Picture it in your mind. A world just like our own!... Except that there are dragons, dinosaurs, aliens, robots, walking plants, demons and angels, among others. Now, imagine a castle in the middle of nowhere. Done? Good. Now take a peek inside.

There seems to be some sort of meeting. You see a hulking dinosaur that has a toaster-like head, a red dragon with a sword, a pony clad in white armor, another clad in black, and a few oddities like mermaids and vampires. You see the black knight-pony stand up.

“Serve the Shadow Paladins! We offer you victory!” he says. ”There will be sacrifices, but that is inevitable in war!!”

“No sacrifices must be made. We can all work together to banish the Void.” All eyes in the room turn to the white knight.

“Ha! Your petty bonds of ‘friendship’ amuse me, Blaster Blade!” says the black knight. “This is war! ‘Friendship’ has no place in the battlefield!”

"You may think so, but remember, that was the same ideology that prevented you from wielding the sword of li-“

"Silence! How dare you mention that?!" yelled the black knight of shadows.

"I only state what is true." says the knight that was called 'Blaster Blade'. " The sword of light and courage does not pick cowards and traitors."

"BUUUURRRRNNN!" yelled the red dragon. Everpony glared at him. "What?"

"As I was saying earlier, I offer you victory in exchange for servitude." says the black knight. "Any objections?"

The white pony-knight and a multitude of others raise their hooves, claws, well, you get it.

The black pony-knight looks genuinely angry now. " You... Royal Paladin scum..... You dare oppose me!?" The group called 'Royal Paladin' is about to retort, but is cut off by the dark knight. "Let us settle this on the battlefield, scum!" And with that, the black knight storms out, and a group of creatures that also have black armor go with him.

Everypony in the room looked at the white knight. He then stands up and clears his throat.

"I assure you I will knock sense into that knight's head, everypony." he states. "Royal Paladins! Prepare yourselves for war!"

"... And that's how Canterlot was founded." said a magenta earth pony. "Any questions, class?"

Nopony raised their hooves.

"Ok then. Announcements! Congratulations, Sweetie Belle! You got an A+ on the math test! Keep up the good work!" said the magenta pony. "I'm sure your sister would be proud!"

"Thanks Miss Cheerilee!" squeaked the filly known as Sweetie Belle. She was a white unicorn with a purple and pink mane styled in curls.

"Anyway, Silver Spoon, you got an A-! Good work! said Cheerilee. "Study harder, and maybe next time, you can pass Sweetie!"

The gray earth pony filly called Silver Spoon simply pouted and glared at Sweetie Belle.

"Anyway, most of the class passed! Except for a few. Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, you have detention."

A certain orange pegasus and a yellow earth pony groaned. At the opposite side of the class, a pink filly was smiling maliciously at them. The bell rung afterwards.

"That's all! Class dismissed! Scootaloo, Apple Bloom you will stay behind." said Cheerilee.

Most of the class packed their stuff and went home, except for three certain fillies.

"See you later, blank-flanks!" said the pink filly "You deserved it!"

"Yeah! What DT said!" yelled Silver Spoon. "You get that for not studying!"

"Girls!! That's a very mean thing to say!" scolded Cheerilee. "Honestly, why can't you all get along..."

"Let's bail, Silvy." said 'DT'. "These blank-flanks aren't worth our time."

"Yeah, you got that right." said Silver Spoon, as both walked out of the classroom.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom just sat on their chairs, facing their desks with a look of anger and frustration. Cheerilee just sighed, and said, "Girls, I'll be getting your supplementary tests. Stay here." She then left the room, shaking her head and mumbling something.

"Uhh... Hey Scoots, AB." Both turned to look at the forgotten filly.

"Hey Sweetie! Aren't you supposed to be out now?" asked Apple Bloom, the yellow filly with a bow.

"Yeah, but I wanna play with you guys!" said Sweetie Belle. "Why'd you fail the exam anyway?"

"It's 'cos me and Scoots here stayed up all night crusading!" said Apple Bloom. "Ain't that right, Scoots?"

"Yeah, I really thought we'd get our cutie marks in spying..." said the orange filly known as Scootaloo. "But we'll probably get it next time, right?"

"You guys! You went crusading without me again?" squeaked Sweetie.

"Sorry, but you never have the time to anymore!" retorted Scootaloo. "You're always too busy studying!"

"It's because I want to impress Rarity!" replied Sweetie anxiously. "And besides, we've tried everything, and we still haven't gotten them!"

"Okay, okay. Yeesh. How about we meet up at the playground later? Deal?" asked Scootaloo.

"Deal!" said the two other fillies.

"Well, see you later guys!" she said as she picked up her saddlebags and left. Once she was in the hallway, she felt a sudden blast of cold air, even though the windows were closed. Dissmissing it, she went outside and immediately ran home, leaving her saddlebags near the door and yelling a bunch of stuff about waiting at the playground for her friends. She immediately got scolded by her sister for yelling, but let she her back out eventually.

She ran to the playground as fast as she could, but when she got there, she saw nopony but the two bullies, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

"Hey DT, look! It's the blank-flank again!" said Silver Spoon. "What are you doing here, huh?

"Yeah, don't tell me you *gasp* live here!" sneered Diamond Tiara. "Oh, is the little blank-flank also a homeless pony? Here, have some bits!" she said as threw a few of the golden coins at Sweetie.

"Just leave me alone!" shouted Sweetie Belle. "Stop bullying me, please!"

"Bullying? You call this bullying? THIS is bullying!" said Silver as she swung her hoof at Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie closed her eyes, anticipating the blow, but it never came. Slowly opening her eyes, she sees (much to her shock) an older colt with a green mane and white coat holding Silver Spoon's hoof.

"What do you think you're doing?" the mystery colt asks them coldly. "I won't tolerate bullying in this playground!"

"W-why do you c-care anyway? It's n-none of your b-business!" stammered Diamond Tiara.

"Yes, yes it is. Now get out of here before I call your parents on you, Diamond Tiara was it? I'm sure your father, Filthy Rich, won't be proud of the fact that his daughter became a delinquent!" said the mystery colt, smirking.

"Y-you wouldn't d-dare!" she said, her eyes widening in horror.

The mystery colt turns around for a bit, and then he turns around with a cellphone in hoof. "Hello? Is this the Rich residence?"

"S-Silver Spoon, w-we're totally o-out of here!" she stammered.

"But DT-" she began, but was interrupted by Diamond.

"No buts! Let's get out of here!" she says, and they ran away faster than you can say 'Twilight Sparkle'.

"Hey, you alright there?" says the mystery colt. Sweetie nods.

"T-thanks for your help." said Sweetie Belle. "Why'd you help me anyway?"

"Ummm... that's confidential... anyway, let me tell you something." said the colt as he brought out a card with an illustration of a white pony-knight. "See this card?"

Sweetie nods. "This guy is a knight of justice and bravery. He's the defender of the weak. A knight in shining armor.

"He has power, but he uses it for good." he said. "Now, I want you to be like him. If you have power, don't abuse it, unlike those two fillies a while ago. Take this card as a reminder of that. See you in the Vanguard Fight Championships! Hope I get to cardfight you!"

Sweetie took the card in her hooves and looked at it. The knight was wielding a sword that she could've swore saw somewhere.

"Hey, thanks for every-" she began, but when she looked up, the colt wasn't there anymore.

"Sweetie Belle! Sweetie Belle!" she turned and saw the rest of the Crusaders galloping towards her.

She hid the card from view in her saddlebags. "Uh... Hey girls!"

"Let's go build a fort!" said Apple Bloom. "Maybe we can get our cutie marks in building!"

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS FORT BUILDERS YAY!!!" said the two fillies, one of them with a little bit less enthusiasm, though. "Let's go!"

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo immediately ran towards the direction of Sweet Apple Acres, but Sweetie stayed behind.

She took out the card and saw a bunch of text and wierd purple symbols. She looked down to see the name of the card.

"Sweetie Belle! Are you coming or not!?" yelled Scootaloo from somewhere.

"I'm coming!" she yelled. She took one last look at the card, put it in her saddlebags, and ran after her friends.

That card's name was pretty weird though. she thought. What kind of a name is Blaster Blade?