged and destroyed ground, though they looked worse for wear, and bruises, scratches, scrapes and scuff marks adorned most of them.

"Is... everyone alright?" Blue asked, looking to Undyne, Derpy and Orange; his face as sickly green as his correctly-hued, but currently-unseen friend's armor. "Oh, my head..."

"I'm fine," the voice of Red murmured from the ground nearby, pushing a large, chipped block off of himself, which proceeded to land with a loud crunch on the smaller stones in front of him. The knight in crimson hopped off from where he sat and dizzily made it his mission to be the first to stumble out of what little remained of the front door, whereupon he looked to the field of grass just outside of it with shimmering eyes. Dropping his mace and shield and extending his arms, he simply plopped himself, belly-first, onto it in a relieved way.

"Ah. Sweet, solid ground. So good to see you again..." he sighed in easy glee, rubbing his armored form all through the green plants he was upon as if he were making snow angels in a reversed way. Blue, who too had emerged from the wreckage (though with a few more dents in his armor than his allies), shielded his eyes from the sun's rays with a hand as he became the second to walk out, followed by Derpy.

Orange was still recuperating as a glow was witnessed from the corner of his opening eyes. Looking to it he spied the demon sword - the weapon wielded by the Evil Wizard - not five feet away from him.

It lied impaled within a pile of rubble, glowing like molten lava and giving off a demented warmth that simply called to the Orange Knight. He walked up to the weapon like a moth to a flame and wrapped his fingers around its cloth-covered handle. The moment he pulled the hellfire-forged weapon from the ground and lifted the head of its blade upward, a wolfish, demonic face carved into it, a feeling of incomparable power flowed through his body.

"Nice sword," complimented Blue, as he watched Orange skip outside with his prize.

"Seeing's how that Wizard won't need it anymore, I suppose I'll take it for myself," Orange smugly grunted back, swishing it through the air once, before sheathing it by his side and lowering a brow. "Hmm... where's Green? And Papyrus? And the princess?" The first and third questions were quickly answered as the sound of two lips coming together rang out from within the castle, causing everyone to turn just as a ruined drape hanging over a small section of the place dropped to the ground with a clatter, revealing the shapes of Green and Twilight Sparkle as they romantically made out from behind it. The combined voices of Red, Orange, and Blue cried out in unified despair and outrage at how the pragmatic and honorless bastard they called their friend had stolen the awesomely-coveted kiss of the princess, and were then silenced under a hushed mist of extreme loathing as the kiss between Green and the alicorn came to its fantastic finale.

"That was nice..." sighed Green, dreamily. To that, Twilight gave him a dry look.

"Don't ask me to do it again," she mumbled, fluffing her wings out and trotting away from him and through the wreckage until she was in the company of the other fighters. "We're here," she said to them, her expression changing to one of joy as Green's dizzied form stumbled around behind her.

Derpy smiled happily, before placing a hoof to her lip and looking around in a confused fashion. "But then... where's Papyrus?"

The moment everyone heard his words, there was a commotion of movement as everyone's heads spun around to see the blurred shape of Undyne cry out and shoot back into the castle. Running in, they could see that she was attacking a large pile of rubble in the far corner with outstretched hands; pulling it to pieces, brick by brick, and stone by stone.

"We have to find him!" exclaimed the fish monster. Rushing up to another pile when she finished with the first, she hastily began to tear it apart, scattering rocks about the destroyed room to no avail. "Sans is gonna kill me if he so much as loses an arm!"

"I think it's not so much what he's losing when it comes to body parts as it is body mass," Orange said, motioning for everyone to pitch in on the search. "Let's look for him."

They were just about to help her sort through the extreme mess, when the sound of a large fist punching through a partially-collapsed wall went out in an echo, pushing it down and scattering hundreds of bricks that had held it up as though it were nothing more than a wall of paper. An unfamiliar figure, clad in an armored and spiked shell that was intricately patterned with spiral scales, emerged from the hole holding a sack in one of his green, three-clawed arms and the skeletal figure of Papyrus in the other, whom he proceeded to gently place upon the ground. Both looked unscathed.

"UGH... THANKS FOR THAT, MY LARGE, ARMORED FRIEND!" Papyrus wearily thanked as he stood up with an affable flick of his gloved hand. "I WILL NOT SOON FORGET THIS ACT OF KINDNESS!"

"Ok," Rammus monotonously responded. He hobbled forward a few feet with his sack still tightly grasped in his three-clawed hand, allowing Papyrus to get to his legs on the stable earth and dust himself off. Smiling as he usually did, he looked to his friends respectively. "WELL, THAT WAS QUITE THE VENTURE. WHAT IS TO BE HAD NOW-"

"Thank the Underground!" Undyne interrupted in a shout, lunging forward and hugging the tall skeleton close to her armored shape. Seconds later she let go of him and rubbed her back with an arm and an easy chuckle. "I thought you were toast there for a second, Bonehead."

"UNDYNE, WE ARE ALIVE! CAN YOU NOT BELIEVE IT?" he asked.

"I can," she chuckled.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," interjected Blue, walking up to the terse Armordillo and pointing a finger at him. "Just who the heck's this overgrown ninja turtle and where did he come from?"

"Looks to me like a piteous attempt at adding yet another character to our already considerably-inflated roster..." whispered Orange into Derpy's ear, though in a tone too low for the pegasus to properly hear. Rammus cast a red-eyed, lazy gaze to him as he finished, and Orange in turn coughed into his fist. "Er... what I mean to say is, it looks like our ensemble may have just gotten that much bigger. Since you saved our friend from perishing amidst this crashed castle, would you care to join us in our quest to stop an evil dragon and save a kingdom, friend?"

Rammus scratched a sharp claw at his chin before mumbling a response. "Yeah."

"Alrighty then. The more the merrier!" said Red aloud, clapping his hands and rubbing them together. "What's next?"

Twilight stepped forward and cleared her throat. "That all depends on what the situation is. Who are the other princesses in need of saving?"

"You're the second-to-last princess we've had to save," Green revealed. "All that's left is Princess Celestial."

"'Celestia'," Twilight corrected.

"Whatever," Green carelessly shrugged. Twilight sighed and stared back at the others.

"We should go back to Ponyville. We can form a plan there," she said. "When I'm back with my friends, I just know I'll be able to come up with something."

Derpy was clapping her hooves together in glee and was already soaring high in the sky. "Then to Ponyville we shall go!" she cheered.

"TWILIGHT!" The shouts of pure joy from the alicorn's five friends and dragon assistant brought a most foul ringing to the knights' individual ears. They had all arrived in Ponyville after less than half-a-day of travel, mostly in part thanks to the alicorn's magical powers, and got there just as night was falling. They all jumped at her in a dogpile of vicious hugging and joyful laughter, gaining a mirthful chuckle from the observing Princess Luna.

As this all went on, Derpy passed by them and was soon greeted by the smaller, waiting shape of her daughter Dinky. Without a second thought, she gave her sweet daughter a large hug and nudged her cross-eyed face against the young unicorn's cheek lovingly. "It's so great to see you again my sweet, brave little Dinky," she said into her ear, ecstatic that she hadn't been harmed in the time she was gone. "Where's your father?"

"He's still in the town square, tending to the injured ponies. I'm helping out a lot!" Dinky replied, as their embrace finally broke off. "How have you been with saving the princesses?"

"Oh, it's been a trip," she uneasily laughed. "A long trip. The only princess left to save is Celestia."

"That is right..." Rarity's voice spoke up from behind as Derpy's words graced her ears. "Twilight, how do you propose we do something like that? We must rescue Princess Celestia and defeat that foul dragon, yet we do not have the Elements of Harmony at our disposal, and the Tree of Harmony is still silent."

"That's what I've been thinking about since we started for here," the Princess of Magic responded accordingly. "But I've come up with nothing. What do you all think would be best?"

"Well, why don't we take care of it!" Undyne butted in with a sharp-toothed grin. "We're more than qualified to slay a dragon. And besides, I've got a score to settle with him over tricking me into coming here."

"This seems like a job best suited for these heroes, who have done a tremendous amount of help already," Luna responded, agreeing with Undyne's assessment. "I believe it is best we stay in reserve, since Sablewing's servants have grown rather thin in number. Should something go awry, we will be the ones to step in to finish the job."

Twilight looked unsure, but after looking back to her friends and their individual expressions of agreement, she sighed and looked to the monsters and Castle Crashers. "I suppose that's an idea we can act on."

As Rammus gave a small, silent nod of assent from where he leaned his spiky, armored form against the side of a recently-rebuilt house, Dinky flashed a concerned face up to her mother. "Mama, if you go with them you'll come back, right?"

"Of course I will," Derpy replied, placing a hoof around her shoulder. "I promise I will."

Orange was already bouncing up-and-down on his heels with rapidity to rival Pinkie Pie on a sugar rush; the blood in his veins becoming lit with excitement. "Alright, it's time to crash Canterlot!" he cheered, raising his demon sword into the air. With a warcry he began charging off, and unable to help themselves, the rest of the team soon dashed off to join him.

"Bye-bye you all! Good luck!" Rainbow shouted as she watched them all depart from Ponyville, waving her hoof at them with the others.

"Show that dragon the what-for!" Rarity also spoke aloud.

"Yeah, have fun storming the castle!" Pinkie added, jumping into the air. As they all bid goodbye to the fearless heroes, they witnessed them unleash more battle roars into the air.

"To battle!" shouted Blue, holding his sword aloft over his head.

"To victory!" cried Red, bashing his mace lightly against his shield in anticipation.

"For science!" exclaimed Green with a large grin etched onto his face.

"FOR GREAT JUSTICE!" Papyrus and Undyne yelled together.

"Huzzah!" cheered Derpy, clapping her hooves together in (perhaps misplaced) excitement, flying above them all.

"Ok," said the steadily-following Rammus.