Intermission:

The Shadow Knight

“Mommy!” a small foal cried, ducking underneath a table for cover. Another fireball exploded above him, his tiny body barely protected by the wooden surface. The flames licked over the edge of the table, filling his heart with mortal terror.

An earth-rattling roar shook the very foundations of the foal’s burning home, quickly followed by another fireball that decimated the entire front half of the building. The foal screamed again, as a massive beast that seemed to be made entirely out of the darkest fires seen only in nightmares hunched over to peer inside of the burning wreckage. A maw with teeth as black as obsidian leered at the child, with several small fires flickering wildly.

A massive hand reached down to burn the child, to feel its fur and flesh burn away to nothing but ash...The child closed his eyes, and waited for the inevitable...

And was immediately met by the sound of steel colliding against stone.

Opening his eyes, the foal was shocked to see a strange, bipedal figure standing in front of him, a heavy shield between them and the monster.

The figure was completely encased in a metal suit of charcoal colored armor, with elegant gold lines tracing the edges of it. To the foal, it seemed like a darker, more alien version of the armor he had seen the royal guards up at Canterlot wear. His build vaguely reminded the child of a larger, wider version of a diamond dog, with a broad chest, and hands that gripped both a heavy roundshield, and an enormous sword that fanned out at both sides at the tip of it.

Is that one of those aliens? The child idly wondered in a haze.

With a grunt of effort, the newcomer forced the monster back with a mighty heave of his shield, and followed it with a downwards slash from his massive sword. The metal cleaved through the fire and brimstone as easily as it would have cleaved through wet clay, and the monster shrieked in pain. Before the monster could recover, the figure turned and scooped the foal up in its arms, and leaped through the smoldering remains of the wall.

During the pair’s mad dash through the town, the foal had just enough time to realize just how much damage the creature had caused; nearly half of his home, his village, had been completely devoured by the flames, leaving nothing more than the charred skeletons of once proud homes. Smoke and ash filled the air, obscuring Celestia’s sun as if it were little more than a paltry annoyance. His rescuer’s dark armor was already becoming nigh impossible to see against the thick clouds of smoke.

Once he had been safely carried away from the worst of the flames, the figure set him down, and told him in a deep, echoing voice, “Run! I shall fend off the foul beast!”

Before the foal could reply, the figure had already rushed back into the flames, his shield held before him to ward off any oncoming attacks.

Another roar shook the village’s foundations, as the monster, a Pyromancer gone rampant, charged the armored figure down.

In response, the figure raised his sword, and shouted, “For the Night’s Embrace!”

As the monster bore down on him, the Knight fully stepped into its path, and halted the monster’s charge with naught but the flat of his sword. He let out another grunt of effort as he smashed his shield into the monster’s face, cracking the stone mockery of a nose with ease. The Pyromancer fell back, his massive frame crashing into the ground. With the confidence of one who has practiced his craft for centuries on end, the Knight cleaved away at the beast’s neck, hacking apart the magic that held it together.

The monster roared in pain, band tried to unleash another blast of flames to roast the Knight.

The flames were diverted with a simple flick of the Knight’s sword.

The Pyromancer, too weak to sustain itself any longer, faded away, leaving only a pile of steaming brimstone to signify that it had even existed in the first place. Even the flames that were consuming the town died away to nothing, leaving only the Knight to stand in the aftermath.

He slung his sword and shield onto his back, and trudged through the wreckage to return to the crowd of ponies who watched him with awe, and no little amount of fear. Sensing their apprehension, the Knight slowly knelt to the ground, where the foal approached him cautiously.

“Little one,” he rumbled. “Did the creature harm you in any way?”

The foal shook his head.

Nodding, the Knight gently brushed a few ashes out of the foal’s mane, and stood to address the crowd.

“Citizens of Maretyr, you need not fear any longer. The source of your torment has been removed from this plane of existence,” he stated in a loud voice, holding his hands out in what was unmistakably a gesture of peace. “No longer shall you fear your homes being destroyed by this soulless monster. It has met its end by the steel of my blade.”

He continued on with his speech in this fashion for a long while, calming the crowd with a voice that was laced with what seemed to be genuine concern, assuring them that he meant them no harm, and only wished to offer them a small measure of protection in their troubled times. Soon, the crowd began to cheer for him, praising his bravery and selflessness.

“Sir Knight, what may we call you?” the mayor managed to shout over the noise of the crowd.

The Knight met all of their gazes, one at a time, and nodded, as if to confirm something for himself.

“You may call me...Torrentican, Knight of the Shadows. And I seek the one who caused you this pain. I aim to destroy him, to cast him back into the abyss from whence he came.”

His helmet’s eye slits glowed with a smoldering orange fire.

“I seek the one known as Warclaw. The Beast of Nightmares.”

Next Chapter: Revisions of the Future Estimated time remaining: 30 Minutes