Knights of Harmony

Chapters

Prologue - Sisters' Fight
Chapter 01: Birth of Knights
Chapter 02: Truth of Harmony
Chapter 03: Lightning Fault
Chapter 04: The Blinding Thunder
Chapter 05: Knowing You, Knowing Me
Chapter 06: Flames of Truth
Chapter 07: Leaves of Autumn
Chapter 08: Silent Wind, Loud Boulder
Chapter 09: Mystic Magic
Chapter 10: The Nightmare Shadows
Chapter 11: Ponyville
Chapter 12: Shadows in the Dark
Chapter 13: Clouded Decisions
Chapter 14: Precious
Chapter 15: Fading Shadows
Chapter 16: Truth or Nightmare
Chapter 17: Final Showdown

Prologue - Sisters' Fight

Princess Celestia was thrown against a wall by her own sister. The snow-white princess slowly recovered from the impact, her mane and tail moving freely around with the colors of the aurora as she recovered her composure. Standing on her hooves, she looked straight at Princess Luna, her face reddening thanks to a cut just under her horn bleeding slowly.

“Luna! What are you doing?” Celestia faced her sister and suddenly her eyes widened in surprise.

The slightly slender form of Luna was slowly being covered in her own magic, changing in color from the deep blue to pitch black. Where once stood a cute dark blue alicorn princess now was a pitch black fully grown mare with same dark blue always flowing mane and tail. Her turquoise eyes still held their natural colors, but changed to dragon-like pupils instead of the sympathetic round pupils most ponies had. Also, her body was covered by a deep blue armor with plenty of little sparkles, like stars in a starry night sky. All four hooves were covered in greaves with silver details full of curvedly shapes, covering everything until her knees, where new plate pieces would start to cover what was left of her legs. Her body also was covered in armor plates with a dark blue stream running down her spine and from it, smaller dark gray plates would close over her chest and belly. Each leg was joined at the plates by one of the moon phases: a full moon at her right foreleg, a new moon at her left foreleg a crescent moon on her right hind leg and a waning moon on her left hind leg. Her wings also held their own armor, not getting in the way of the feathers, as her silvery metal plates turned the feathers of his wings into sharp blades, and over her head the helmet concealed and protected the head of the Princess of the Night, only leaving the long and tall horn out.

“What I’m doing, Celestia? I’m taking control of what’s mine!” she answered. As Luna spoke, her teeth showed her pointy teeth and her turquoise dragon-like pupils focused on her sister.

“There is no ‘mine’ or ‘yours’, Luna! We rule together!”

“LUNA IS NO MORE!” the night princess screamed in rage, opening her wings furiously strong, sending powerful winds around, making Celestia cover her eyes with her forehooves. “FROM NOW ON, YOU SHALL BOW TO THE FURY OF NIGHTMARE MOON!”

Nightmare Moon then, threw a hoof at the direction of her sister strongly. The magic of the furious alicorn focused on her hand instead of the typical way of forming in her horn, and then was thrown against the air, forming extremely thin ice shards flying against the Sun Princess.

Celestia, in the urge to protect herself, opened her wings and covered her body with them, focusing the power of the sun. The ice shards quickly melted away with the warmth of Celestia’s power. When Celestia opened her wings, the heat wave melted what ice Luna had conjured, and the Sun Princess revealed that she had also readied herself to battle, summoning her armor.

Different from deep night colored armor of Nightmare Moon, Celestia’s armor was mostly colored in white and a rage of fire-related colors for details, not so soft edged details as her sister’s armor, but still gracious with the flame-like details. The hooves were covered in armor ending in flame pattern at the knees, starting from a deep red color and fading to a bright orange, the leg plates shining in a dark gold to contrast with the pure white metal used as armor over her body. Her torso, though, wasn’t formed by plates, but was instead a single piece with two glowing circles at each shoulder and a stylized sun just in front of her chest. The sides of her armor were covered in flame-like drawings with similar coloration with the heating element that represented the Princess. Her wings had been covered by light plates with a semi-sphere positioned at the extremity of the wing and with long sun rays covering mostly of the feathers while still allowing mobility. Her helmet protected graciously her head, allowing only her horn and mane outside, mostly like her sister.

“You must retain your calm! We both have royal duties, as princesses of Equestria!” Celestia said, already placing herself in defense position.

“I know we have royal duties, sister mine!” Nightmare Moon then closed her eyes and let a grin split her muzzle. “But for now, my royal duty is only one!” opening her eyes wide, she focused her magic on her horn. “My royal duty is TO DESTROY YOU!”

Closing her eyes strongly, Celestia quickly took off just in time to avoid a powerful beam that crushed deeply into the ground and wall where it hit. She then opened her wings and took off after Celestia at full speed, ready to hit with a strong punch, which the Sun Princess easily blocked and counter-attacked with a powerful kick into Nightmare Moon’s side, making her fly sideways.

“Luna! Stop with this! We’re sisters; we shouldn’t be fighting like this!”

“I said already…” her eyes closed in fury and Nightmare Moon crossed both hooves in front of her chest, where dark spheres started to form in her hooves “The name is…” she raised both hooves and the two spheres grew, merging together into a deep space view “NIGHTMARE MOON!” Then, small meteors crossed from this hole she created and flew straight against Celestia

Grinding her teeth, Celestia focused the magic on her horn and made a wide circle in front of her body. Suddenly, a large flame sphere was summoned into existence and Celestia threw it forward, slowly destroying the offending flaming stones, but was weak enough for Nightmare Moon slowly shoves away with a flap of her wings.

“Can’t you see it, sister? Our powers are even… I don’t want to hurt you, so why don’t you stop this?” Celestia tried again.

Deciding to stop talking, Nightmare Moon just focused the magic from her horn and shot another powerful blast against Celestia, who flew high to avoid and broke free through the ceiling. Nightmare Moon then took chase, shooting both energy beams from her horn and magic spheres from her hooves against the fleeing Sun Princess.

Enraged by Celestia’s antics, Nightmare Moon then flew higher opened her wings wide, flapping them once strongly. To Celestia’s surprise, she suddenly saw plenty of massive ice spheres being thrown against her. Avoiding the first three, punching and smashing a couple more with her bare hooves, Celestia never saw the powerful blast that hit her squarely in the chest.

Smashing her back against the hard floor of the throne room, Celestia looked up at her laughing sister before she magically summoned some ancient pedestals holding the most powerful artifacts known in Equestrian history.

“I’m sorry, sister… But you’re giving me no choices…”

Closing her eyes and focusing her magic, Celestia brought the six Elements of Harmony and they suddenly began spinning around Celestia, her armor shining and changing to hold the Elements. The new armor was completely white without any details but for the slots in the four shoulders, one between her wings on her back and the main, the Element of Magic, right in front of her chest where once stood her stylized sun.

Opening her eyes, Celestia flew up again. Looking at Nightmare Moon furious, she decided to try one last time, “Luna… Stop with this madness! We should rule together!”

“Last time I warn you, Celestia! I am… NIGHTMARE MOON!” and again the night ruler shot a magic beam at Celestia.

This time however, Celestia gave a sad sigh and raised her eyes again, focusing both her magic and the magic of the Elements in a single powerful blast against her sister. As the two attacks collided, a bright shine illuminated the whole scenery…

Chapter 01: Birth of Knights

Ever since the banishment of Nightmare Moon, the ponies lived under the rule of Celestia, which thankfully never had to bring back her armor again to save her ponies. And without the Elements of Harmony being active, she suspected that nothing would happen that her full power would be needed once again.

This day she was on her way to the throne room and decided to change sceneries, making her way through a corridor that allowed visage to the barracks of the Royal Guards. She quickly noticed the influx of ponies without armor there and remembered that today were coming new recruits and she decided to look at them a little. Looking from a window, she watched the line of the new recruits that had just come and smiled. There was determination in the eyes of plenty of them, but the recruit to most call her attention from this far had his eyes closed and a huge smile in his face. Curious, she flapped her wings and, through the window, she beat the sergeant that was going to greet them, stopping his path. As he bowed to his Princess, Celestia grinned.

“Rise, my little pony. I will ask to talk with a couple recruits myself before you could continue your job,” Celestia said gently, allowing for him to deny if she couldn’t do that.

“Certainly, your highness!” the sergeant answered.

Celestia, with a grin, then walked behind the corner in her usual regalia: a full set of golden pony shoes carefully adorned, a rather large collar around her neck with a purple gem encrusted over her chest and above her head, just behind her horn, a three-pointed crown with another purple gem aligned precisely with the central tip of her crown.

As the Princess turned around the corner and walked towards them, all the recruits bowed to her. As typical, she closed her eyes and smiled at her ponies antics. However, before she could say anything, everypony heard somepony say: “POW!”

All eyes turned to the pony who said that. He was the pegasus colt which Celestia saw with eyes closed and smiling when she looked through the window. He was still smiling, but with eyes now open and the head pointed at Celestia’s chest, as a unicorn pointing the horn. “And thanks to your antics as guards, you let your Princess be attacked by a unicorn. You’re going to join the Royal Guards. You show respect to Princess Celestia with a salute!” And after he said, he smiled and made a proper salute to the Princess.

Celestia, which was at first surprised, now smiled warm at him, as the sergeant was ready to dismiss the punk. However, the Princess looked at him with a smile, “An interesting point of view, my little pony. May I know your name?”

The bright yellow coated pegasus colt with short light blue mane shocked above his head and a matching tail grinned, “Yes, my Princess. My name is Lightning Dash.”

“You can rest now, Lightning Dash,” Celestia said as the pegasus relaxed his pose. “You seem to come from a military family. Am I right?”

“No Princess. I’m from Cloudsdale and my family forms more weather control specialists. I’m the black sheep that decide to join the Royal Guard and I really threw myself at it from very young age. I educated myself in plenty of the ways of the Royal Guards.”

“And may I ask what your motivation to joining the Royal Guards is?” she asked.

He smiled at Celestia, “The first is to challenge my family’s destiny as weather control ponies. The Dash family is a name in the field. The second, and more important, is that I made a promise to my sister, and she to me, one that I won’t be talking about unless it’s really important, Princess. I guess it’s enough to say that I’m willing to protect ponies from any harm, even from other ponies.”

“You’re joining the Royal Guard to protect the ponies from other ponies? Why not the police force?” Celestia asked, curiosity aroused.

Lightning Dash wings flickered and he chuckled softly, “Resources, Princess. I can do a lot more being a field-active Royal Guard than a full-time field police member. Royal Guards have to put a much more straight face to the public, I know, but they also have a lot more leeway.”

“I see. So you’re thinking forward already.”

“Yes, Princess.”

Celestia smiled at him and nodded. The Princess then looked around and pointed a hoof gently at another colt, an earth pony with rust-colored fur and flame-like orange hair and tail. He was a lot stronger and sturdier than the others ponies in the line and was looking at Princess silently. And his silent demeanor was what called Celestia’s attention. When she pointed, he bowed quickly before presenting himself properly to the Princess with a salute.

“I noticed that you, from all others, were the only one to stay still. May I ask your name, why you’re so silent and the reason you joined the Royal Guard?”

“Blaze. Personal reasons. Confidential,” the colt answered much to Princess Celestia’s surprise.

The murmurs between almost everypony else only stopped after Celestia sighed, “I see… Well… I have a few other matters to attend to. Your sergeant will resume his normal activities.”

As Princess Celestia walked outside of their sight vision, she focused and teleported back to her window curiously watching the two colts. There were also a few others to call her attention, but nothing compared to these two. She felt something different about them.

“Everypony has a magic of their own…” she had to force herself to remember. “Instinctively, ponies are always feeling and projecting this magic…”

Then she closed her eyes and focused on feeling the magic of those recruits. Then she had a great surprise: there were five magic presences stronger than other recruits, not counting the already members of the Guards: two earth ponies, one unicorn and two pegasus. One of the earth ponies and one of the pegasus were Blaze and Lightning Dash respectively. Celestia, though, had to go and take care of other business from the morning. Even so, she made a mental note to see how the group of five strangely magic-filled ponies was faring.

****

Celestia was finishing her paperwork for the morning and preparing to have her lunch when a pegasus royal guard knocked on her door twice, waited a little, and entered without being announced, quickly bowing respectfully, before blurting out: “Sorry for interrupting you, Princess, but the drill sergeant in charge of the recruits requested your presence immediately on the gardens!”

“Oh mine… What happened?” Celestia asked genuinely surprised.

“He didn’t say, but I guess it has something to do with the show those two colts are pulling at the training grounds! They battle as experienced fighters!”

“What?” Celestia’s eyes widened and she quickly got up from her seat. “Take me to them!”

The pegasus then lead Celestia to the training grounds and just as she reached there, much to her surprise, he say Lightning Dash and Blaze sparring. The yellow pegasus gave a strong flying kick that was blocked by the earth pony with a forehoof as he avoided the second kick by ducking under it. The counter-attack came as an uppercut which the pegasus had only to flap his wings once to keep out of reach and attack with a potent kick down. Instead of blocking, though, Blaze punched against the kick and the impact caused a small impact wave to bristle her fur. When she looked back at them, the dust causing her to block her eyes, she saw both colts exchanging punches and kicks, blocking and avoiding as needed, in a mostly balanced battle.

”Princess!” the sergeant approached her and bowed quickly, respectfully, and then rose again. “I don’t know what to make with them! These two are sparring in this rhythm for the last half hour!”

Besides her ear understood what he said, she was determined to understand better what was happening there. She raised her horn and at the appropriated time shot two small energy bolts at them. Both were able to deflect the attack, Blaze by shoving it to a side with a kick and Lightning Dash by giving a flying back-roll, kicking it up. Both colts then turned to Princess Celestia and then bowed to her, as did all other recruits.

“Lightning Dash and Blaze… I was informed there were three more?” Celestia asked without looking at the instructor.

“Yes, Princess… Ice Sapphire, Scarlet Boulder and Golden Breeze…”

Upon hearing their names, a unicorn, and earth pony and a pegasus, all mares, gave a step ahead and bowed to Princess Celestia. She stood in silence for a bit longer time. “All five of you, come with me,” Celestia said seriously.

They all walked, following the Sun Princess towards the castle, Lightning Dash and Blaze never breaking the stare between them as if they were just waiting the Princess to leave them to restart fighting. It was the beautiful golden coated pegasus mare that stopped them, by entering between both colts, her long light orange hair and tail moving slowly as they were affected by her quick dash to the colts.

Turning to Lightning Dash, she whispered, “Stop that, Dash! If the Princess notices it you can be in deep problems!”

“She knows,” Blaze said, now that someone intertwined, looking straight forward. “Haven’t you noticed she followed our movements to the point she attacked for us to easily block or evade without hurting anypony else?”

“Princess Celestia’s fighting skills are something. I mean, she could easily be the best fighter in all Equestria,” the light blue unicorn mare agreed, her curly deep sapphire blue mane and tail in a nice contrast to her fur. It was not uncommon to see ponies naked around, but Ice Sapphire was wearing a stunning bold outfit with a deep ‘V’ cut around her neck ending at half of her chest, closing just under her forelegs and then slowly following to her hindlegs, where a large belt crossed around her waist and allowed her dress to cover most of her cutie mark, a hexagonal sapphire with an ice crystal shining inside, and tail.

“Stop you!” Golden Breeze called their silence. Her gorgeous body was, as most ponies preferred, uncovered by any clothing allowing the deep dark yellow fur show the contrast of the brown leaves floating on her flank.

“Let them be, Breeze,” Lightning Dash said with a smile, caressing the mare’s mane. His cutie mark was a large lightning bolt cut by another longer and thiner lightning bolt, which seemed to be dashing. “They know they’re in the presence of the Princess.”

The mare blushed slightly but nodded. It was Scarlet Boulder the next to speak, sing actually, “Lightning Dash and Golden Breeze under a tree, kissi--”

Golden Breeze’s left forehoof closed the muzzle of the red coated mare with puffy pink hair and tail. Scarlet Boulder’s cutie mark was some kind bright boulder, a couple shades darker than her coat. “Stop that already, okay?” the golden mare squeezed Scarlet Boulder's muzzle before releasing it.

They reached the Royal Castle’s garden and they noticed that the destination was the labyrinth. Celestia turned to them, never stopping her walk, and said simple: “Find me.”

Then, the Princess ran inside the labyrinth, Lightning Dash quickly followed as the others had mixed answers to that. After the first turn, though, Celestia was going to speed down a little when she felt Lighting Dash approaching fast. Deciding on another approach, Celestia focused her magic and teleported straight to the center of the labyrinth, where she would just watch as they all moved around looking for her.

****

Ice Sapphire had noticed something the others haven’t got quite at first. This wasn’t going to be a ‘follow me’ contest. Princess Celestia could easily teleport randomly at will to drive them crazy. She focused then on the highest probability: the princess would be in the center of the labyrinth. And there was no better way to reach the center than straight at it. Whenever she met with a plant wall, she would focus her magic and shoot against the leaves and trunks, making an opening for her to get through. Behind her, though, the wall regrew.

As she walked calmly straight to the center, Ice Sapphire thought to herself, “The Princess must be testing us. Better I get ready to some kind of battle.”

As she made her way through the maze, though, from the live wall in front of her, a figure similar to a pony appeared, but made totally of wood, leaves and vines. Two glowing orbs stood where its eyes should be and both forehooves ending on spiked vine-like claws. Its body seemed more like armor, though, with a wooden head, chest, shoulders and legs. Ice Sapphire quickly took a defensive instance, her gaze never leaving the creature.

Suddenly, it lunched forward, bringing its spiky hands to a punch at Ice Sapphire. The unicorn though, just jumped sideways to avoid and kicked on its chest, throwing the creature a few steps backwards. However, she hasn’t waited for it to recover, focusing her magic at her horn and shooting from it a blast of water against the tree-monster. It hit the wall strongly and fell sat on its hump, head down.

Ice Sapphire looked at it and turned to leave and follow her track. But soon her ears heard the sound of leaves moving and she moved just in time to avoid the vines of one of the forehooves extending against her. She looked down to see the damage: a bit of her dress had been cut by the monster. Her gently eyes suddenly turned cold and she looked back at the creature. When the monster tried that attack a second time, the vine erupted from the monster hand, but Ice Sapphire just moved aside and stomped over the vines with a hoof. Forcing more her hoof, she could feel the vines, starting from her hoof, began to freeze, until the whole body of the creature was turned into an ice stone.

“Nopony touch the dress made by Rarity!” Ice Sapphire raised one of her hooves “Absolutely nopony!” when the hoof came down, the head of the monster was utterly shattered. She stood up looking around, “I hope you’re enjoying the show, Princess.”

And then, she returned to her walk.

****

Scarlet Boulder was smiling as she made turn after turn of the labyrinth. She was hopping on her hooves in a way that many ponies would say is impossible. She would then stop at a ramification of the path, look to all sides close her eyes, spin her body as fast as she could and, when she stopped, she followed the path ahead of her.

“Princess! Where are you?” she called singing, her smile never fading.

Often she would hear a sound or another of leaves moving around. But never had she felt the urge to look for its source. Then, she reached another ramification and instead of spinning; she turned to a side and kept hopping. Suddenly, though she reached a dead-end, but kept a smile in her face.

“So, what you want?” she asked still looking the wall ahead.

Noticing she wouldn’t receive an answer, she jumped forward, towards the wall, and used it as a platform to make a somersault stopping behind of a pony-like plant statue, which turned to her ready to punch. She moved her face to a side, smiling and avoiding the hit, before trying a punch of her own.

The monster was thrown backwards, crossing through the wall and lifting a heavy dust cloud as it slid through the ground. Scarlet Boulder followed it through the hole before it closed. “Come on! You wouldn’t give up with a punch like that!” she called.

From the dust, five spiked vine-like fingers tried to wrap around her neck, but the earth pony just grinned and jumped sideways. The vines held on the wall and pulled the monster against Scarlet Boulder ready to attack again. The reddish pony, though, slid below the plant-pony, raising behind it and kicking its back. As the creature hit the wall and fall back, it saw Scarlet Boulder jumping over it and stomping strongly against its chest, making wood splints and leaves, as well as a heavy dust cloud, spread across a large area.

However, the earth pony smiled and returned her hopping, looking for Princess Celestia.

****

Again she found a ramification in her path. Golden Breeze, though, opened her wings and closed her eyes. She had a subtle talent: her wings could, somehow, react to magic what helped guide her through the maze. As smoke in a labyrinth cave, the magic flowed from its source and avoided obstacles as much as possible. In a plant maze like this, she had to concentrate a lot more, since the walls weren’t completely closed, what allowed the magic to pass through.

“I still can feel you, Princess,” she said. “The closer I get the easier it is to feel you…”

More than just help her to locate exactly where some magic is, her wings also could feel magic from around her. And she had just felt it. Looking back, she noticed she was being followed. Golden Breeze tried to run at first, but quickly noticed her follower could easily follow her.

She then opened her wings and was going to fly away, just to have a feeling from somewhere that it wouldn’t be a good idea. She only had one option then. She turned to the pony following her.

“Excuse but, could you leave me alone? I need to find Princess Celestia…”

Her eyes then widened as the plant-pony threw five vines full of spikes at her. She just flapped her wings, making the vines hit an invisible wall and fall to the ground, slowly retracting back to their owner.

“Why are you attacking me?” she asked, one of her hooves crossed over her chest.

As answer, the creature just attacked once again, trying for a punch this time. The golden pegasus flapped her wings twice this time, forcing the monster to fly against the wall behind it with a strong gust of wind. With a third flap, her wings formed glowing golden shards, which sliced both the monster and the wall behind it, reducing both to an amount of twigs and leaves. The wall then, regrew, the plant pony don’t.

“I-I’m sorry… But you gave me no choice…”

She then turned herself to the task at hand: find Princess Celestia.

****

Blaze, though, hasn’t wasted any time. As soon as he felt movement behind him, he turned and punched as strong as he could. The plan-pony there was sent flying against the wall, while the strong earth pony was already rushing against him.

The creature lunched its vines towards the rusty-red pony, which avoided easy enough. Blaze focused all his strength in his hoof and hit the creature squarely in the chest, forcing it against the wall behind and then through it, where something else hit the body and a few seconds later, both the wall and the plant-pony were blasted into a pile of leaves and splints. However, Blaze felt a bit of satisfaction cross his face: he was now face-to-face with Lightning Dash.

They both parted from the shock, grinning. “Now that we’re alone, no holding back, okay?” Lightning Dash said.

“The Princess is watching us…”

“I don’t care for them to watch… I just don’t want to hurt them…”

“They’re stronger than they seem.”

“Yeah… right…” before the plant wall could close in front of them, Lightning Dash lunched himself against Blaze, faster than he could follow. Instead of connecting a hit straight away, the pegasus stopped behind him and kicked on the earth pony’s side, throwing him against the wall.

However, Blaze was no lazy pony. Besides being surprised at first for his opponent true speed, he quickly judged Lightning Dash’s actions and blocked his kick with all his strength, placing a forehoof where it would connect. They parted once again, just for Blaze to stomp strongly straight in the ground, creating a wall of flames which went towards Lightning Dash. The pegasus flapped his wings back and placed his hooves over the plant wall behind, shooting himself forwards and focusing his strength on the punch, electric sparks raced through his body, what made the flames pass around him harmless as he punched through them and reached Blaze’s chest.

Or at least he tried to, since the earth pony jumped backwards, placing both forehooves in the ground and then forcing himself up again to land on his four hooves after a back-roll. Both of them stood still, looking at each other, readying themselves for some tough battle ahead of them. On Lightning Dash’s right foreleg, electric sparks began to charge up, getting more and more intense each second. Blaze’s right foreleg, though, was enveloped in flames, which didn’t seem to harm him in any way.

Both of them lunched forward. Their punches would connect precisely in the middle of them! But before that, a flash of light suddenly blinded them and, as it subdued, Celestia stood between both colts, holding their attacks with her bare hooves, adorned with her day-to-day regalia, not fit for battle, but which still wasn’t even scratched.

“I guess enough is enough,” Celestia commented as they both jumped backwards. She then straightened herself before she looked at them. “You’ve surprised me quite a bit. Your power really surpasses greatly those of my standard guards,” Celestia allowed.

Right then, from different directions through the labyrinth the three mares appeared, Ice Sapphire right across a wall, Golden Breeze from their east side and Scarlet Boulder from the south side. As all of them reunited, Princess Celestia gave all them a smile and focused her magic, summoning a smaller and weaker version of her armor, basically covering her chest and some of her belly, as well as all her hooves. Her mane and tail, though, were completely free to move on their own accord in their three colors.

All the ponies were in complete awe at what they saw. The white metallic armor over Celestia’s white fur was only visible thanks to their shining and for the golden soft edges. In the center of her chest, above her heart, a stylized sun, as her cutie mark, showed the true identity of the Princess.

Celestia though, chuckled at them softly. “This, my little ponies, is the next magic you shall master,” she said. “This magic armor you will summon draws power straight from your cutie marks, hence from your heart. For you, ponies filled with determination, I know this will be easy to master. However… You’re far too powerful to join the ranks of my guards.”

“What?” Ice Sapphire asked surprised.

“But Princess…” Golden Breeze tried to argue.

“Girls… Would you please shut up and let the Princess finish?” Lightning Dash said calmly. “Nopony… or anyone else dismisses possible guards for being too powerful. They are often called to be closer to them, if for no other reason than to not have their power used against them.”

Celestia then chuckled, “Despite him being a bit too harsh with his words, Lighting Dash is right. It would be foolish of me to not keep you close if for no other reason than to keep you in check. But, as I said, your powers surpass greatly the ranks usually reserved for new recruits. You five, though, will start a new group of warriors in the name of the Princesses of Equestria.”

“A new group of warriors?” Scarlet Boulder asked, surprised.

“Not exactly a new group, but one that doesn’t exist in a real long time,” Celestia corrected herself.

“You’re bringing back the Knighthood,” Blaze was the first to understand. As the three mares looked at him astonished, Celestia just nodded softly. Lightning Dash, though, raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, my little ponies. I shall bring back a power long forgotten in Equestrian history. In well over a thousand years, you five will be the first Knights of Harmony.”

Author's Note

There are the Prologue and the First Chapter. Read each of them five times with critical eyes and hope nothing has escaped me. However, I know I'm not perfect so bring on your comments, good or bad, and I will try to improve before next chapter.

Yes, I know it was a bit too fast, but this chapter I wanted a bit of action before getting you the true history building one of my many visions of Equestria's past. Chapter Two is Truth of Harmony and will bring mostly the history of the forgotten knights. So, brace yourselves for a long history class next time!

And yes again! I plan to use the Author's Notes to give a quick preview of the next chapter! Imagine Celestia's voice narrating a bit of next chapter!

"The five young ponies had managed to past through the maze and are now stunned by the surprise. Bringing back an order of long gone knights isn't a light decision so they must know the truth behind them to make their proper choices. However, I fear for a thousand of years without battles and, somehow, I feel that this is the calm before the storm. The next chapter of Knights of Harmony is: Truth of Harmony"

Chapter 02: Truth of Harmony

“Yes, my little ponies,” Celestia said with a smile. “I shall bring back a power long forgotten in Equestrian history. In well over a thousand years, you five will be the first Knights of Harmony.”

Lightning Dash’s eyes widened, “I thought the Knights of Harmony were just a fairy tale!”

The other ponies, even Blaze, looked at Lightning Dash puzzled. It was Ice Sapphire to ask, “Are we missing something?”

Celestia just nodded at Lightning Dash. The pegasus then sighed, “Well… You know, my sister and I had some things in common. We didn’t like those lame stories to put foals to bed. Mom and dad had a collection of histories especially for us. One of them was ‘Crimson Heart and the Knights of Harmony’. Each of the Knights of Harmony, in the book a total of a hundred knights, had their powers well above standard Royal Guards and they were often called the ‘Swords of Equestria’, entering in battle when the ponies of our land were in danger.

“Each Knight of Harmony represented a virtue of ponies; things like leadership, hope, purity, and so on. Of course, the top five Knights of Harmony were blessed by the virtues of the Elements of Harmony: Honesty, Generosity, Laughter, Kindness and Loyalty. The Element of Magic never personified into a Knight, though…”

“There are a few corrections to be made. First thing is that a Knight named Crimson Heart never existed. That history is an embellished version of Star Crystal’s life as the Amazon of Kindness,” Celestia continued after Lightning Dash finished. “The pretty details were, of course, let outside, but if you read it, the story is almost a diary of Star Crystal’s adventure, which, at the time, Luna and me allowed her to publish if she agreed in turning her experiences into a fairy tale.”

“And why would you do that?” Scarlet Boulder asked.

“Public values,” Blaze answered, again gathering the attention. “Pay attention. We’re just common colts and fillies from other towns and cities all around Equestria. However, in our very first day, we managed to be tested by Princess Celestia herself no less and our powers can, already, be compared with some high trained soldiers. If common ponies can hold this much power, what will stop ponies from discovering these powers themselves and using against other ponies?”

“It… It makes some sense…” Golden breeze agreed.

“But it’s also not the whole truth either,” Celestia looked at them in their eyes. “Beings with powerful magic, like my sister and I and now you five, tends to get closer to each other. Our magic can feel other magic around us and, as usual to any pony, it seeks comfort of others that shares similar properties. No matter what personal reason brought you here. In the end, it was a wish of the magic within you that called you closer to me.

“Returning to the main subject, though, the Knights of Harmony are only called in the situations the common guards are ineffective or cause more harm than good. As Lightning Dash said, they were nicknamed the ‘swords’ of Equestria, but you will found out that they may need to be the land’s ‘shields’ and even the ‘hidden daggers’, so to speak. Sometimes, the late Knights of Harmony had to execute stealth and otherwise deceptive missions. In the past, it fell over them missions of thievery, spying and even assassination.

“Many of these missions are never known by ponies, so making Star Crystal turn it into a fairy tale was not a way to just protect Equestria and its relations, but the Knights themselves as the individual ponies they were.

“There is a small vow you must make to the rulers of Equestria before you can actually be called Knights. But even before those vows, there are trainings you must pass through. You will join the other recruits’ training, physical, mental and even more importantly, magical. All of you must learn how to properly control your magic so you won’t accidentally hurt other ponies.”

They all nodded at Princess Celestia, which said, “I’ll give you the training you’ll need as Knights of Harmony. As tradition, it befalls the elder Knights to train the news, and as there is no other Knight available, I’ll have to do that myself, as the Amazon of Leadership. Whenever you see me in armor during training, I’m not your Princess, but a superior Knight only. All the respect you will show me is that of my rank as a Knight of Harmony, so I expect you to really attack me with all your strength as if your life was in danger.”

“Wait… You are a Knight of Harmony, Princess?” Golden breeze asked in surprise.

Celestia nodded, “Once upon a time, countless years before even the first of the wars, the world had plenty of races living in harmony. Unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, griffons, zebras, minotaurs, dragons, and even some creatures that are just legends nowadays, like the changelings, fairies, merponies, you name it, they all filled the whole world with joy and happiness. Every race would then choose a champion to insure the peace and the equality of every race in face of all others.

“I was the chosen champion from the unicorn tribe of the pony race. And it came as no surprise that Luna was chosen as the champion of the pegasus tribe. Our father was a unicorn and our mother a pegasus, so we’re still sisters besides belong to the different tribes. But if you decided to count, one champion for each tribe would not allow many champions to cover the whole world, so each champion was then instructed to teach their ways to two other disciples of their choice. As those disciples also became masters, they would choose two others and so on, to keep a good proportion between the ‘civil’ populations, let’s say, and the Knights. And since our main duty was to keep harmony across the whole world, not only among our tribes, we were then called the Knights of Harmony…

****

A very young white unicorn mare was studying hard. She was adamant about using magic to make the Knights of Harmony more efficient in their functions. Her pink mane and tail already showed the results of long hours, days actually, without even getting out to a bath. Her white coat, once gorgeous, was now a reflection of her lack of care with her own body.

She sighed hard and looked at the mirror in her room. The first look she gave was to her cutie mark: a stylized sun. Then she took a deeper breath and coughed. “Oh my… what died in here?”

“Thou sense of time, dear sister,” a gently voice replied from her room’s door. Turning around, Celestia saw a cute dark blue pegasus with light blue mane and a crescent moon for a cutie mark.

“Hi there, Luna. And what dost thou mean by that?” Celestia asked, returning her focus to her projects.

Luna chuckled, “That thou art in thy room for three full days now. The Sun Conclave is getting mad at thee already.”

“Those old ponies… Let them think they can stripe my title. I earned my right as Knight of Harmony.”

“And I not doubt thee, dear sister,” Luna sat down at Celestia side. “However, they can dispose thee from your place at the Sun Raising circle.”

“Ha. I am the pony that fills more magic in that circle. They can do whatever they please, but they will get a lot tired without my magic to aid them.”

“Changing subjects, sister, what is this project thee art working so hard on?” Luna asked.

“While exploring the ruins of Myridia, I came across this old book,” Celestia said pointing a hoof at a very dusty old-looking book, which had a horseshoe with a horn in front and wings behind. “It tells about a tribe of ponies long extinct that were awfully powerful. They had magic of all three pony tribes and could use that magic without a horn.”

“Are thou saying that it is not only the unicorns that have magic?” Luna asked, somewhat shocked.

“Come on, Luna… Look at thy wings, size and mass. Such small and relatively frail things cannot lift your body of the ground by itself!”

“Well… Now that thou mention it…”

“And the book said that there is a way to focus this magic into a very particular spell.”

“What spell?”

“They call it the Divine Armor spell. A magic armor strengthened by the user’s heart and desire to protect.”

“A very interesting spell… The Knights of Harmony could really use that!”

“I am afraid of turning it public though,” Celestia admitted. “I only know that ponies can use it, but and about griffons, dragons and the others? Maybe zebras could, they are very like us for just small changes to be enough, but…”

“Anyway, there’s a meeting of the Knights in three hours,” Luna said, finally getting to the point of her visit. “Better thee close that up for now and go take a bath and maybe eat something other than cakes and muffins?”

Celestia shot a glance at her giggling sister, but follower her suggestions same way.

Three hours later, they were joined by all the chosen champions of races, the original masters of the Knights of Harmony, on their round table. Each champion sat on a special chair which reflected their race someway: Celestia’s chair had a unicorn horn pointing straight up and was made of hard stone, only able to be cut by magic, while Luna’s was made of clouds and had pegasus wings shaped as the details of both leg rests. The earth pony champion sat in a mahogany chair crafted manually by his own tribe, the stallion proud of her sire’s craftsmanship.

The one to start was the griffon champion, not much elder than the others, with deep brown feathers on her eagle body and golden fur on her lion body. He was always bold and feared nothing, but was also loyal and just. “My friends! Knights! I summon your swords for the enemy has come! Between reports of civil griffons and guards, I was able to notice that there is something sowing discord among the subjects we swear to protect!”

“And doth it cause trouble enough to bring this subject to our attention?” asked the champion of changelings, actually under the form of a unicorn mare.

“Actually it affect us directly!” answered the minotaur champion. “I was informed, and I truly believe it was a lie, that the ponies are developing protective magic that only they can use!”

Celestia ad Luna’s eyes both widened as they looked at each other, a motion caught by a curious champion in the table. The dragon looked at the sisters and asked, “Dost ye know something about it?”

Celestia was the one to rise and speak, “It is true we… I am searching a protective magic and my current development says it is impossible for other races to use it, save maybe for the zebra, merpony and changeling.”

Everyone then looked at Celestia. It was the zebra Knight the first to recompose herself: “Care to explain yourself? Why would ye study something only your species can use?”

“Ye got it wrong!” Celestia said, her hoof slamming on the table. “I am looking for magic to increase our efficiency on protecting others! With this armor, our defenses would be greatly improved and anything that helps us also helps the ones we protect indirectly! My studies, though, are focused on creating a magic the whole order of the Knights can use!”

“Can you prove that?” asked the minotaur that brought this up. It was now clear the annoyance in his voice.

Luna though got up and stretched her wings menacingly, “My sister is not selfish enough to put herself before others! Ye should know that already for how many times it was her defensive magic that saved those precious horns of yours!”

“Luna of Pegasi, behave yourself!” the merpony called. She was a wonderfully pink-coated mare sitting in a modified chair, with a build in thank under the table’s level. “We are having a civilized discussion here.”

“More likely a civilized accusing in my opinion,” the earth pony stallion answered. “Just because a magic cannot be used by other races does not mean we are developing a magic exclusively for our race. We all know about how easily a newborn magic merpony can bend water to create massive waves, but not even a full grown adult studying for years long can create even the weakest flame.”

“Crimson Gold is right,” the Knight speaking for the changelings agreed. “It is also well known that no matter how long unicorns study, our transformation magic is unmatchable.”

“I am really looking in a universal magic to help all the Knights of Harmony,” Celestia said. “If the council votes for this, I can even give you what I have developed so far, so you can look onto it. Maybe your magic studies can have a better success at developing it for your races?”

“Then ye do that, Celestia of the Unicorns,” the griffon Knight surprised everyone by how serene he spoke. “No need to keep the whole council of the Knights in the shadows about such an important matter. We all will help you develop the spell.”

“That still do not answer the question, though,” the minotaur Knight said. “Why had you started this research without the knowledge of the council?”

“And where ye found that spell anyway?” a female voice asked from a different chair. She was the Knight of a magical race called kitsune which lives in east lands. Basically, she was a white fox with red paws and tail tips, with nine long bushy tails swinging behind her. “It is not something you can come with out of the blue so suddenly, even more when we are at peaceful times.”

“It was fou--”

“Where it was found is not of your concern!” Luna intertwined, surprising even Celestia. “The three tribes have their reasons for not telling.”

“So you admit to be hiding something?” a stallion asked. However, he was not a pony but a horse. His build was strong and he was one of the tallest being on the reunion, standing almost double the height of Celestia and Crimson Gold, Luna still not so grow up was a few inches smaller than her half-sister.

“No. We admit that the council shall not intertwine with the discoveries of the ponies,” Crimson Gold said. “Anyway, we’re evading the original topic. There’s someone or some group that is spreading lies to damage the Knights of Harmony.”

“And we know nothing about them,” commented another Knight, a bipedal creature, like the minotaurs, but adapted to live in the water. The sahagins and the merponies share the seas of the world in harmony since ancient times.

“We know that they can be very close to the Knights of Harmony and have ways to spread news extremely fast,” Celestia said, getting their attention once more. “The first time I commented about this spell with anyone was today, three hours before this reunion starts, and even so, it had reached the ears of the minotaurs.”

That made murmurs starts all around the table. Then it was the dragon to speak, he being so large that only his head appeared through an opening in the wall, “At least it proves the enemy is not of us. Not even the fastest of all our races could reach from the ponies’ lands to the minotaurs’ in that time.”

“Also, that excludes any means of physical movement,” said another Knight that, at first seemed just like a normal griffon. However, truth is that she was a hippogriff: eagle from chest up and pony from chest back. They were in two tribes, winged and terrestrial, the first able to move with speed and grace, also with nice stamina, the second able to use magic and with more strength and resistance to damages. She was the terrestrial kind and, at her left, stood a male winged one.

He was the next to speak, “They must be teleporting or using some kind of magic communication system.”

“Possible,” the dragon agreed. “Dragon magic can send messages to whomever they know by burning it. This message can cover that much distance in that time.”

“We shall keep our eyes and ears wide open,” said another female Knight. She was a centaur with a white fur coat on her horse torso and human chest covered by a leather jacket. “Our enemy is aiming to divide and conquer us. Be always at full guard and never assume you’re alone. Ever!”

All other Knights agreed and they turned to safer subjects, as possible rebellions in isolated areas. However, a thought never left Celestia’s mind, ‘Mom’s wards never failed before and she has enough wards to prevent things like that… I wonder…’

“Celestia?” she was brought back to herself by Luna’s call. Looking around, only Celestia, Luna and Crimson Gold stood in the meeting room.

“Sorry, sister… I was a bit carried away,” Celestia admitted. “It just couldn't leave my mind... How someone would be able to pass through mom's wards with intention of using the knowledge to spread chaos?”

“There's a loophole there somewhere that we must look for,” Luna said. “Better we hurry, though. We have to return home.”

Celestia agreed and rose from her chair, following Luna and Crimson Gold outside the meeting hall.

****

“As you may have guessed, from there things got complicated,” Celestia said looking the five ponies in front of her. Somewhere in her tale, they had sat down in the grass of the maze. “All races then began their own secret researches of ways to increase their strength, not sharing those with the other knights.”

“And you have developed some too?” Ice Sapphire asked.

“Yes and no,” Celestia answered. “We did start a project that only the ponies should know of, but that spell was a pony-exclusive spell, so there was no point in sharing it with others. The three of us, Luna, Crimson Gold and I, developed a spell to intensify our strength beyond the boundaries of any living beings, or so we thought.”

“What was that spell about?” Scarlet Boulder asked.

“Alicorn spell,” Lightning Dash and Blaze said together. Blaze was the one to continue his thoughts: “A spell to combine the power of the most powerful pegasus, unicorn and earth pony.”

“Also intensifying the power beyond the boundaries of any other living being…” Lightning Dash commented as well. “I can’t think of anything else but an alicorn to meet that description.”

Celestia nodded and sighed, “But it wasn’t long before we decided the spell was ready to start testing when the news arrived. Our enemy had begun its attack. All the Knights of Harmony kept their guard high, but they never stood a chance. Quickly, our numbers began to drop and there was nothing we could do about it.

“The Knights of Harmony protecting the ponies were the last to be engaged in combat, and then we knew who our true enemy was: Discord, the God of Chaos. Against him and his chaos magic we had no chance at all, so we three agreed we had only one chance to stop him. We then made the first test of that spell, first and last, by the way.

“The three of us became alicorns, our powers almost the triple of the sum of our powers separated and our body instincts were perfect, so we know exactly how to reach the magic of each other tribe infused in ours. Of course, we were more specific in our original areas, but even so we were stronger than we ever thought anypony could ever be. But when we fought with Discord, we discovered our new powers weren’t enough. We needed even more power.”

“The Elements of Harmony!” Golden Breeze said.

With a short nod, Celestia continued, “Back then they were known as the Elements only, but yes. We made a run for the Elements, but Discord came after us. Crimson Gold gave his life so we could reach the Elements and triumph over the God of Chaos. And so we did. Since then, the Knights of Harmony became a hidden force of the ponies only, all other races having lost theirs and erased most registers they ever existed. And, as the saying goes, the rest is story. After defeating Discord, Luna and I were turned into the rulers of Equestria and so on.”

The five ponies looked among themselves. Ice Sapphire was the one curious enough to ask, “If it was a spell that turned you into an alicorn, Princess, why haven’t its effect been exhausted? No matter how powerful a magic is, it has a lifespan like ponies do.”

Celestia nodded, “And it has passed greatly the time of this spell to wear off. However, for that, the earth pony magic which Luna and I absorbed should be returned to its original owner…”

Golden Breeze’s eyes widened, “So… with Crimson Gold dead, you were stuck like alicorns…”

The Princess nodded once again, “An eternal reminder that no matter how long we live, our scars will remain and some of them will always be visible to others. But we’re evading from the subject here. At night fall, I want all of you in this labyrinth’s center,” Celestia said in her serious face, already getting up again. “Just remember that you have to cross the labyrinth. I want all of you in the center at the exact time the moon is raising in the sky.”

“Yes, Princess!” all five of them got up, chorused and saluted.

“Good. You have the rest of the day free to yourselves. Those which try to get to know the labyrinth will be sorry. I’ll be changing the walls every day, just to let things interesting.”

Author's Note

There it is, Chapter 02! I know... a 3K story without too much of action, but with a few bits of important information for the future of the history. The characters which names were mentioned, you should keep their names, or you shall be sorry in a distant (or maybe not-so-distant) future. AAAAAAAAND... Today's narrator is Twilight Sparkle:

"Princess Celestia is taking five more students? I thought that was something exclusively for me! Oh... They're guards... *sighs* Well, I still don't know what the Princess could be teaching to new rookies at the guard, but if she says so I can't say anything against her. But... Why can I fell such a powerful magic emanating from all of them? Something is not right around here... The next chapter of Knights of Harmony is: Lightning Fault"

PS.: Chapter still to be revised! I finished it recently and decided to post sooner rather to delay to make sure it was fine, But I'll be making a few readings over it in the close future.

Chapter 03: Lightning Fault

“Wow! You mean this room is all mine?” Lightning Dash asked. He was in a large white room devoid of any personal touches that ponies decors their territory with. But for the bags he had brought in, it had only a small table with a sitting pad for him to write something if needed, a bed and a wardrobe. The windows were wide and covered by blue blinds if he ever felt the need to cover himself from Celestia’s glorious sun. He then turned back to the large door that opened for the corridor, where a small gray unicorn mare was still waiting for him.

“Those were the Princess’s orders,” the mare said with a short bow. “You and your friends were to be given rooms close to hers. I still don’t know why, and sincerely, it’s none of my business.”

“Why so serious? We’re both working for Princess Celestia. I’m sure we could be friends?”

“Do you need anything else, sir Dash?” she asked.

“Geez… No, thank you. I’ll have a little stroll to know better the castle before properly setting in.”

“Before you go then, I shall remind you of a few rules. First…”

A room in the castle instead of the guards’ barracks… I guess it’s a fair price for keeping secrets about being a Knight of Harmony… I mean… It’s exactly what I always wanted to do, to protect other ponies, and being a ghost, as Princess Celestia puts it, let me get away with a lot more than just a common Royal Guard… He thought to himself.

“Have you understood them all, sir Dash?”

“Yeah, yeah, got it… Too much duties too little fun and all…” he said, not really remembering any of the rules, lost in his thoughts.

The maid just sighed. “Just try not getting in too much trouble, please,” she asked before turning around and leaving Lightning Dash alone.

The colt, though, looked around the room and quickly unpacked a few things to fill some of the empty shelves and specially a photograph of her sister to place at the nightstand. He grinned as he looked at the cyan mare looking back at him, her rainbow mane always made her to get a special spotlight in the crowd.

“Here I am, Rainbow. I’m standing for my end of our promise. I’ll write for you soon, dear sister, telling everything I can. I just hope that you forgive me for not telling you absolutely everything, though.”

“Lightning Dash?” the voice of Ice Sapphire called from outside the door.

“Come in,” he answered readily.

He turned just as the door opened to reveal the light blue unicorn still on the same dress she wore at the labyrinth. The mare looked him over, “Aren’t you ready yet?”

“I am. Whatever clothing I have will only be shredded if we have more training like the last one. Those wood dummies weren’t even a challenge, she was just testing us.”

“And it took me a bit too long to notice that,” Ice Sapphire accepted. “I went full out.”

“Me too. Luckily, though, Blaze was there so we could have some decent fighting.”

“You enjoy fighting?”

“Not pointless non-sense fighting, but I do enjoy a little friendly brawl for training. However, I get really serious when somepony is hurting others.”

“That’s what got you there, then?” Ice Sapphire walked towards the nightstand and saw the photo there. “This is that sister you made your promise to?”

Lightning Dash chuckled and walked to her side, “She’s called Rainbow Dash, the second fastest pony of my family, after only me of course.”

Ice Sapphire grinned, “She’s beautiful. Her mane looks gorgeous.”

“She could be a lot more beautiful if she cared just a bit more for her looks. However, she’s more interested in being aerodynamic than beautiful.”

Ice Sapphire chuckled. Then, she turned again to Lightning Dash, “Have you had any success with that armor spell Princess Celestia told us about?”

“I had barely settled in,” he said with a smile. “I didn’t have the time to think about it as yet. However, she did say it drains power from our hearts, right?”

“Something like that,” Ice Sapphire said. “She said, ‘This magic armor you will summon draws power straight from your cutie marks, hence from your heart’ or something like that.”

“You remember your lessons about cutie marks?” Lightning Dash asked Ice Sapphire.

“A cutie mark appears on a pony's flank when he or she finds that certain something that makes them different from every other pony. Everypony with basic schooling knows that. What are you heading me to?” she asked curious.

“If the armor is linked to the cutie mark and the cutie mark is linked to what makes us special and being special is what makes our hearts happy, what do you think is the proper way to get your armor thing?” he asked while opening the large windows from his room.

Ice Sapphire was genuinely puzzled about what he was trying to say, “Can you be clearer?”

“If you want your armor,” he said, already backing a little and then preparing to take off at full speed.

“Lightning Dash! You aren’t supposed to fly in the castle’s--”

“Try to regain your cutie mark!” and the yellow stallion suddenly was flying, the gust created by the powerful flaps of his wings throwing around a few of the scrolls on his room.

Gaining the sky, Lightning Dash grinned and appreciated the sights below. However, this was not how he gained his cutie mark. He needed more.

“Hey you!” shouting from behind him told Lightning Dash he had been followed by what he judged to be royal guards. He cast a quick glance over his shoulders and confirmed to be white ponies clad in golden armors. “This is a restricted zone! You will land right now or I will be forced to use any means to bring you down!”

Lightning Dash, though, grinned. “Catch me if you can!” he yelled above the sound of wind and went into a spinning dive, increasing his speed immensely. The guard falls just behind him, struggling to follow up with the speed pony.

When he was about fifteen meters above the ground, he began his ascension, causing the rookies below to suffer with a gust of wind. The pegasus instructor quickly cast the rookies a glance and roared a “stay” order, before taking off and following the flying menace, joining the small group of pegasus guards which now were after Lightning Dash.

The yellow stallion looked over his shoulder and counted quickly over ten guards following him and his grin widened. ‘If there is no danger, there is no fun!’ he thought to himself as he began flapping his wings stronger and faster. Purposefully, he flew straight inside a rather large cloud and suddenly changed his direction, flying straight up, spinning as he got up and slowly made an arc back down.

The guards following him though entered the cloud and faced problems to find where he had gone, dividing and looking for him in all directions. The speed flier chuckled and began to spin around the cloud, slowly shaping it into a funnel before darting towards the main tower of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.

As the guards recovered after a sudden spin against their will, they took notice of the yellow blur and restarted the chase. Lightning Dash grinned and made a turn at the school’s tower, flying straight against the guards chasing him. With a smile on his face, he kept his course against the guards, which kept shouting for him to stop.

Instead of stopping, though, Lightning Dash showed all his maneuverability by avoiding every single of the guards, dodging with a flap of his wings, barrel rolls or even a few well-planned dives. The guards, startled as they were so easily avoided, crashed between themselves, as they tried to stop and turn. However, one of the things that Lightning Dash pretended was to help ponies and not hurt them, so he made another acute turn towards to the four guards falling that seemed to lost consciousness.

Instead of grabbing the guards, Lightning Dash aimed properly while still falling, placed his hind hooves at the chest of the first armored guard, and then pushed him back towards his companions. That also gave him a bit more of propulsion towards the next and he repeated the maneuver. With the last guard, he wouldn’t have time, so he got him on his hooves and ascended, returning to the guards still holding their fallen comrades. Passing just above them, Lightning Dash gently dropped the last unconscious guard and kept his course, flying at a random direction.

“Phew! That was a close one!” he said to himself, almost shouting over the wind’s sound around his ears.

After almost a full hour of flying at top speed, as he hasn’t done in a very long time, he was returning to the castle when a pink magic blast missed him for very little. Looking down, he found an even larger group of unicorns all clad in their royal guard armors and shooting at him. He then began avoiding the shots with practiced easy, smiling all the while.

Much to his surprise, though, a purple magic blast that he thought had missed him and passed in front of his muzzle quickly condensed into a pony-sized sphere and Lightning Dash was way too close to avoid. Instead, he focused his pegasus magic from his wings to his hooves, what caused some static sparks to form, and then he hit the bubble with that, only to have his whole body sucked in and keeping him comfortably inside.

He began slamming his hooves against the wall trying to break it with all his might, but it was useless. He then noticed he was being pulled down. But he would not give up. Lightning Dash started to spin around himself, closing his eyes and focusing his pegasus magic to accelerate even more. The faster he got, the more the shield flickered. After about a minute like this, his descend stopping so the caster could focus on resisting the sudden newly strain, he managed to break the magic apart and quickly dashed towards Canterlot’s castle.

He was aiming towards his room’s window, when suddenly a bright light enveloped him. He closed his eyes, bracing himself to an inevitable contact, only to realize that whatever he had hit was rather soft.

Lightning Dash opened his eyes once again and couldn’t recognize where he was. But he did recognize whom he has hit. And he got terribly embarrassed at that. “Princess Celestia!” he said quickly adding a bow.

Her face wasn’t a happy one as she looked him down. “I had already imagined that your eagerness would give me trouble, but I never thought it would be this soon,” she said. The fact that her voice was still calm and serene only added to his fears instead of soothing him. “I’m sure I ordered the maid that guided each of you to explain the rules of the castle. High on that list was that pegasus are forbidden to fly unless on training grounds or in my presence, which, if I quite remember, none was truth about your room. Do you have anything to say in your defense?”

“Huh… Your guards could be better trained?” he tried to convince her.

Celestia was about to say something else when the door to the room was opened forcible, revealing a young filly maybe just a couple years younger than Lightning Dash. She was a lavender unicorn with a long purple mane and tail, both of which with pink and lavender stripes, and by her looks was very tired. Mostly ignoring Lightning Dash, she ran towards Celestia to give her report.

“Princess Celestia! Some pegasus managed to break through security. She was flying at unbelievable speed and even managed to break my spell!

“Wait! That force field was yours?” Lightning Dash asked curiously.

Now that her attention was dragged to him, the filly’s eyes filled with fury and she pointed her horn at him, “You! Do not attempt anything!”

However, Celestia placed a hoof on her mane and caressed softly. “That’s enough, Twilight. I will take care of him from there, okay?” Celestia commented with her trademark calm smile. Lightning Dash got puzzled by how suddenly she managed to switch that face of hers. “Now, Twilight, return to your studies. I’ll have to talk with you later.”

Twilight seemed ready to retort, but a look into Celestia’s eyes and she knew it would be utterly useless. She just sighed and gave a respectful bow before leaving the room. As the door closed behind the lavender unicorn, Celestia once again turned to Lightning Dash.

“Look, I know I made a mistake but it’s a bit of a bad idea to--”

“You will start your training ten minutes later than the others and I expect you to finish it at least ten minutes earlier than them. I want you to kill at least ten enemies along the path and, as I’ll say later to the others, no flying over the labyrinth and this time, no crossing through the walls. You can break them but not trespass them. Was I clear?”

Lightning Dash looked at her surprised. “What?” he managed to ask after a few seconds. “Just because a fly within the castle’s limits I’ll be punished like this?”

“Flying within restricted zone, evading capture, dangerous maneuvers with clouds, dangerous maneuvers close to public buildings, knocking unconscious three guards and almost killing them with the fall,” Celestia reported. “Did I forget anything?”

He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound come. Then he closed it before downing his head and sighing. “You forgot scaring the hell out of the new recruits. Sorry, Princess.”

“You may have entered this force for its greater opportunities to help other ponies. However, you will also serve as a role model for those which eventually see you or hear about you. Do you want your sister to follow the image of a delinquent?” Lightning Dash just shook his head negatively. “You will return to your room and stay there until you’re told to leave. Understood?”

“Yes, your highness.”

“Anything else you have to add?”

Lightning Dahs thought for a moment. “This is a kinda stupid rule not being able to fly around the Castle, Princess. Easily enough a ward to identify intruders and make them stand out in a crowd could do the job? Like making them glow or something? Just an idea though.”

As he turned to leave Celestia looked at him curiously, “How would that work?”

Lightning Dash stopped and turned to Celestia. “Well… I don’t know that much about magic as yet, but I thought about an invisible non-solid magic sphere which would make any flying beings glow, for example, unless they have the Princess authorization in the form of a badge or infused in their armors somehow? But again, you shall already have heard this idea and decided it would not be one considerable used.”

“Actually, this idea was never shown before me. I’ll have studies done about it.”

He chuckled at the thought. “Then it’s not only your guard that shall be better prepared, but also your advisers, my Princess. To forbid a pegasus from flying seems like restraining your pegasus guards from acting…”

“What are you suggesting?”

Lightning Dash sighed. “Speaking about the truth, Princess, keep your guard up and make sure you are scouted everywhere you go,” he said. “I know I’m quite unmatchable at my top speed, and that’s not my ego talking. However, with your guards, I wasn’t even half of that. My sister would call me a slowpoke if I raced her at that speed. Someone is manipulating things to let you unprotected. It’s my thought only, of course, but really? Guards that bow when you approaches? I made a joke at that line but that is ridiculous. It takes the attention of the guards from their surroundings, allowing for something else to attack with their guards down.”

Celestia looked at him quite surprised. She would then pick those and little other details also on those respects and had to agree. Something was happening in the background and what Lightning Dash said made sense. Celestia gave him a nod and smiled, “I’ll keep your thoughts at open in case they reflect the truth. I’ll let the guards know you’re free to fly around the Castle’s perimeter. And I’m lifting your punishment, or at least part of it. You can leave your room.”

Instead of bowing, Lightning Dash saluted Celestia, “Yes, Your Highness. Thank you for your kindness.”

“You’re dismissed, Lightning Dash.”

He then turned and left the room through the door and looked through the first window. Thanks to the Princess, he now could fly freely… However, he shook his head and continued walking towards his room.

****

It was dinner time when Celestia called them to eat. Lightning Dash, surprisingly, was seen walking to the dinner room. Scarlet Boulder thought strange that the otherwise animated pony was with his head so low it could easily touch the ground. However, that was what she saw, despite in truth Lightning Dash held his head as high as always, making a quick bow to Celestia. The Princess returned the bow.

“I take it you thought about your actions earlier?” she asked softly. Understanding quickly claimed Ice Sapphire.

“That and I used my afternoon to walk around the city, fresh my head and all,” he answered.

Celestia nodded and Lightning Dash sat in his place. The second seat to Celestia’s right side, a place his mind refused to accept at all. The first, though, nopony knew who would sit in.

“As we have to wait another guess still, anything you want to tell me?” Celestia asked.

Lightning Dash looked at her in the eye. “Yes, my Princess. There’s someone playing games with your guard. Besides vital points of Canterlot are protected as it should be, there are still plenty of blind spots in these defenses. I used the fact I’m still unknown as a Knight of Harmony and made a test of my own. Besides I couldn’t get through the front door, nothing stopped me from actually creating a back door to enter.”

“WHAT?” everypony in the table, but for the Princess and for Blaze, asked in surprise. Celestia, though, just nodded.

“Elaborate, Lightning Dash,” Celestia asked.

“Yes, my Princess. Ice Sapphire, you can project a holographic view of Canterlot’s Public Hall?”

“I’m not sure if--” Ice Sapphire was stopped mid-sentence as Princess Celestia herself projected said hologram.

Lightning Dash looked at Celestia. “Thank you, my Princess. I remembered the guards at early morning, as I came to the castle to join the royal guards, and I checked at them midday and right now before dinner, in their six-hour shifts. At morning, they stood at these points,” he indicated with a hoof the positions of eight guards, which Celestia marked with a green glowing light. “After the first shift, from early morning to midday, they change their configuration to this,” again he pointed and besides a couple ponies kept their position, the other six changed slightly. “From mid-afternoon to early evening, their configuration changes once again,” once more only two stood their actual positions, not being the same as before, as a couple more returned to the previous positions of the guards before. “There’s the fourth shift overnight, which I couldn’t see as yet and won’t be able to as we’ll be training. But if they keep this pattern, this place,” he pointed at an alley behind the building which Celestia quickly make glow red, “is unprotected 24 hours a day. It’s not shown in the hologram, but it has another opening about two meters from this side, where I entered and took a three hours nap completely undisturbed. It was where they place the waste disposal system, but there’s no door from outside and there’s a charm or something that already teleport the waste to the right place or something like that. So, aside from maintenance of said charm, nobody gets in.

“Also, I left and asked the guards if they had seen someone entering the alley in the last couple hours. The two that should watch the sides haven’t seen me, and the others even asked me what alley I was talking about.”

That last comment made everypony else sigh, even Blaze. Celestia just shook her head and the hologram vanished.

“That was just the Public Hall, the one place I focused most of my attention. I also noticed misplaced guards in other points as Canterlot’s Arcane Science Institute and…” she drew a bit of a breath, working the courage to say. Finally he sighed and looked at Celestia, “Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.”

Not a single eye kept inside its sockets so big they grew. Even the Princess lost her royal mask for the briefest of the seconds. “Are you sure?” she asked, already bringing a holographic view of said school.

Understanding the unsaid order, Lightning Dash nodded. “The school is mostly surrounded by avenues. Truly, the three principal Canterlot’s avenues passes at the sides and front of the school,” Celestia signaled them with her magic as Lightning said, “but the back side is just a simple and common street,” said street was glowing now in red as every single eye focused on Lightning Dash. “About halfway into the street, there’s an alley. Not to the side of the school, but across the street, but equally neglected by the guards, and I tested that myself.”

“And where that is a problem?” Golden Breeze asked.

“A group could start an operation in that alley,” Blaze started. “With hologram and other spells, they can hide the whole operation and when anypony approaches, they hide back in the alley.”

“And why would Princess Celestia’s school be a target that important?” Scarlet Boulder asked.

“Image,” Ice Sapphire answered. “If Princess Celestia can’t protect even her own school, how can she protect Equestria? Ponies would start to doubt and things would go downhill from there.”

“You’re thinking only on the long term consequences,” Lightning Dash said. “All these points have something in common: they are places which Princess Celestia and her protégé visit personally with frequency.”

“They are aiming at me or Twilight…” Celestia commented, a bitter taste in her mouth as she said that. “Thank you for your words, Lightning Dash. I think it’s time for a change in the guard… To be more precise, in the captain of the guard, and I have a perfect candidate in mind already, due to your information.”

“I’m only fulfilling my duty as any Equestrian citizen.”

Before anyone could say anything more, the door opened again to reveal another pony, a certain lavender unicorn which Lightning Dash refused to assume, but he already knew.

“Sorry! I’m late!” she said before looking at the table and at Celestia. She was heading to her place, followed by a baby dragon, when she was finally hit by the sight of Lightning Dash to her right side. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE?”

“Twilight, calm down,” Celestia’s voice was calm and soft. “Lightning Dash has proven a valuable addition to Equestria. He and his friends will, from now on, live there on the castle. Besides in a different way, they will also be learning from me.”

“SAY WHAT?” Twilight jumped from her seat, looking at Celestia. “But Princess! He clearly has no respect for the rules and represents a menace to--”

“Lightning Dash pointed fails in our defenses, Twilight. So he deserves some respect. And he’s already being punished.”

“You… You’re not somepony infiltrate in Equestria?” the little dragon asked.

“Spike!” Twilight called him out. “You weren’t supposed to say that aloud!”

Celestia just chuckled. Lightning Dash, though, looked at Twilight with pained expression. “The Dash family has been answering under the Royal Princess for longer than your mother has been able to have foals. No Dash would ever raise a hoof to endanger or to hurt Princess Celestia.”

The proud within Lightning Dash’s voice spoke volumes about the seriousness in his action. Celestia only smiled, “Enough of that, my little ponies. It’s time for dinner, not to fight.”

Author's Note

Here's chapter three! Hope you like it! Oh, and there was a little alteration in the title in the last our. I planned to extend this chapter a bit longer but decided otherwise, so you'll have to wait a little longer. And today, our guest is Lightning Dash himself!

"HEY! That little purple filly is Princess Celestia's protégé? How the hell it's possible? She isn't any older than my sister... Well... Now that I thought of it, my sister have some feats of herself as well... Anyway, Now comes the time to face the first challenge and be a step closer to be a Knight. I still have a long way to go, and I know it, not to mention that I kinda started with the wrong hoof with Princess Celestia. The Dash family, though, isn't the most awesome, cool and amazing pegasus family in the whole Equestria for nothing! The next chapter of Knights of Harmony is: The Blinding Thunder"

Chapter 04: The Blinding Thunder

Celestia, after placing a few directed studies in order for Twilight, was followed to her garden labyrinth’s entrance by the five aspirants to Knights. She turned at the five of them.

“Inside this labyrinth, you will face dangers, true dangers. Do not take it lightly or it will be your last mistake. I’ll be in the center of the labyrinth the whole time, but I shall not intertwine. Those which reach me with less than ten enemies defeated will have to fight me. You cannot fly over the labyrinth or break through the walls. This is an evaluation of you as Knights of Harmony. If you think you’re not ready, step back now.”

Lightning Dash was in the middle of them all. The other four exchanged glances between them but none moved a hoof. Lightning Dash just closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then there was the sound of hooves clip-clopping on the ground. Turning their faces to the newcomer, they were surprised to see an armored Royal Guard approaching them.

“Sorry, your Highness. I’m late.”

“I understand, Lieutenant Shining Armor. As I was saying, the objective is reaching the center of the labyrinth. No flying or crossing the walls. The dangers you’ll face are real, so beware. I’m waiting for you in the center of the labyrinth. Any question?”

She hasn’t mentioned the fact we have to defeat then enemies… Maybe Shining Armor doesn’t have to? Lightning Dash wondered.

“Farewell. I wish you the best of luck and I hope to see your skills. All of them,” in the next second, Celestia was enveloped in a golden flash of light, vanishing. It took only a moment, for Scarlet Boulder, Ice Sapphire, Golden Breeze and Blaze dart inside the labyrinth. Shining Armor, though, stepped at Lightning Dash’s side.

“I heard about you, cadet. Outflew our elite pegasus guards. Are you planning joining the Wonderbolts?”

“That’s my sister’s dream. I shouldn’t try that, after all I’m here to protect her dreams. I would do quite the opposite in stealing them for me.”

Lightning Dash then looked at the Lieutenant. He was a sturdy, at least for a unicorn, pony. His mane and tail was deep blue with a lighter stripe and his cutie mark was a shield with same pink star he saw on Twilight’s flank. “I understand that well, Cadet,” the white unicorn looked at his own cutie mark. “I also swore to protect my dear young sister. That’s why I can’t fail. See you in the center, Cadet.”

Lightning Dash watched as he entered. Only then he saw a golden magic barrier on the entrance with a deep yellow magic image of an hourglass slowly flowing with the time. He nodded.

It’s then that my time starts ticking. Ten minutes… Lightning Dash thought. I might as well try that charade about that armor thing while I have time. They are powered by our cutie marks, which are powered by our hearts’ deepest wishes. What is my most important wish?

His eyes closed as his always extremely active mind examined every little information, looking for any hint. His mind focused on his cutie mark first: a large simple vertical lightning bolt which was then crossed by a much thinner horizontal one. He also returned his thoughts to that very day…

~~~~

Lightning Dash was having lunch with some of his friends at the flight academy back at Cloudsdale. They were chatting and laughing over lots of things when a commotion called their attention. I the center of that, they found a light yellow pegasus with pink mane and tail curled behind a cyan filly with rainbow hair. Lightning Dash also noticed the two other pegasi bullying them, and his excellent hearing caught the cyan filly challenging them to a race. Lightning Dash smiled wide. That’s my sister, he thought.

As they started, everything was fine. But towards the end, things started to get worrisome to Lightning Dash. Her sister began to dive and wasn’t making it up. She tried with all her might, or so it seemed to Lightning Dash, but something was wrong. He was a lot more advanced in flight techniques, though, so he did a back-roll and crossed right though the cloudy floor, darting at his sister. He also was speeding up a lot, but he had the advanced techniques to get back in proper flying.

Instead of saving her and breaking her ego totally, Lightning Dash approached her and, thankfully that her eyes were closed, he whispered what she had to do. He would, then, dive a bit faster before ascending. The rainbow-haired filly followed his lead and managed to start ascending as well. Knowing where to leave his effort, Lightning Dash flapped his wings and let her sister do the rest on her own. And was only when he decided to see how much they have fallen that he saw a rainbow ring spreading through the sky of Equestria, what would later be called a Sonic Rainboom.

When he returned to his class, his friends were the first to notice the change he had suffered: his flanks, which plenty of people would bully for being blank, now had his very own cutie mark.

Different from his sister, his cutie mark wasn’t because he was awesome. No, that was consequence. His cutie mark represented his will to protect her sister. And, by protecting her, protecting also the innocent filly curled behind her.

~~~~

Lightning Dash opened his eyes again. The golden barrier in his front flickered and then disappeared and the bright yellow pegasus darted inside the labyrinth. His mind, though, kept reminding him of his newest finds.

I’m not here to live my dreams. I’m here to protect hers!, he thought while making a sharp turn to his left. Then he stopped. Protect… defend… my cutie mark… The armor is powered by our cutie marks, hence from our hearts… he then heard a twig snapping behind him.

With his extremely fast reflexes, he threw himself to the side in time to see the same vines from the creature he had fought the first day. As the creature rushed against him, he barely moved a muscle. His eyes focused on the creature.

“Celestia, I’ll reach you,” his position changed, ready to dash forward as his wings opened menacing. “Nothing will stop me from protecting my sister!” And with a single flap of his wings, Lightning Dash lunched himself against his first enemy.

****

Lightning Dash stood outside of the labyrinth for ten minutes, stopped in place… Golden Breeze said as she walked in the middle of the labyrinth. He had already defeated three enemies herself.

“Keep your guard up, Golden Breeze,” Shining Armor said at her side with Ice Sapphire at the other. “We have only succeeded so far because we were focused.”

“I can’t understand why Lightning Dash would be stopped for so long…” she commented. “I’m no less focused than before I assure you.”

The trio then followed up into the labyrinth, “Are you sure this plan will work, Shining Armor?” Ice Sapphire asked.

“If the other two do their part, perfectly…” the royal guard said, but something was still bugging him. “Enemy!”

“I get him!” Golden Breeze quickly flapped her wing and made a rather sharp turn. The pegasus spotted her opponent and with a hoof, she mostly smashed the tree-like pony against the ground. As has been happening, as soon as it was defeated, only leaves, vines and twigs remained into the ground.

Shining Armor and Ice Sapphire got up to her, “Nice shot, cadet. You will have high ranks upon joining the guards.”

Ice Sapphire, though, decided to take a glimpse behind her and slowly turned, “Guys… and what if they could hide their magic presence?”

“If so, this would be a… trap…” Shining Armor slowly trailed off his thoughts as he saw what had given Ice Sapphire her idea. There were about ten of these wooden aberrations.

“Lieutenant, protect us, we’ll lunch an offensive!” Golden Breeze was about to lunch herself when Shining Armor intertwined.

“No! They’re planning something! Run!”

The three of them turned and ran to the opposite side, always careful to watch their backs. Strange enough, they weren’t followed. Not too long later, they found a clearing in the labyrinth, not the center, but a place to rest.

“Finally one of the breakpoints!” Ice Sapphire commented. “We’re running and fighting for near half an hour already!”

“And we found eight enemies and a dead trap that worked most on impulsive ponies,” Shining Armor lunched a glare at Golden Breeze, which quickly downed her ears in embarrassment.

“Forgive her, Shining Armor. Each of us received a different mission from Princess Celestia,” Ice Sapphire commented much to Golden Breeze surprise.

“You too?”

The unicorn just nodded. “I’m almost sure that Blaze, Scarlet Boulder and Lightning Dash got one too. After all, we all did something against the rules on our first day.”

As they sat a bit on the breakpoint, Shining Armor cast his barrier spells so they could have some free time to relax and restore their strengths.

“Well… I didn’t know the Princess would consider joining the other’s training to be something against the rule…”

“But she did gave you a free day, so it was supposed that you would not get back to work…” Ice Sapphire said. “What was you punishment?”

“Since I was so eager to learn how to fight, I have to knock out double of the enemies.”

“Twenty for you then. And you managed to take four so far. I can understand your eagerness to defy such a group without thinking twice.”

“What?” Shining Armor looked at the two. “What are you talking about?”

The two looked at Shining Armor, “Well… We’re being tested for something different from the Royal Guard, Shining Armor. That’s why I keep refusing call you Lieutenant. Each of us has to cross the labyrinth and defeat ten enemies in order to get the next part of our training.”

“If we don’t manage to defeat all enemies before reaching the center, we’ll have to fight Princess Celestia one-to-one.” Golden Breeze continued. “And due to my eagerness, I have to defeat ten more enemies. That’s why I’m always jumping to fight. Sorry.”

Shining Armor thought for some time, “You said all of you did something wrong?” Ice Sapphire nodded. “Do you know what each one did?”

“Lightning Dash was the very first. He burst out flying through castle grounds and raced the pegasus guards. Blaze was next, his fault being using his talents. Lucky him, only the Princess saw that or he would be a lot worse. Then it was Golden Breeze, as she said. Next was Scarlet Boulder, always bothering other ponies on duty. And lastly me, for trying to work an advantage and learn some combat spells from Castle library.”

“Lightning Dash is being punished by being the last to start and probably by being forced into the first to accomplish.” Shining Armor said. “He did started ten minutes later than us after all, and as with Golden Breeze, it’s related to what he did to bypass the rules. I assume you have to use spells to defeat your enemies?”

“I have to invent two basic battle spells and defeat at least four enemies with each of them,” Ice Sapphire assumed.

“Hmmm… Blaze’s punishment must be fighting without using those talents or the opposite, use his talents on full force or something. Scarlet boulder, though, must have to do this solo, so she learns not to bother others?”

“Princess Celestia is training us. No surprise she’s teaching us meanwhile,” Golden Breeze said.

“No, but it got things a lot worse,” Shining Armor said them and downed his head. “My mission is to coordinate and make sure all five of you reach the center of the Labyrinth…”

****

He hasn’t time to stop and relax. It was his fourth breakpoint in the labyrinth and his enemy count was in five, four of them what Lightning Dash called ‘guardians’, tougher enemies which stood always at the break points. As the splints from his shattered enemy fall to the grass of this breakpoint, he could help but wonder about how he seemed far faster and stronger than before.

He looked at his hooves, and then closed his eyes. He could still feel them, as always, and even his mana leylines, which he strangely had more conscience than any other pegasus. So much, in fact, that he could summon his static sparks with almost no attrition at all. He focused more on his leylines, the sensation of his mana flowing through his body. And then, he remembered from the very day he gained his cutie mark, when to get a falling Rainbow Dash, he had a sudden burst of speed. He almost didn’t make it, but he could feel Rainbow Dash on his hooves and his speed burst slowly fading.

When his eyes opened again, Lightning Dash could feel his mana converging in a single place, a place he knew all too well. From his cutie mark, he felt the mana spreading through his body, focusing on his wings and on his hooves. Then he focused his eyes and took off, careful not to fly above the labyrinth walls. He was way faster now than he has ever been. And different from what he thought, it didn’t have him any more tired.

The pegasus keep flying close to the ground, his years of training with Rainbow Dash for her stunts allowing for turns otherwise impossible for any pegasi. And whenever he saw another opponent, a simple lightning-charged hoof on its chest and he was done with. Six, seven, eight, nine enemies along his way, and he showed no signal of slowing down. Passing through two already cleaned breakpoints, Lightning Dash noticed something and made a turn to his left. The center of the labyrinth.

He had reached it. However, he was still missing a battle. He closed his eyes then and thought, I have to find one more. However, the time I take searching may be my end. I must finish before the others… when Princess Celestia’s words echoed in his mind, he remembered that this was a training. His pegasus vision managed to get a glimpse of the regal alicorn and she was not dressed to impress: she was wearing her armor. Right now, she wasn’t the Princess, but a senior Knight training him. He focused all his magic on his hooves and wings and dashed straight into Celestia.

His objective was to smash his hoof into the armor’s chest; however, the ever vigilant amazon flapped her wings and took flight. Lightning Dash made a spin, hit his hind hooves on a stronger tree branch and lunched himself at Celestia again. This time, the amazon of leadership blocked his bolt-charged hoof, just to be surprised at the speed he turned to try and kick her in the face.

However, she wasn’t born a pegasus.

A golden flash of light and Celestia was gone, appearing behind Lightning Dash. When her hooves where about to connect, Lightning Dash arched his back a little then wrapped his hind legs on her left foreleg and with a swift and strong movement, threw the princess towards the ground. A flap of her wings broke her fall and she saw Lightning Dash coming right at her. A side-roll to her left saw the pegasus creating a rather nice crater in the ground. Celestia flapped his wings once more.

He already got hold of his magic… most impressive. Even Luna and I took near to a month to that… Celestia thought. Even so, she was focused on her surroundings. From the dust cloud, Lightning Dash made his movement, dashing to her left to punch straight in her face. When she turned to block, she was almost too late to the punch which came straight at her. However, her horn flared with practiced easy, teleporting her to safety.

Not abated by his failures, Lightning Dash stood there, hovering in place, looking at Celestia, which did the same in turn. She noticed the smile in his face and quickly understood what happened: she was his tenth target.

“Aren’t you aiming a bit too high in challenging me, Lightning Dash?” Celestia asked.

“Maybe I am,” he gave in. “But it’s kinda the way of the Dash family… Before the sun rises, I’ll introduce your face to my hoof!”

Celestia grinned at him and entered in a battle instance, “Then give me your best shot!”

Lightning Dash shoot himself against Celestia one more time. The bright yellow pegasus let a trial of sparks through the path he made as he tried once again to attack Celestia. She, though, danced around his hoof and was going to kick him in the belly. Not trusting in his perception to protect only his belly, though, He searched for his mana, spreading it around his whole body like a blanket or…

Suddenly there was a bright yellow flash. Celestia had felt his hoof connect, but it wasn’t to his skin. It was something hard and at same time warm and cold. When her vision recovered from the sudden flash, she got astonished as Lightning Dash entered in her sight.

All four hooves covered in battle pony shoes, they all in a cyan color and shaped mostly like thunder, with random lines going up and down in sharp angles. On his hindlegs, at his knee, there was a proper plate to protect the joint that covered not only the knee itself but most of the upper part of his leg. His cutie mark, though, was left visible between the leg and the back plates. The wings were free to move and allow both speed and control while flying and still being protected by those same lightning-shaped plates. The forelegs had same protections, this time taking some of the chest. On his head, just below his mane height, he was protected by some armor that looked more like an ornament made of the same cyan as the base color of the armor. The only detail that received a different color was the shining magenta from his eyes in the perfect shape of his cutie mark but placed on his chest.

“How you could…” Celestia was so absorbed by his new armor that in the next second, Lightning Dash had already made moved and kicked with one of his hindlegs right into Celestia’s face, the motion of the movement threw the Princess at the ground.

Lightning Dash kept flapping his wings as his armor slowly faded in a cyan smoke. Celestia rose from the ground and looked at Lightning Dash. With a hoof, she caressed where the pegasus had hit her and her muzzle slowly parted in a grin.

“Congratulations, Lightning Dash,” Celestia said, looking him in the eye. “You were the first one to reach me within the limit time and with enough proof of courage and skills. I, Celestia Solaris, Amazon of Harmony under the virtue of leadership, declare you officially approved in my test.”

Only with Celestia’s words Lightning Dash managed to relax enough for his body to feel the tiredness of using so much magic and speed at once. He fall asleep right there, in midair. The white alicorn, though, enveloped the pegasus in her magic and placed him softly in the ground, so he could sleep.

****

Lightning Dash woke up in his room’s bed. The sun shone through his window and he wondered what has happened. Last thing he remembered, he had faced Celestia one-on-one and, somehow, managed to hit her in the face. Only then his mind managed to put some dimension into that: Amazon of Harmony or not, he had hit his Princess with all his strength.

The pegasus got up and stretched. His body felt lighter and, at same time, stronger, and as same as yesterday, he could feel his mana leylines when he focused enough. The warm sensation of the mana that flowed through his body, powering his four legs and wings… no, he remembered that last act of his… It could power his whole body, like armor!

Then he was brought back to reality by someone knocking twice on his door. Not waiting for an answer, whoever was outside entered and only then the pegasus noticed that the Sun Princess has paid him a visit. She had a smile in her face when Lightning Dash liked back at her.

“I’m glad to see you have waked up sooner rather than later,” Celestia said with a warm smile.

“Princess Celestia…” Lightning Dash quickly saluted his Princess.

“At easy, Lightning Dash. Take a bath and reunite with the others at the throne room. I have an announcement to make.”

He only nodded and saw the Princess leaving his room.

Author's Note

I made a quick correction on a character's name from chapters 01 and 02: Scarlet Cake was meant for another history. The correct one is Scarlet Boulder and I made that correction already. Sorry for that though.This is chapter 04, a quick battle and a little more into the truth of the histories I'm going to tell. Time for a little vision about next chapter right? With Shining Armor here to tell you about it!

"These young ones have really surprised me. How could I ever imagine they having so much power and skills? And What is a Knight of Harmony? Maybe I should ask Twilight later about that. Anyway, I'm now Captain Shining Armor and I have the duty of protecting the ponies under Princess Celestia's protection! I just wonder what that will do to my love life with my girlfriend... However, more important than that is to get to know these powerful warriors that Princess Celestia is training. The next chapter of Knights of Harmony is: Knowing You, Knowing Me"

Chapter 05: Knowing You, Knowing Me

Lightning Dash met with the others in the throne room not too long later. However, he noticed that the Day Court had barely come into recess as he walked inside. Even so, everypony was there up to Shining Armor. Princess Celestia sat in her throne as her magic closed her door and cast a privacy spell around the whole room.

“Thank you all for coming. Let’s start with the announcements. First of all, your test was a success even more than I thought. Every single pony there exceeded my expectative,” everypony made a quick bow to Princess Celestia. “Continuing, I will start by Shining Armor. Step forth, my Guard.”

With a quick bow, Shining Armor stepped forward, “My Princess.”

“You have the leadership instinct and the courage to go through the unknown, while still having the calm to think things through and reason to not act impulsively. Starting tomorrow, you will be my new Royal Guard’s Captain.”

Shining Armor was sincerely astonished by that, “What happened to the previous?”

“Nothing as yet, my Captain,” Celestia answered with a smile. “However, as your first duty, you will be assigning troops around Canterlot for the next shift already. You have my authorization to bypass anypony’s orders, barred my own.”

Shining Armor noticed a small scroll floating towards him with the royal seal on it. He nodded and made another respectful bow before retracting. However, Celestia stopped him, “I haven’t finished yet, Shining Armor. This is what you can and will make public. There is one thing that you will not be able to tell anypony else, though, not even your sister, at least, not for now. As the other five already know, I’m bringing back an ancient force long forgotten in Equestrian history. In a hundred years, Shining Armor, You will be my first Knight of Harmony.”

“Sorry, Princess?” he asked puzzled.

“I’ll explain to you later. And I will prefer you to focus on your Royal Guard duties more than your Knight one. I know you’ll be able to manage that, Shining Armor.”

“Yes, my Princess,” he bowed once again and after a short nod from Celestia, returned to his place.

Celestia then addressed them all, “You five has also passed your tests and are now cadets of the Knights of Harmony. As the eldest Amazon of Harmony living and the only one apt to teach you, you’re training under my style. But first, I want to hear your testimony. When your name is called, step forth; say your name, a bit of your history, your fault and mission, and briefly your experience into the labyrinth. Scarlet Boulder.”

She made a quick bow and stepped forth. The red pony looked at Princess Celestia and smiled, “My name is Scarlet Boulder. I had grown into a rock farm, one of the many in Equestria, located at foot of Foal Mountains. Life was hard by my family had a lame, but true, saying that ‘working with a smile makes your day shine’. Thanks to them I learned to always see the bright side of the things and learned the true gift a smile was. My cutie mark is the proof of that, I gained it the day when I made everypony laugh when I broke a red stone and accidentally formed a pony-shape with the debris. I called them all to see and we shared a nice laugh together. Those stones are still in the same place in my family’s farm, protected as a reminder that a good laugh doesn’t choose anypony: it’s the pony that creates the reason for laughing!”

And her happiness was indeed contagious. Everypony else, but for Blaze, shared a large smile in their faces. “My fault, if you’re referring to the Castle incident, was intertwining with other ponies’ works trying to talk. My mission was to work alone to find the center of the labyrinth defeating at least ten enemies groups of two or more. During that mission, though, I learned that some kind of work can’t be done alone and others can’t be done in groups. And that some can be done alone, but are easier to do in groups. I can say I learned a new perspective about team working.”

Celestia smiled at her and nodded, “Thank you, Scarlet Boulder. Golden Breeze.”

The red pony returned to her place and was quickly exchanged by the golden pegasus. She also made a quick respectful bow before starting. “My name is Golden Breeze, born in Las Pegasus where since very young everypony learns to depend on nopony else but themselves and their families. While in the school, I met a teacher which always tried her best to help all her students, was very caring and patient. But was really a jerk outside the school, not even returning my greetings when I met her and more than once groaning something like ‘she follows me out of the school too?’ and the such. I made it a decision of myself to not be like her. Or I would be a total jerk all the time, or I would be kind all the time. My cutie mark symbolizes that I’m always moving out of my way to help others, and I earned it in a special chilly autumn night when I found a colt not much older than myself in the streets across the street. I took a blanket over to him and some food as well, since he seemed to live in the streets. I woke up in the morning with my cutie mark and with one blanket less in my closet, but my heart was happy: I’ve made the right thing,” and not a single pony there dared to say otherwise.

“My fault was being a bit too eager for this test of Princess Celestia and looking for some training with the Royal Guard. My mission was, then, defeating the double amount of enemies while in the labyrinth. There, I partnered with the other five, Lightning Dash not having entered as yet, and we were delivered missions. Me, Ice Sapphire and Shining Armor made a team, cleaning up the most probably straight paths and plenty of the resting spots so others could rest a little. After some time, Shining Armor was put into the open about our missions and helped me fulfill mine. I’ve learned that calm and patience can help a lot more in battle than mere strength, speed and magic alone.”

Celestia again nodded and smiled, “Thank you, Golden Breeze. Ice Sapphire, please.”

The ice blue unicorn took the golden pegasus place. “Well… My name is Ice Sapphire and I’ve born at a city far up north, at edge of the ice lands. The winters were rigorous back there and the city was famous for its unicorn population, which kept most of the cold outside the village. I gained my cutie mark for joining the team working on a winter wrap-up at an early age and for my water/ice magic. Most unicorns are born with a talent and I’ve born with two, so I wanted to use this gift for others. I gave my best to ensure others were safe and warm in their houses as soon as I mastered my ice magic. I don’t mind in harming myself to protect others. My cutie mark is some kind of shield while still associating my abilities with water and ice, sapphire being known as water stones.

“My fault was almost the same as Golden Breeze’s. I tried and advantage by learning combat spells from the library. My mission was then to invent two basic combat spells and defeat four enemies with each. During my mission in the labyrinth, I joined forces with others, mostly Shining Armor and Golden Breeze. I’ve learned that while knowing plenty of spells may be useful, your skills to improvise are at same high demand under emergency situations.”

Celestia nodded and smiled once more. This time, though, she turned her head to look at the next, “Blaze.”

He stood silent for a couple more seconds. “My name’s Blaze. I’m not telling about my past because it doesn’t concern you. About my cutie mark, I’ve stopped a fire where I have lived, that’s all I’m talking about. And--”

“No, Blaze. This time you have to share your experiences. You will understand later,” Celestia stopped him.

The brown earth pony sighed, “Fine. It was the result of the great drought around the San Palomino Desert, about twenty years ago. I was barely seven by the time and all my family was out in a delivery to another town, only me and my older brother stood home when the festival started. We were doing well enough despite the drought and had a reason to celebrate. Some dumb-ass, though, decided to make some kind of lamp made out mostly of paper. As he ignited the lamp, it started flying high in the sky and was a beautiful sight, but suddenly it began to fall hitting a stable. The whole vegetation was dried enough thanks to the drought and we had no water supply large enough for the fire that started without compromising the live of everypony else.

“As the fire grew, I saw more and more ponies running and even a few fighting the fires. Earth ponies can’t count on magic for that though, so they always are putting themselves at risk in such occasions. I saw many ponies dying for the fire, one of them being my brother. Not knowing what to do, I prayed. I closed my eyes and prayed for… somepony to give me ways to save other ponies, to stop their suffering. The raging fire has burnt for so long already that nopony noticed it was already night. When the moon appeared from behind a cloud, I felt this warm feeling inside me and suddenly I knew what I had to do: fight fire with fire. I started a new one to diminish and, eventually extinguish both fires. The whole town was destroyed, that’s for sure, but after my fire barricade was in place, all ponies behind it were safe. That’s what my cutie mark stands for: my hope, my trust and my faith.”

Not a single pony managed to keep a straight face. Nopony wanted to believe that there was such a tragic history behind Blaze. However, he wasn’t finished as yet, “My fault within the castle walls was due to respect issues and my mission was to avoid ten battles as well as defeating ten others. That’s why I was the last to finish,” Ice Sapphire looked at him surprised. She never thought that was his punishment. Didn’t Celestia mind them using their abilities? “Inside the labyrinth, I did as expected, learning the importance of respecting others, even my enemies.”

Celestia nodded, not smiling this time. “Thank you, Blaze. Shining Armor.”

Gotten by surprise, the new Captain of the Royal Guard stepped forward and made a respectful bow. “My name is Shining Armor, born and raised here in Canterlot. My cutie mark was earned at protecting my sister in many occasions, that being what makes me happy the most and the fulfilling promise I made her. About my fault, I was never pointed it so I don’t quite know, but my mission was to ensure that all of you reached the center of the labyrinth. Inside, I learned the value of listening to other ponies and learning with previous mistakes.”

Celestia nodded softly smiling at him, “Thank you, Shining Armor.” Celestia then got up and looked over them all, “You five, my little ponies, had shown your bravery and put yourselves into test, both mine and your own. The five of you grew stronger in adversity and learned valuable lessons to build your characters. And perhaps a bit more importantly, learned a bit more about all of you. You are entering the Knights of Harmony, a group known to sacrifice themselves in order to make the whole Equestria a better place, secure and beautiful. I, Celestia Solaris, Amazon of Harmony under the virtue of Leadership from the Unicorns, declare the five of you my apprentices as Class Three Trainee Knights of Harmony. You shall walk up the ranks step by step and meet me at the very top.”

The five looked at Celestia and bowed at her before Ice Sapphire raised her head, “But and about Lightning Dash?”

Celestia grinned and sat down again, “I haven’t forgotten him. Lightning Dash, step forth and answer my previous questions.”

With a bow longer than the others, Lightning Dash stepped forward and turned hir back to Princess Celestia and facing the other five ponies, much to their surprise.

“My name is Lightning Dash. I was born on Cloudsdale and was the one of the best flyer at Summer Flight Camp, second only to my younger sister Rainbow Dash. I know, it’s silly to say that a pegasus in advanced classes is less talented than one in more basic classes. However, I wasn’t much into flying, as I was into protecting. I entered the Summer Flight Camp to start my training to join the Royal Guard. I was the only one of my class to not have found my cutie mark as yet. At the age of ten years, they tried to put me down by saying I would never have one. But I knew what I wanted and I knew my cutie mark would appear in due time.

“One day, though, I saw these two colts bullying a smaller yellowish filly. I was going to step in and intertwine when my sister did that in my place and challenged them to a race. The race was a very good one to watch until the end. However, when they started diving, I got a knot in my throat. There were a lot that could go wrong for young foals if they couldn’t properly hold their flight at that moment. When my sister refused to reestablish her flight, I crossed right through the cloud floor and dived after her. Flying behind her back so she couldn’t see me, I started telling her what to do, before diving more and showing her when to make what. After a quick show, I stepped aside and let she do the rest for herself. When I returned to the café my friends were, they noticed even before me that I had earned my cutie mark that same day.

“My fault was endangering the life of ponies while flying for some fun and my mission in the labyrinth was to star ten minutes later than the last pony,” he said casting a fake angry glance at Shining Armor, “and being the very first to finish while still defeating ten enemies. What I learned in the labyrinth was that you shouldn’t refrain yourself from doing what you like. I always liked to fly faster as possible and even besides I got punished by it, I still did that in the labyrinth. But what I was taught is that we have the potential to do a lot more than we are expected to.

“Princess Celestia wasn’t trying to teach us those lame subjects. She was trying to teach us what to do in order to learn the true meaning of our cutie marks. Mine doesn’t mean speed as I always thought. It means my wish to protect, my determination to sacrifice myself for others and my loyalty to my ideals. I am Lightning Dash, after all, and that is what I want to do: protect ponies which can’t protect themselves.”

Everypony but for Lightning Dash was looking straight at Celestia, which grinned and touched Lightning Dash’s shoulder with a hoof. “Well said, my little pony. Now turn to me,” Lightning Dash said as he was told and looked at Princess Celestia in the eye. “You, my little pony, showed me your bravery, your will and your heart. And besides everything else, you had showed me your wish to protect.” Raising a little her gaze, she addressed all ponies in the room, “Inside the labyrinth, Rainbow Dash’s last fight was against me. And I know you thinking I had beaten him unconscious, but the truth is far from that. He came to me ready to fight for his dreams and he fought with everything he got. Towards the end of the battle, he noticed my attack at him and, instead of avoiding or blocking something he wasn’t sure was a real attack or bait, he summoned other ways to defend himself.” She then whispered to Lightning Dash, “Show them.”

The yellow pegasus turned at the ponies once again, closed his eyes and once more felt his mana flux into his body. Differently from during Celestia’s fight, though, he could feel it easier and clearer now. On the next second, Lightning Dash covered his body in that mana, once again creating lighting plates of a cyan-colored metal with magenta markings, like his cutie mark in his chest.

After everypony got the astonishment from their faces, Celestia explained, “This is not the spell I pretend you to master, but the one that originate it. This is called Divine Armor spell, a spell that reflects your will to protect and draws power straight from your heart for that. This is a rather simple spell which any tribe can perform; basically you have to focus your mana inside your body to slowly leaves and create a magic blanket over it. However, it’s hard to master since you must understand the true meaning of your wishes and desires.

“And it’s for this particular knowledge that Lightning Dash is assigned as the leader of your little group and a Class Two Trainee Knight of Harmony, one step above yours into the ladder to Knighthood.”

The reaction of the group was quite mixed. Shining Armor was quite puzzled how he, actually Captain of the Royal Guard, was such a low member on this group; Scarlet Boulder was quite happy and already planning what to do to celebrate her friend’s ascension; Golden Breeze had a shy smile as she gazed upon Lightning Dash armored form; Ice Sapphire had a approving smile in her face and gave him a soft nod; and Blaze glared daggers at him, almost refusing to receive orders of such a pony. However, those were the Princess’s orders, right? Then he would follow them.

Author's Note

Chapter 05 is now available! A little about the past of some other characters other than Lightning Dash and a bit of rivalry added to the mix. Man... It's only because I'm the author and know a few things about to come or are the tension between Lightning Dash and Blaze building up? Talking about Blaze, would you like to hear more of his voice? He's a stallion of few words, after all (at least not as much as Big Mac)...

We’re all Knights of Harmony, we all had about the same age, we know basically the same things, but why does that one got his armor first? Am I not that good? No… I decided for this for something bigger than myself. I’m not giving up, and I'll be the very best! The next chapter of Knights of Harmony is: Flames Of Truth"

Chapter 06: Flames of Truth

They have been training for three days already, only Lightning Dash able to fully master the Divine Armor spell while the others had mixed success. Lightning Dash then dedicated long times to helping others to understand their own cutie mark. What puzzled Lightning Dash was that Blaze seemed to know very well how to trigger the spell, but something was blocking him.

The night has gone and come once again, and Celestia reunited them in the center of the labyrinth, where they joined regularly to train now. The Sun Princess, though, wasn’t so happy with their progress.

“What are you doing?” Celestia, in her Amazon armor, demanded from her subjects. “You’re trying to gain your cutie marks again? Those circumstances were gone: the magic that shows you your cutie mark is an epiphany, they can’t be recreated!”

Lightning Dash was the only one to know what Celestia was talking about. At first, he also thought that it was about gaining his cutie mark again, however that thought was behind him now. The other five trainees, though, only downed their head.

“I won’t wait anymore. Time for you to master your Harmony Armor spell. Shining Armor, you’re not allowed to use this spell unless you’re working under my order as a Knight of Harmony, am I clear?”

“Yes, sir!” answered the now Captain of the Royal Guard.

“Good. You all can focus your mana now, at least?” at their nod Celestia continued. “That will do. Besides from Lightning Dash’s armor that already mastered the Divine Armor spell, those of you that manage to successfully summon your Harmony Armor will be covered by a dead armor, one without any protective ability other than the basic of a Royal Guard. In other words, not useful even for training, so mastering the Divine Armor spell is still your mission,” everypony nodded again.

“Very good. First of all, you must focus your mana as a blanket over your whole body like demanded from the Divine Armor spell. Then it gets tricky: you now must GIVE it form by condensing your mana. Normally is recommend the form of the Divine Armor; however you haven’t achieved that yet, so you can focus on any design of armor or imagine one that you want. It doesn’t really matters.”

“Pr—Cel—Sir!” Lightning Dash called her.

Celestia looked at him, “My rank is General, Lightning Dash.”

The pegasus nodded and continued, “General Celestia, May I know why you recommend the form of the Divine Armor?”

“Because the Divine Armor’s shape is unchangeable: it reflects your wishes to the fullest, even what you consider attractive. Your armor will take that shape and combine it with your cutie mark. This armor I am wearing is my original unicorn armor. You can notice how my wings are mostly unprotected for it belonged to a wingless pony. However, as I ascended to alicorn, y armor also evolved to a completely different level of both power and shape. I’m not showing it before you’re ready to fight it, or unless it’s extremely necessary.

“Now, back at your training of the night: remember to keep your focus while condensing your mana or the spell will literally blow in your face. Not a nice thing when you’re all in a cramped space.”

Everypony nodded. Golden Breeze turned to Lightning Dash, “You seem to have more control over it, so you go--”

“Golden Breeze, you’re first,” Celestia cut her, making the pegasus mare jump in surprise.

“But… I…” under Celestia’s intense gaze, she quickly took hold of herself and bowed respectfully, then walked to the middle of the area.

Ice Sapphire, Scarlet Boulder, Blaze and Shining Armor meant to step back when Lightning Dash’s voice made him being heard, “Don’t you dare step backward. She needs to know she can do it and that we trust her. By stepping back now, you’re telling you’re afraid of her failing. We’ve endured Celestia’s training for four days now, if you failed to learn the most basic of her lessons…”

“What make you an expert, Lightning Dash?” Blaze asked somewhat angered.

“I’m not,” the pegasus answered easily, his eyes never leaving Golden breeze. “But think about it. How many times had she said to us do anything alone? One time for Scarlet and not a single time after that. Why would she do something like that? I asked me that often enough until I saw how much easier it was getting for us to help each other. We fell into routine of knowing where others were to be while we trained, we could feel each other without having to actually look for the magic guide. She’s not training individual knights. She’s training a group. So if you haven’t learned that as yet, get your damned flanks and park it in the ground for nothing else than your leader command!”

Even Blaze couldn’t refute the logic in Lightning Dash. They all stopped in their tracks and only looked at Golden Breeze. She looked back at them, her eyes wide open. She could see the approval of Scarlet Boulder and Ice Sapphire, the unreadable face of Blaze that, besides his pissed face, was the only one he knew how to do, and then he saw Shining Armor and his smile. She blinked and called in her concentration, feeling her mana flowing into her body came as second nature to her nowadays, maybe only behind Ice Sapphire and Shining Armor, the only two unicorns in the group.

The group could see the mana flowing around Golden Breeze at first in a perfect sphere, a basic defensive spell they all mastered quickly. Then the sphere slowly compacted around her body, touching and taking her form even as the wind blew her mane. Then she focused on the image she wanted for armor and focused more of her magic. It started from her hooves: the wind began to spin around them and the four ponyshoes were created. The whirlwind then raised over her legs, creating full and complete covering plates over every inch of her body, transforming her into a metal pony or something, with barely an opening for her eyes. On her chest, though, she tried to form the design of her cutie mark, but instead of that, only a barely recognizable shape was. Anypony that didn’t know Golden Breeze would never recognize that cutie mark.

Opening her eyes, Golden Breeze slowly took a look on her forelegs. Noticing the armor plates here, she let out a relieved sigh and grinned, showing off her armor to the others.

“Don’t get too happy about it yet, Golden Breeze,” Celestia said still serious, what kinda cut the happiness of Golden Breeze.

Lightning Dash though, stepped at her side and placed a hoof on her shoulder, “You’ve done good, Breeze. You should keep up your good work. Anyway, you should give space for the next one.”

Golden Breeze smiled and slowly returned to her place. Lightning Dash also returned and unknown to him and unnoticed by the others, she gave him a smile before quickly getting serious again.

Without waiting to be called, Ice Sapphire stepped forward. Upon Celestia nod, She closed her eyes and with practiced easy that always came to unicorns, she slowly guided her mana to envelop her body and slowly gave it form. Soon enough, a translucent armor slowly took form over her body, not quite hiding her coat under it. Slowly it gained a bit more of consistence and they could figure the form of a dress forming over her body. Again, there was a blurry shape on her chest with what could more or less be called a hexagon, or a circle, not so sure.

Shining Armor was next. His armor has formed just as did Ice Sapphire, first taking an ethereal shape and slowly taking form and consistence. About the shape, nopony had any doubt it would be so likely the Royal Guard’s armor, the captain’s armor none the less, just with a blurry form in his chest that apparently was a triangle.

Scarlet Boulder volunteered next, almost jumping to trade places with Shining Armor. She closed her eyes and her mana focused first at her hooves, enlacing them and already taking the definitive shape they would have, at least for now. From outside, it seemed as if the mana was flowing from earth itself and only then condensing on armor around Scarlet Boulder. When she finished, her chest held an overall pony-shaped hollow, a very fat and short-legged one at that.

Blaze was next. He stood up and closed his eyes as all others had done previously. He began to focus his mana slowly and it was going smooth enough. However, a strain of fear come from his past made him lose his focus for a second. He tried to get the control of his magic back but Celestia’s scream was enough for him to understand what would happen next:

“WATCH OUT!”

On the following second, all ponies were using their protective spells and Celestia, trusting on her armor, made sure that nopony else would hear or see the explosion that would result.

In Blaze’s mind though, he reminded how his hometown burned to ashes. His fear grew, for he would be seeing this again. In that second split time, he remembered again of that fateful day. His memories hurt his skin, burned him from the inside, consumed his very soul. But why? It was not his fault was it?

“Shadow Blaze!” the voice of his dying brother ordering him to run came full force on his mind. “It was an accident! Not your fault! Go! You shall leave now! Or we’ll never meet our Mother!”

Suddenly he remembered: some dumb-ass had light a paper lantern thing because he thought it was beautiful… and he was that dumb-ass. He had started the fire that consumed his village, he was the pony to blame, and he was the only one which deserved to die that day. It was only fair he died now. The words of his brother came back to him and his eyes shot open with determination.

“I CAN’T DIE HERE!” with his outburst that surprised everypony else, even Celestia, Blaze reached out at his chaotically mana amalgam and suddenly it all burst out in flames, Celestia’s spell being the only thing to keep other ponies from seeing the fire pillar.

As sudden as it started, though, it ended. There was no explosion and there was no lasting damage but for some burnt vines. In the center of the pillar, though, was still Blaze, his red-rust coat covered in bright red shining plates with golden and copper details lining the flame-like shapes. All his four hooves wore now ponyshoes shining even in the weak light of the moon, his legs holding mostly plain plates with gold lining and copper flame-like drawings, the torso covered in a sturdy looking armor mostly around his chest, allowing his burning moon cutie mark to be seen by everypony, as was the same symbol into his chest, his cutie mark clearly visible, different from the others, with the flames lined by copper and the moon shining a bright gold. Over his head was some kind of circlet made of pure gold with what seemed to be a coppery flame shape just under the hair line.

Not even Blaze believed on the sensation. It was a cold metal that appeared out of nowhere over his coat and at same time, it was warm and strangely, he could feel it as if the armor was his own skin.

“It seems you found out the true reason behind your cutie mark,” Celestia said with a smile in her face. “This is a true Harmony Armor, Blaze. For learning that, you and Lightning Dash shares the same rank as Class Two Trainee of the Knights of Harmony.”

Blaze looked at the Princess, deeply into her eyes, as reality sank in. The true reason? he thought.

“Care to share what passed in your mind during that experience?” Celestia asked.

He closed his eyes and when they opened again were only half way as his head hung low. “I… As I felt the mana gathering, I remembered your warning at how this could be disastrous if I lost focus. At the time I didn’t know why it triggered a fear in my heart and I lost control of the magic. I tried to get it back under control, but it was your scream that pushed me over the edge. I knew that I had done something wrong and it would be over soon. Flashes from the fire in my hometown came back into my mind.

“Then I heard the voice of my brother. I still remember that scene, a rather large wood log had fallen over his hindlegs. I was going to try and help him, but he snapped out at me, screaming for me to go way, to run and live. With his death, and our parents already losing their faith, it was only me left to look for somepony else important for us.”

“‘I can’t die here’, right?” Lightning Dash commented.

Blaze only nodded. “However, that memory also made me remember of something else. I told you that the fire started was started by some dumb-ass that had to light some kind of paper lantern of sort. Well, that was me…”

“And it was when you accepted the truth that you could also control your magic once again,” Celestia said. “Very well, my little pony. Your honesty guided you to your true strength, and you shall let it guide you even further. Always be truthful to yourself. That’s somepony you’ll never be able to fool and trying will only causes you harm.”

Celestia then looked at all others, “Take this lesson to the heart. You shall accept you as you are and never hide your true self. And Blaze, just to inform you: the explosion would send you flying and it could hurt to hit the ground or the walls, but your mana will never damage you. Even I was under more harm from the explosion than you ever were.”

“Why haven’t you told us then?” Scarlet Boulder asked. Everyone shot Scarlet Boulder a glance, “What?”

“Really?” Ice Sapphire asked. “You knowing that you can produce a self-harmless explosion whenever you want could keep this knowledge only to yourself? I can already picture you explosion-flying, or whatever else you’re gonna call it, all across Canterlot, if not the whole Equestria and beyond…”

“I would not!” Scarlet Boulder said. “It could harm other ponies! And besides, I promised not using magic in front of others! Do I look like somepony that would break her promises?”

“It’s not that, Scarlet. It’s just--”

“Don’t come with excuses! You didn’t trust me either! I saw your face!” Golden Breeze tried but was cut by the bright red pony.

After a few seconds of an awkward silence, Lightning Dash broke it, “Well… if you don’t mind, there’s still somepony to try that Harmony Armor spell…”

All eyes then focused back on Lightning Dash. However, different from the others, he hadn’t taken that much time. His constantly training on summoning the Divine Armor made the cyan armor almost pop into existence. And with the armor as a guideline, Lightning Dash focused his magic, giving it a real shape. As more and more mana flowed into the already existent armor, small electric sparks were originated and often enough, a stronger one would cause ponies to blink. The overall shape of the armor, with the lightning-shaped edges and preference for smaller and more movement-free plates, continued the same, however it wasn’t cyan anymore. The edges where now clean white and the body mainly a bright golden color, the cyan now coming to form minor details such as a special marking exactly between Lightning Dash’s wing: a feather crossed by a lighting. His cutie mark still had an important spot over Lightning Dash’s chest, the magenta color now retrained to the back large vertical rainbow which was now crossed by a white smaller and horizontal lightning.

Celestia nodded her approval, “Very good you too, Lightning Dash. Now, as you all mastered the Harmony Armor spell, there’s something I still have to tell you. This shape is not permanent: as long as you train and fight, your armor will change, getting more powerful as you also grow. And different from the appearances, the armor covers your whole body. Remember that you had to cover your body as a blanket in order to activate it. Generally speaking, you can determine the defensive power of these armors by how much it covers that pony’s body.”

With a shining golden light and what they assumed was the sound of fire, like a mix between Lightning Dash and Blaze’s armors summoning, Celestia called her most powerful armor, one mostly colored in white and with a range of fire-related colors for details, gracious with the flame-like edges and carvings. The hooves were covered in armor ending in flame pattern at the knees, starting from a deep red color and fading to a bright orange, the leg plates shining in a dark gold to contrast with the pure white metal used as armor over her body. Her torso, though, wasn’t formed by plates, but was instead a single piece with two glowing circles at each shoulder and a stylized sun just in front of her chest. The sides of her armor were covered in flame-like drawings with similar coloration with the heating element that represented the Princess. Her wings had been covered by light plates with a semi-sphere positioned at the extremity of the wing and with long sun rays covering mostly of the feathers while still allowing mobility. Her helmet protected graciously her head, allowing only her horn and mane outside with the crown seemingly fused into it.

Everypony noticed that but for Celestia’s face, mane and tail, her whole body was covered by the armor in question, when only about a third of Lightning Dash or Blaze’s were covered were by theirs. “There’s just no comparison between our armors at this moment,” Celestia commented as a matter-of-fact. “Not only by the difference between our magic powers, but by the pure defensive power of them alone. Whenever an armor spreads through your bodies, it’s meant to protect you all. But to give that protection, the armor can’t protect every inch of your body. Think like placing plates on strategic parts so the defensive magic can protect your whole body. However, as their defensive power grows, they expand. The reason is that they can trust the plates by themselves to protect you, leaving lesser areas to be protected by magic and, so being, they can focus more power on smaller areas.”

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIT!” Scarlet boulder called. “Are you telling me that magic actually is intelligent enough to divide itself so it can offer maximum protection efficiency?”

“Of course not, Scarlet,” said Shining Armor. “It’s a known fact that magic works on both fronts of pony’s mind: the conscious allow us to do with it what we want and the unconscious grant those little details we have for granted, like what Pri—I mean, General Celestia explained.”

“That’s also true, Shining Armor, but not the whole truth either. As science, and specially arcane science, advanced, what is now known as ‘mystical explanations’ were ignored and exchanged by more scientific and ‘logically explainable’ knowledge. The truth, though, is that magic isn’t only mysticism nor is it only science. I lived through both eras and saw the truth of magic.

“There are the conscious and unconscious elements you told about. However, the idea of Scarlet Boulder isn’t completely wrong either. Magic does not have its own sapience, but it does use yours in unconscious ways so it can interact with the world without causing too much harm to it and almost no harm at you. It can be easily noticed on barrier spells. Plenty of barriers can and are used without actually cutting into the ground. However, stronger magicians can stretch their control so much that their barriers do cross the ground level.”

For a visual demonstration, Celestia raised her horn and cast a basic round shield around herself. When she took off, though, the shield was revealed to be a perfect sphere and not even a grain of soil was lifted with it. Celestia then uncast the shield and landed again, “You can actually train to do that consciously. But the amount of effort you have to give just to it isn’t imaginable. However, when you let your mind clear and focus your power only on protecting yourself and holding the shape of the shield, the magic itself will guide that excess of power to where it can help in your goal, working on your unconscious mind and finally figuring how to protect all of you without intertwining in the world around you.”

“That’s why the Harmony Armor takes a form you want and the Divine Armor creates a form from your wishes,” Lightning Dash concluded. His body, different from the Divine Armor, was still protected with the Harmony Armor since it was now solid more than magic.

“Exactly. The two armors are the most precise example and you will understand all this as you reach that knowledge,” Celestia said with a smile. “Anyway, we can’t advance in your training before you all mastered the Harmony AND the Divine Armors spells. That will be your tasks for the foreseeable future. Lightning Dash and Blaze, you which already managed to use those two will train to master them. The Harmony Armor can be kept regardless of time, but you can’t have the luxury of time to wait the armor cover you. It must be almost instant in battle,” everypony nodded as Celestia finished. “You are dismissed. Golden Breeze and Scarlet Boulder, you shall take care to not let anypony see you training. Ice Sapphire and Shining Armor, while I really prefer to keep this a secret, you two, by being unicorns, has a little more leeway.”

“Yes, Prin—General!” all four ponies addressed said and bowed respectfully.

After all that night’s excitement, Celestia turned to leave and all others followed just after.

Author's Note

Phew! Chapter 06 and a few of the following ones as well are being used to explain more about the character's past. After that, finally things will turn more to action and we'll finally be seeing some good (or so I hope) fights taking the scene. Hope you like it! And to give you a hint about next chapter's history, Golden Breeze!

“So to earn our armors, we shall be true to ourselves? Easy done, since I already told the whole truth of my past and I have no problems accepting that. But… well… why haven’t I given my armor yet? Was something I said or did? And who are those stallions spying on me? The next chapter of Knights of Harmony is: Leaves of Autumn”

Chapter 07: Leaves of Autumn

The real meaning behind our cutie marks… that thought had echoed in Golden Breeze’s thought since last night. Be truth to ourselves, accept our lives our choices… Be who we truly are… What have I missed?

Just then, her mind cast back to that chill autumn night. She was only nine by that time, and the day in question was the last autumn day before winter would come, so the nights were already being cold…

~~~~

Las Pegasus has always been a nice place for you to take a vacation and relax the stress of daily life of working and studying. However, living there was another reality completely. The center of the city, all neon lights and casinos, were meant for the tourists and the more wealthy part of the population. Golden Breeze’s family was a rather poor one, living at the periphery of the city where overall violence were higher and chances of living were lower.

Her mother, though, always taught her to never give up and by her example, battled hard every day to grant her and her twin sister’s education since her sire had left. If she had something to not be thankful, it was only the excess bullying other foals had towards her and her sister.

There were also their classes at school as if the neighbors’ foals bullying them weren’t bad enough. Even with they being fast learners, very dedicated and everything else somepony could find the perfect behavior in a student; they weren’t the most popular ones. And besides teaching them the subjects at hand, their teacher wasn’t interested at all in their stories and reclamations. They learned to endure it on themselves.

As the years stretched long, Golden Breeze’s sister got tired of enduring it and started to actually joining that side. Two months later she joined a gang in the streets and not too long after that was found bleeding in an alley. Golden Breeze, though she cried and got depressed for her, only promised to endure it. She wouldn’t suffer the same destiny.

Then came that night about five months after her sister’s death. She was returning from a party with some friends. Her life was finally getting better and she was improving on the social basis. In an alley, though, she saw a young colt shivering. At first she just passed through him and got home. However, her heart took her to the window. It had been a cold night, even for her that was properly dressed. Her decision wasn’t instantly; she took long times looking at him. It was only when two bullies beat the poor colt that her heart put her in motion. She sneaked in her room, took her blanket from her bed and snaked it outside her house. She comforted the young colt with a smile and wrapping him on the blanket. Before going home, though, she gave him a good night kiss in the forehead.

~~~~

So she admitted everything and all she said about her cutie mark was completely true. What she was missing? Wasn’t her generosity good enough?

Then something caught her attention. The feathers of her wings were twitching softly. Not something a pony could see, but she could feel it good enough. Her wings were sensible and, as her understood that, they grew even more sensible. Once, they could detect magic as a dog could follow a scent, now they were able to pick intentions of nearby ponies. Normally this didn’t set off a reaction, only when something differed from normal. And a mix of lust and greed wasn’t normal for ponies’ standards. Thankfully, her gift was wind: an invisible talent by itself that had subtle abilities which were also unnoticed at all. One of those was the fact that she could feel the vibration of air and copy it as she pleased. And sound was nothing more than vibrating the air just right…

“…quite a rare sight! Look at her curves!” it was a whisper. Male voice, talking to someone about a step away from him in maybe what was a four meters distance from herself. They were even behind an apple crate trying not to be seen.

“You tell me,” the other agreed. “And pegasi are a high demand in Canterlot.”

Slavers… probably working for a illegal prostitution house… she thought.

“If we could just keep her from flying away…” commented the first one.

“We’re unicorns, remember? Like we held earth ponies out of the ground, we can keep her out of the sky!” the other replied.

“I don’t know… she seems stronger than standard…”

“Strong or not, two unicorns focusing their magic can’t be stopped that easily.”

I can. But they made it sound like they have others captives… I should call Princess Celestia first but… Deciding quickly what she would do, she got up from the shady she had decided to rest under and walked towards one of the less common streets, purposefully looking for lesser pony movement on it.

She felt one of them teleporting to an alley ahead. They would ambush her, one at each side. She halted. Should she really be doing this?

****

Ice Sapphire was at her room in the castle, practicing her Harmony Armor spell as she tried to figure out her motivation to summon the Divine Armor as well. Then she heard a hoof knocking… on her window. She reached out with her magic, opening it.

“Really, Lightning Dash… I have a door, you know?” she asked.

“Which you cast a silent spell. You haven’t heard me knock all these ten minutes before I got around to your window.”

She opened her mouth to defend herself but her mouth just hangs out open. After a second, she said something, “Touché. Anyway, what’s up?”

“Have you seen Golden Breeze?”

“Not since breakfast. Now that you mentioned it, she hasn’t appeared to lunch.”

“I’ve been expanding my magic to call her attention, of course out of vision from unicorns, but nothing…”

“Maybe she wants to be alone?”

“I have to talk to her. General Celestia wants her to report to her presence as soon as possible.”

That earned a raised eyebrow from Ice Sapphire. “What happened?” she asked.

“She hasn’t entered in details. Only said to call Golden Breeze and report immediately. Seems like a mission or something for us.”

“Sounds serious. Have you called the others?”

“Only Shining Armor left. But he’s Royal Guard Captain. Approaching him on his working hours will be a royal pain in the flank.”

“And your jokes are royal lame, you know?” Ice Sapphire commented.

“Sorry. Someone has to do it, you know.”

She only shook her head, “What plan you have in mind?”

“Wind Script.” At Ice Sapphire’s puzzled look, Lightning Dash elaborated, “Golden Breeze’s talent is wind. She was working on a spell she called ‘Wind Script’. It can only be found if you’re looking for it, a faint trail of enchanted wind that stays in place and forms words.”

“Wow,” Ice Sapphire comment took Lightning Dash by surprise. “I thought it was impossible to cast spells on weather elements let alone enchant them!”

“Of course. That’s because you’re a unicorn. However, Golden Breeze and I are pegasi, interacting with weather is very basic to us, as just feeling magic is to you.”

“Oh, right… kinda makes sense. And with you and her learning magic, this can really have that potential…”

“That’s one of the reasons why Princess Celestia wants it to keep under secret.”

“Haven’t you called her General just now?”

“The General summoned me and Golden Breeze, however, it’s the Princess whom ordered us to be quiet about it that first day.”

“I can’t believe you can separate Princess Celestia… or General Celestia’s behavior after such a short time! How you do that?”

“You know…” Lightning Dash smiled and gave her a wink. “You learn a lot about somepony after a fight with that pony. Princess Celestia is a great ruler and always cares for her subjects and even more for her loved ones. That said, Princess Celestia would never banish anypony.”

“Are you saying…”

“Yes. It was General Celestia which banished her sister. That is, if that old pony tale is to be believed. General Celestia is brave, loyal and can do anything to protect Equestria.”

Ice Sapphire gave it some thought, “Maybe… maybe you’re right…”

“That’s the reason why the Knights of Harmony were supposed to be Equestria most powerful warriors,” Lightning Dash commented. “They excel where common ponies would have problems in doing so.”

“Great. I’ll start tracking that right away. How do I get in contact with you?”

“Just raise your hoof. I’ll be flying all over Canterlot at maximum speed. You should be at visual range every five minutes.”

“So I get to stay with my hoof up for five minutes?”

“Unless you have another plan?”

“Maybe I do…” Ice Sapphire said with a chuckle.

****

Doesn’t matter how powerful they magic were, Knights of Harmony where still just ponies. Golden Breeze learned that the hard way. She was waking up now, and looking around revealed a large room without windows and plenty of mares all around. Unicorns, earth ponies and pegasi alike, there were a few sleeping, but the great majority was fully awake. A dark blue pegasus mare came to her, with light grey, some would say silver, mane and three starts lined by a cloud as a cutie mark.

“Awake so soon?” the mare asked her. “You’re tougher than you looks…”

Okay, maybe Knights of Harmony where a bit more than average pony.

“Where… am I?” Golden Breeze asked.

“Where will be your next house for your following years until you’re too old,” the mare answered. She tried to sound humorous but there was no happiness in her voice. “We’re all in the same boat right now, so there’s nothing much we can do.” Golden Breeze locked eyes with her as she tried to get up, “Easy there, dear. The drugs they use are… rather… heavy…”

Mostly ignoring the warning, Golden Breeze got up as if nothing had happened to her. “Trust me. I’m fine enough,” she said, which was quite true. “The other mares, are they alright?”

“Yes, they are. They’re just sleeping though. We would be of no help to them dead, you know… not many ponies have a kink for dead bodies…”

“So they’re really slavers.”

“You… already knew?”

“Had a guess. Anyway, somepony have to stop them,” Golden Breeze looked around. She couldn’t feel magic outside the room, only of the ponies inside it. Then she turned back at the pegasus mare, “Sorry, what’s your name?”

“I am Alpha Star, darling.”

“Golden Breeze here,” the golden pegasus said. “Let me make another guess: magic-proof enchantments are in place?”

“No magic gets in or out.”

“So unicorns are useless,” Golden Breeze faked her true motivation. “Earth pony-proof walls?”

“We even tried creating a storm cloud, darling, but nothing helps. We have to do as they ask or else…”

I trained with the Princess. There MUST be a way out of this… Of course! with a smile, Golden Breeze giggled and looked at Alpha Star. “You said magic can’t get in OR out, right?”

“Yes.”

“So they can’t feel when we are casting or not. How long before the others wake up?”

“Normally it takes about eight hours. They must be awake in six hours, give or take.”

“We don’t have that time.” Golden Breeze then jumped over a table there and called the attention of everypony, “Before anything else, I need unicorns to cast a privacy spell. We don’t want them to hear us. Follow my lead, and we’ll be out of here in no time!”

A lot of ponies sighed; a few actually murmured something like ‘not again’ before going back to their loneliness. It was a very red unicorn mare that answered Golden Breeze’s request, casting a privacy spell. A few other unicorns then joined her and soon the whole room was sealed, just to make sure nothing would scape.

Golden Breeze noted and grinned. “Good. Listen to me, and listen well. Today they’ve committed a mistake. They got by force a mare that has been training with the Royal Guard.” That wasn’t quite truth, but since they did have some training with the Royal Guard and Shining Armor was in their team, it wasn’t a lie either, a half-truth. “I know you’re not all fighters and that’s not a bother. I don’t pretend on engaging them actively. But first, we’ll need to get to know each other well. I need to know your skills and the spells you know so we can work with it.”

Alpha Star approached Golden Breeze, “But how are we supposed to sneak all of them outside WITH the sleeping ones? I’m sure you’re not thinking on leaving them here?”

“Nopony will stay behind. I will ask you all to endure one more night. At dawn, we all will be out of here.”

****

Lightning Dash, flying over Canterlot, got a nice look on what all his friends were doing. For only four ponies, Canterlot was a lot of ground to cover. However, he soon got the signal he was waiting for. He had to make two detours to catch Blaze and Scarlet Boulder, but soon they all had gathered with Ice Sapphire at one of Canterlot’s squares.

“I found it, Dash. It’s here.” Ice Sapphire said pointing at the air.

“Are you crazy, Sapphire?” Scarlet Boulder asked. “It’s just air!”

“No. That’s what we’ve been looking for. Reach with your magic.” Lightning Dash answered.

Blaze was the first to understand, “This is what you meant for a magic note from... her.”

“Sapphire, what does it spells?” Lightning Dash asked.

The unicorn took some time, focusing his magic to understand the magic writing. “S-L-A-V-E-R-S…” then, suddenly, her eyes opened widely, “That spells ‘slavers’!”

“So the Slavers of Canterlot are not an urban legend,” Blaze commented.

“And it took us a friend to learn that,” Lightning Dash commented. “Any clues?”

Ice Sapphire shook her head, “Nothing my magic can detect.”

Scarlet Boulder then followed something around for a bit, “Her hooves came there, joined another two and then the disappeared.”

“So it’s at least a pair. We have to assume this is a whole group working.” Blaze commented.

“However, we can’t act before contacting the Princess. And she is in court now!” Ice Sapphire commented.

“I will catch her attention. You wait right here,” as they all nodded, Lightning Dash lunched himself in the air once again.

****

Princess Celestia was just about to voice her decision about a grey pegasus’ complains when a thunder roared. It was a sunny day scheduled and looking at the window, she saw it was indeed a sunny day. It only made it stranger. Then came a second one quickly followed by a third. There was a pause then followed by four quick thunders straight.

“There is some pegasus having fun!” said the pegasus in front of Celestia.

“Indeed,” she said rising from her throne. “I’ll return as soon as I can. I’ll see to this matter myself.” And then she opened her wings and flew out of one of the large windows. Above the castle’s roof, Celestia was quick to find Lightning Dash, but no storm cloud around. “May I ask how you summoned the thunder?”

Lightning Dash quickly summoned a few sparks on his hoof and gave a quick punch, resulting in a thunder sound. “Sorry for that Princess. But we need to talk with the General right away.”

Celestia just closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened her eyes again, she looked deeply into Lightning Dash’s. “I hope it was worth, interruption the Princess’s Court.”

“Golden Breeze has gone missing. However, she was able to leave a message behind. The message said simple ‘slavers’,” Lightning Dash reported.

“I see. At least now we have one inside. No, I didn’t know about this, but I guessed. Plenty of mares are being reported as disappeared in Canterlot’s area. Anyway, you have a mission. The five of you shall look for her. I’ll summon Shining Armor myself so you don’t have to worry. Meet him at the center square and then you inform him of everything. Have I made myself clear?”

Lightning Dash made a quick bow, even if he was flying, “Yes, sir!”

Soon, he turned and left to meet with the others, the Princess now returning to her Court.

****

“The night is approaching,” Alpha Star said to Golden Breeze. “They will open soon.”

“Fine. Girls, you remember what you have to do?” Golden Breeze asked.

Her answer was a series of nods and plenty of different affirmative answers. She then grinned back and returned to the ground, lay down and faked her sleep as with the other girls brought with her, or so she assumed. A few minutes later, they heard the door opening in a corner of the room. The voice of a stallion made everypony look at him.

“Are we getting any volunteers?” he asked. “We need an earth pony, five unicorns and three pegasi.” There was a rather long silence. “As usual, no girl wants to offer themselves… Let’s see…”

“I will,” called a, unicorn. Golden Breeze’s plan needed that at least two selected unicorns were chosen and, thankfully, the two she needed had a historic of asking to go when the mood strikes.

“Me too,” called the second unicorn. The others could be chosen at random. The plan was on the right track.

There was some silence before he asked once again. Without any callers, she picked the remaining mares pointing a hoof at them and said mares walked with him outside the room. As soon as he closed the door, Golden Breeze got up again.

“Okay. They will set the axis points as I taught them. The other unicorns keep practicing the most you can, the more coordinates you can place, the better!”

Alpha Star turned to the door, “Golden Breeze! They’re getting back!”

“Crap!” she almost thrown herself at the floor, once again faking her sleep.

As soon as the door opened, one of the two unicorns that had volunteered to go was thrown to the floor. “And the next time you try using magic I won’t be so kind!” called another male voice from the door.

When Golden Breeze heard the door closing again, she raised and darted towards the fallen unicorn. “Hey, are you alright?”

“I’m… fine… I just tried to place an axis closer to the exit…”

“Why! I told you it wouldn’t be needed!”

“And… how would you… find the exit?”

“The only way without an axis to follow!” the realization of that made the unicorn flattens her ears to her skull. “Sorry…”

Golden Breeze shook her head. She was about to say something when she saw a hoof mark at her belly. “They hit you?” she asked.

“Just one of them…”

Enough was enough. Golden Breeze had seen enough violence when she was a child. Now, though, she had the power to change that reality. “Alpha Star, change of plans. You stay here and don’t let any mare leaves this room.”

“What you’ll do?”

“Show them the results of my training!”

“Are you crazy? Even being a Royal Guard, you are just one pony!”

She’s right. How can I play this off all by myself? She thought at Alpha Star’s side in front of the door.

“They will hear you breaking open the door…What will you do then?”

Golden Breeze downed her head. But somepony has to do something… Or else, this will only keep repeating itself… forever…

“The very moment they see what you’re doing, you’re lost!”

Golden Breeze’s mind cast back to her school years. It was not only one or two times she managed to help her friends. Plenty of times, even more so after her sister joined a gang, she had to help them without being seen. Just like his school friends, like her sister… just like that little foal chilling in the streets across her house. Her mother still thought that Golden Breeze’s blanket was lost in the moving they made a few months later…

She had done it once, helping others without being seen. She had done it often enough to call it an habit. Her mother always said she was like wind: silent as a breeze when calm and peaceful, and loud as a hurricane when angered and stressed. She blinked her eyes, regained her temper, looked deep into Alpha Star’s eyes and smiled sincerely.

“Then I shall be invisible, right?”

And just like that, she looked at the door. The door itself barred magic. However, the door wasn’t perfect: there was the key hole. It would be the trickiest thing she ever did, but she closed her eyes, concentrated as much as she could and opened her wings as usual.

There was a faint breeze.

She let a very small smile form in her lips, before focusing back into work. Soon she could feel better. The magic flowing through the door’s key hole informed her there was only one pony walking in the corridor right now and he was about to turn around the corner. As he did, she opened her eyes again, her both hooves touching close to the door knob and then, she forced. Inside the room they were able to hear the crack, but Golden Breeze’s magic has stopped the sound from spread outside. Slowly, she pushed the door open and looked around. The path was safe.

She looked once more to Alpha Star, “I’ll be back to save you and the girls. Ask the unicorns to fake a working lock so they won’t get too suspicious before I return.”

Alpha just nodded and only then Golden Breeze sneaked out the room.

Author's Note

Hey ya! Another chapter up and another bit of background history of our heroes! And as a little treat, a hint about what kind of missions the Knights of Harmony will face in the future. By the way, if you're curious to how Celestia identified the thunders: A long, a short and a long means "K" in Morse code, while four shorts means "H". And I managed to get Scarlet Boulder to talk with you today, let's hear what she thinks will happens!

“Sorry! Can’t talk now! A friend of mine has gone missing! My friends and I are looking for her all over Canterlot! I can’t let her sitting here by herself! I didn’t get my cutie marks for laughing at ponies in need after all! I just hope that she’s alright… The next chapter of Knights of Harmony is: Silent Wind, Loud Boulder”

Chapter 08: Silent Wind, Loud Boulder

“Got any hint of her?” Shining Armor mentally asked.

It turned out that Scarlet Boulder could connect ponies she knows while they stood with hooves on the ground. As she explained that, it was some kind of communion with the earth itself and as such had limitations: for example, it couldn’t be even pony-made ceramic plates, the slightest cover of anything other than simple earth with, natural covers like grass and water excluded, it was a no-no. However, the streets of Canterlot were made of simply cut blocks without any pony work other than cutting them. That allowed the communication by Scarlet Boulder’s talent.

“Nothing,” was the general answer, besides the way it was said diverged.

“It’s useless! We’ve looked all Canterlot and still no sign of any kind of imprisonment magic whatsoever!” Ice Sapphire said.

“Regroup at central square,” Lightning Dash called them. “We must focus our thought. It’s getting late!”

****

Golden Breeze was making a nice progress. So far, nopony appeared that she should be worried about with. Even so, she held her guard high, mostly remembering what Shining Armor had taught her during their test at the labyrinth.

“Stay calm…” she whispered to herself. “Keep your options open… Always have an escape route… And most important: my gift is wind, invisible and powerful!”

Expanding her wings, Golden Breeze started to feel the magic of the ponies around her. Now that she wasn’t restricted by the magic of that room, she could easily pick those bad guys, and even the mares they called. Her hooves moved with determination: she had to defeat them all.

Sneaking behind a turn, first she hid just before she could be seen, and allowed her audition, combined with her wind gift, to tell if there was anypony around. One pony, and distracted at that. If she was silent enough, she could beat him down and get some information. But no, she couldn’t risk him screaming about her. One strike was all that she had.

With a deep breath, she silently took off and flew above the stallion. Aiming carefully her next attack, she downed and with one of her hindhooves, hit perfectly at the unicorn stallion’s neck. She then looked around. At her right side, she noticed a window and looked through it. At the distance, along a trail of dirt, Canterlot shined under the silvery moon.

The window was plainly in the middle of the corridor and Golden Breeze crossed the window and moved to what was supposed to be the room the others were held captive. She could feel the magic on the walls. She would have to bring her best to it.

****

“FOUND HER!” Scarlet Boulder screamed both physically and mentally. Sending to the others the location of Golden Breeze, Scarlet Boulder began trotting there by herself.

“She touched the ground! Outside Canterlot… that’s why we never found any trace of her…” she thought to herself. This would slowly remember her of another accident from her young ages…

~~~~

Scarlet Boulder had joined her family in another work day. As usual, they had breakfast together and shared stories and jokes that would follow them for most of the day. Scarlet Boulder, since she started joining the family’s work, had a special talent to find the perfect rocks among of all others.

However, about midday, she felt something different. It was that same something which guided her to the perfect rocks her family so much prized her, but this time it didn’t feel like a rock. Curious, she followed the feeling, getting each second closer to it. The feeling got stronger and stronger and slowly she could figure the form: it was the shape of a pony lying on its side.

As she approached the pony, she noticed that the stallion was still alive, but couldn’t move at all. She brought him some food and water and more than anything enjoyed whenever he gave her a smile. Day after day, she kept bringing him food and water, never telling her family about him, until someday, he just got up and walked, thanking her for her efforts. He said that his hooves were damaged and he was just giving them sometime to recover and it was Scarlet Boulder’s help that made things easier for him.

Later that day, while working on the rock farm, she hit some rocks that, as they hit the ground, got covered in that strong red dust. The shape the rocks had fallen looked like, to her, that pony’s shape. She stood there, looking at that and reminding herself of the pony she helped, and her family had come looking for her. When they saw the shape, they all smiled and even laughed at that. But only Scarlet Boulder knew why she truly stopped to stare at those rocks. And was then that she had acquired her cutie mark: for bringing smile and hope for another pony in need…

~~~~

“Scarlet!” Lightning Dash called through their link. “You go ahead, we’ll follow you as soon as we can! We each are at different spots in Canterlot!”

“Got it!” Scarlet Boulder trotted as fast as she could to the place where she felt Golden Breeze.

The bright red pony made it a quick time to that isolated building and from afar she could see the golden pegasus buck at the wall. Her muzzle parted in a smile.

“GOLDEN BREEZE!” the red pony called.

The pegasus turned quickly to see her friend coming. Then she smiled and returned the call, “Scarlet! Come here! I need your help!”

“We need to get back! The Princess wanna talk to you!” Scarlet Boulder said approaching her.

“Later. We have to help these mares first,” she said pointing at the wall. “You’re the strongest of us all, but this wall was enchanted to be resistant. I doubt even you can break it!”

“Ha! There’s no magic force field, strong enough to stop my buck! Much less a simple enchanted wall! Step back!”

“Wait! I need you to count to ten first!”

As Scarlet Boulder counted, Golden Breeze darted inside, flying, and knocked on the door three times. As Alpha Star opened the door to her, she grinned. “EVERYPONY LAY DOWN AND STAY AWAY FROM THAT WALL!” she said, pointing the wall where her friend would break through.

“YOU HEARD HER!” Alpha Star shouted as well and every mare there backed way as much as the space allowed.

Golden Breeze then turned to rejoin Scarlet Boulder when a hoof hit her squarely in the face. The unicorn in front of her wasn’t the one she knocked out, but was as angry as he would be.

“You bitch! I’m gonna kill you!”

After a few steps backwards, Golden Breeze looked back at him, her eyes showing all her anger. When the unicorn attacked her, she jumped with a backflip. With his speed, the unicorn managed to pass under her and when she landed she was able to kick him in the middle of his back. Golden Breeze then kicked with her other hind hoof squarely in his face as well, knocking him unconscious.

As if on cue, the sound of Scarlet Boulder was heard clear enough. A glimpse by the door and Golden Breeze saw the hole made by Scarlet Boulder. She smiled and put her head in.

“EVERYPONY RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”

Scarlet Boulder just managed to jump sideways before a real stampede started towards Canterlot. Alpha Star was the only pony to stay behind, “Golden Breeze… thank you… but there are still eight mares there!”

“I know Alpha Star. I’ll save them. Now go!”

The dark blue pegasus left by the hole as Scarlet Boulder joined Golden Breeze. “Eight more to go?”

“That’s not our objective, Scarlet,” Golden Breeze said to her friend. “You control earth, right? We need to make sure these unicorns can’t move and cast at all.”

“If you take care of the casting, I can take care of the moving!” Scarlet Boulder said with a smile and her friend nodded.

Bringing also the first pony she defeated, Scarlet Boulder made them immobile by creating an earth cocoon around them. Golden Breeze would then prevent them from casting magic by creating a small weak, but enchanted, tornado around their horns: if they tried to cast, the magic in the wind would throw it off.

Then the duo returned inside and separated their ways. Golden Breeze’s magic could count eighteen ponies in there. However, different from Scarlet Boulder’s ability, she couldn’t separate enemies from allies. But she got their positions anyway and shared that with her friend.

“So it’s nine bad guys for each?” Scarlet Boulder asked.

“No. Eight of those are mares that were taken before you arrived. And I don’t know if there are mares amongst our enemies or not.” Golden Breeze answered. “Where are the others?”

“They may have found the mares on the way to town and are now scouting them.”

“You sure?”

“No, silly…” she then hit the floor three times. “Marbles. They stop my contact with earth so I can’t activate my ability. But I’m almost sure they did!”

“A bad point of using geomancy, right?” Golden Breeze commented and turned to a side in the corridor.

“Well… I can still contact those in contact with the marbles I’m on. So keep your hooves on the floor as long as you can, feather brain!” Scarlet Boulder answered with a chuckle and no heat behind her words.

“And you try not getting too much into fighting, mud dweller!” Golden Breeze answered in kind.

The yellow pegasus was now alone again and as she reached the next turn, she could feel another stallion walking towards her. She flapped her wings and gained a little altitude before pecking around the corner. The stallion was walking alone and Golden Breeze waited patiently. She slowly downed and waited. As her target was close enough, she jumped outside her cover ready to buck him out of his breath.

Her hooves had hit the unicorn stallion’s force field, though, giving him time to strike back. Only Golden Breeze’s fast flap of wings took her away from the magic blast he shot. While the unicorn was still charging, Golden Breeze shoot herself forward, spinning and using her magic to use the wind as a small tornado, which sent the unicorn flying to the end of corridor. As he forcefully hit the wall and then the ground, he fell unconscious as Golden Breeze touched the floor again.

“That was a bad one,” Golden Breeze said to Scarlet Boulder. “I guess they heard you ‘opening the door’ for the mares…”

“Thanks for that information!” Scarlet Boulder answered by the link.

Golden Breeze then followed up the path she chose. There were a couple doors there now and she felt two ponies inside one of them, probably a mare and one of the kidnappers. Just before she got in, though, she got a message from Scarlet Boulder, warning her that another bad unicorn was out.

With a confident smile, she closed her eyes and summoned her Harmony Armor. Even a little defense was better than no defense at all when the enemy was waiting for you already.

She bucked the door and flew out of eye sight, just so she wouldn’t be such an easy target. Upon spotting her target, she came crushing down on his back, pressing him on the ground and knocking him unconscious. At the bed, a unicorn mare stood scared and, upon seeing an armored pegasus, a little happier.

“Are you alright?” Golden Breeze asked. With a nod from the mare, she grinned and turned back to the door. “Fine. Follow me.”

The duo then started walking on the corridors again. “If you go--”

Golden Breeze was cut by eight magic presences appearing out of nowhere, which was quickly followed by Scarlet Boulder’s message, “I got the mares! They were trapped behind a magically locked door!”

Golden Breeze’s blood turned into liquid ice as she turned around to look at the mare following her. “Well… you were saying?” the mare asked.

Golden Breeze though, aimed and tried to punch her, but the mare just jumped out of reach. As she touched the ground, there was a faint shine of a lime green and the unicorn mare revealed to be completely different. Pointing her horn at Golden Breeze, the pegasus had to fly once again to escape another magical blast.

This time, though, the mare kept her blast going and shot it up, hitting Golden Breeze squarely in the chest, her armor cracking widely with the potent blast. As she hit the ground, some of the armor now fell from under her chest, where the blast first hit and the cracks spread halfway down her belly and up on her neck.

“Oh? What a useless armor you got there. A do-it-yourself armor kit?” the mare chuckled upon seeing the cracks spreading across her body. “Well, you’re trying to play the heroine but I’ll give you an offer. You tell me where the other mares had gone and I’ll let you free with only a little brainwash about what you saw there…”

Golden Breeze’s wing spread open and she locked eyes with her opponent. The determination in those eyes was clear even under her armor. She jumped backwards and started flapping her wings so strong that her magic slowly created a strong gust of wind. However, the unicorn mare just cast a spell on her hooves that seemed to glue her in the ground after only a few inches of flying back.

Charging her magic again, the unicorn shot once more at Golden Breeze, which gave a back-roll to avoid it this time, jumping to her side as she touched the ground to avoid the continuous blast. As the mare stopped to recharge a little, Golden Breeze saw her chance to strike, flying as fast as she could to finish this fight right away.

The unicorn mare, though, jumped back to the room’s door, barely avoiding Golden Breeze’s hoof. Then she got something from inside the room, a whip just like her cutie mark, and with deadly precision, wrapped it at Golden Breeze’s neck, pulling strongly and forcing the pegasus to hit the ground rather forcible.

“Why are you trying to save them, anyway? Are any of them your family, or special somepony? Just get them and leave!” the unicorn mare shouted at her.

Golden Breeze, though, wasn’t a Trainee of the Knights of Harmony for nothing. She turned on her belly, and pulled her opponent by the whip tightly wrapped on her neck, delivering a strong hoof squarely on her face.

“How dare you!” The unicorn mare said angrily and then turned to Golden Breeze, which was now being enveloped by strong winds all around.

“Because that’s the right thing to do, and I never turn my back on those who need me!”

The armor around Golden Breeze’s body seemed to explode and, on its place, the pegasus now supported a much smaller and frail-looking armor with lime green color most evident, reddish brown lining the smooth curves at the edges and light brown randomly placed curves all over the main plates. Her four hooves covered in leaf-like plates, and her head with a reddish brown tiara supporting a lime green emerald finished the main aspects of the armor. And as Golden Breeze opened her wings, they were like plenty of autumn leaves ready to fall at any moment. Needless to say, the unicorn mare was wide-eyed at the armor which appeared out of nowhere and had the shining crest of Golden Breeze’s cutie mark right at its chest.

Using her opponent’s astonishment, Golden Breeze dashed again and stomped the floor with both forehooves, turning around and bucking the unicorn mare so strong in the chest she was sent flying backwards. Different from the other unicorns, though, she was a tough one, getting up and shooting at Golden Breeze once more. Gotten by surprise, the yellow pegasus only had time to place her wings in front of her face.

The small leaf-like plates guided the magic blast harmlessly to each side of Golden Breeze and she then opened her wings to force another blast of wind. Again, the unicorn cast that glue spell on herself, but this time, Golden Breeze was ready for it, flapping her wings once more, she was quickly upon the now defenseless unicorn, and with another single and strong punch in the face, knocked her unconscious.

Only then she got to stop and see the damage her armor had suffered and surprised herself by finding not even a scratch on the smooth plates of her wings. After a quick smile, she turned to the way she had already been walking and went in search of more enemies.

****

Scarlet Boulder was sent flying again by another magic blast. Her Harmony Armor had broken already and as Celestia warned, her only defense now would be the Divine Armor that the earth pony didn’t have discovered as yet.

Behind her, just behind the turn, were the mares she was to save; in front, another five unicorn stallions, all laughing at her antics and taking turns to shot at her.

One of the stallions stepped forth and grinned, “Why don’t you just give up? We could really use somepony with your stamina.”

“Sorry, I’m not that kind of party pony…” she said with a smile, which was kinda out of place under her bloody nose and angry eyes.

“Why are you so determined to protect them at cost of your life anyway?” he asked, shooting another blast at her.

Scarlet Boulder jumped to a side just to be hit by a second blast, being thrown almost back at the corner already. As the stallions grinned and started to walk, Scarlet Boulder got up once more, breathing hard, but still that angry… no, determined look in her face with the smile just under.

“I don’t need a reason to protect ponies from meanies…” Scarlet Boulder answered stepping forward again, as she had done for the tenth time.

“Trying to play the heroin?” all stallions behind him burst out laughing.

“No,” Scarlet Boulder’s grin grew into a full smile this time. “I’m just doing the right thing, and that is taking these mares back to their homes and families!”

All five stallions laughed at her before they looked her in the eye, “So, if you’re so sure about that…”

Scarlet Boulder could see all five charging their magic against her. There would be no escaping from this and she knew that. With a glimpse over her shoulders at her back, she could see the face of a mare that was spying on the situation. The worried face of the earth mare exchanged to surprise when she saw Scarlet Boulder’s head tilt to a side with her eyes closed and a large smile in her face.

“Don’t worry. Everything will be alright. I promise,” then the scarlet earth pony looked back at the offending unicorns still smiling. “After all, I am always giving my best to see other people happy. That’s just the way I am, always giving the others a chance to live for their dreams!”

The five stallions shot as one and Scarlet Boulder forced her four hooves in the floor, cracking and breaking through the marble tiles so she wouldn’t go a centimeter backwards and would protect the mares behind her from the blast.

As the magic finally hit her, though, she didn’t felt the pain like other times. There was a warm sensation on her chest and when she opened her eyes, she saw the five magic beams hitting her squarely in the chest, where now she supported a shiny copper-colored armor with large plates and pointy edges looking more like spikes. These would often be silver with shiny dark grey color guiding the edges of each plate and the limits of the chest piece that was a copy of her cutie mark, only in copper instead of red. Along the armor, the silver and the dark grey edges contributed to give an aggressive appearance while in truth formed a full shield for anypony behind her when she positioned them just right.

Still tired, but determined, Scarlet Boulder gave a step forward. The stallions tried to shoot again, but their magic blasts hit harmlessly the armor as she continued to advance towards them. When the unicorns decided to run for their lives, Scarlet Boulder trotted against them full speed, tackling one against the wall, spinning around and bucking a second one, hitting at the side of his chest and pressing him against the other wall, taking the air out of him and a second kick knocking him unconscious. The three still up and running stallions made a sharp turn to escape her fury… just to be send back flying. Midway they were met by Scarlet Boulder’s punch, all three of them being thrown on the wall by the impact, cracking it with the earth mare’s strength.

Golden Breeze appeared from the corned and smiled as she saw Scarlet Boulder, “Looks like I wasn’t the only one to get mine today.”

“Wow, Breeze! You look beautiful!”

“Why, thank you!” she grinned and approached the mare. “You’re great in yours too, darling. Anyway…” she pointed a hoof at the three unconscious ponies. “With them I counted ten bad guys.”

“There’s two more up the corridor and I got seven others on my way.” At Golden Breeze’s surprised face, Scarlet Boulder explained, “They were having a break in the mess hall! Never saw me coming before I knocked the first one unconscious!”

Golden Breeze giggled, “I haven’t that luck. And those ponies behind the corner?”

“Oh! They’re the mares I rescued. Nine of them in total.”

The pegasus’ eyes widened at the number, but then, she smiled and whispered at Scarlet Boulder, “Scarlet, one of them is fake. There were only eight of them.”

“But they all said that nine were picked up!” Scarlet Boulder answered also in a whisper.

“Yes, but one was returned just after for trying casting magic as they walked the corridors.”

“I see. So how we’ll figure this out?”

“Keep them walking to the exit and talking. As far as they know, there are only you there, right?”

“The others commented about you creating a plan for them… But they also said you would be waiting for them to return.”

“Then go. I’ll keep my ears opened to anything as they walk with you. Just keep them talking.”

Scarlet Boulder then returned to the mares just to be met half way by them. Golden Breeze peeked around the corner and much to her surprise, her eyes fell right way to a unicorn exactly like Alpha Star, even with the same cutie mark. And that was something just impossible to happen. Not even waiting a second, she came out of the corner and tackled the unicorn mare squarely on its side. As she rolled on the ground, her disguise broke up and revealed another completely different unicorn mare. All others looked at Golden Breeze and cheered at her, thanking her for taking down the one that was keeping them hostage.

“She’s the head there…” pointed out one of the mares. “Always thought to be smarter than others…”

“I’ll get the other sleepy stallions and put them with the other two outside,” Scarlet Boulder said with a grin.

“Need any help?” Golden Breeze asked as she checked the other mares to see if they were alright.

“Nay. I carried rocks heavier than those dumbasses. Just collect the ones along your path and start your magic-forbidding stuff.”

Golden Breeze nodded with a smile, turning to the mares as they walked towards the exit, “Look, I know you’re thankful to me, but you can’t tell anyone about what you saw. For all the effects, I managed to get my friends from the Royal Guard here to help us out.”

“You want us to lie to the Princess?” one of the mares asked.

“It won’t be a lie, just omission of part of the truth,” answered a stallion. All mares got behind Golden Breeze, shaking in fear.

The pegasus, though, giggled. “It’s alright. His name is Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard. He’s with me.”

Only then the other mares relaxed enough to appreciate the body of the white unicorn. More than one sighed at the view of his handsome body and perfectly white coat. Shining Armor, though, grinned, “Sorry girls, my heart already have an owner.”

And now, more than one mare awwwned, which made both Golden Breeze and Shining Armor laugh a bit. The stallion was the first to speak again.

“We already restrained the others we found. We got even a couple more when they were returning there with another mare. They’re properly dealt with right now, don’t worry.”

“Oh! Hi there, Shining! How are you doing?” Scarlet Boulder asked from behind the mares, carrying the six unconscious ponies left in her back. “Took you long enough to come. Scouting the first of the rescued?”

“Yeah, that was quite a group and we wondered how you freed all of them until we saw the hole in the wall.” Shining Armor grinned. “Need any help?”

“Nay, it’s not that heavy. I had rocks heavier on my back already,” she smiled. “Got the other sleeping ones?”

“Unless there’s more, these with you are the last.”

“No one more,” Golden Breeze said with a smile. “We can go home and see what mission is waiting for me.”

The three others nodded and they walked outside. There, they found the other three members of the team, Lightning Dash, Blaze and Ice Sapphire. And, as one, the group scouted the last mares to Canterlot before go talking with the Princess.

Author's Note

Phew! Chapter eight now available! I kinda liked writing this one. Nothing better to get out a bad mood than writing about a bunch of bad guys being kicked in the face! And another history covered already! Only two to go and I'm still thinking if I'll write about Shining Armor's past. Anyway, to tell you about next chapter, I brought you royalty! Princess Cadance, please, tell us about your first appearance!

"What? My first apparition already? No no nononono! I’m not ready for it! What should I dress? What should I say? Whom I will meet? Hope it’s nothing that much important… I have some important planning to do! I have to talk with Aunt Celestia, with Shining Armor and with Twilight! Oh! No, that can wait… they are in training with somepony else. I shall keep an eye on her… Next chapter of Knights of Harmony is: Mystic Magic”

Chapter 09: Mystic Magic

“I am proud of all of you, especially you two, Golden Breeze and Scarlet Boulder,” Celestia said from her throne in the castle. The six Knights of Harmony bowed respectfully before her presence. “You two reacted fast and not only saved many mares but also finished with a long and mysterious series of kidnapping. You thought fast and reacted precisely, and that goes without saying you also found your true selves during this mission. Both of you are now, as well, promoted to Class Two Trainee of the Knights of Harmony.”

“Thank you, Princess Celestia,” both mares said together. Golden Breeze then raised her head. “Princess, I was informed you had a mission for me?”

“You have already fulfilled it, my little pony. I was going to ask the six of you to act where my Royal Guard has been failing even with all their resources.” Celestia said with a smile. “You had the vantage of being unknown by anypony else, so you had all possibilities in front of you. However, I never imagined on one of you being taken.”

“That leaves us with another time break in our hooves?” Ice Sapphire asked.

“I suppose so,” Princess Celestia said. “Anyway, if I were you, I would enjoy every single one of these breaks. After you’re full Knights of Harmony they will be rather rare.”

“We’ll take your advice, Princess,” Lightning Dash said with a smile.

Celestia grinned at him, “You’re dismissed and, after today’s activity, free for the night.”

“Alright, Ponies! Who’s in for some night out? My treat!” Lighting Dash called as they walked outside the throne room, making Celestia giggled at his antics.

“Sorry but Sapphire and I had agreed to help Twily with some new spells she’s trying out.” Shining Armor said and Ice Sapphire agreed.

“Okay, that’s fine. The egghead just deserves some attention after all.” Lightning Dash said, without any heat behind the words, just to tease Shining Armor a little.

“I really don’t mind helping my sister out. And doing so with such a beautiful mare is a major plus to it.”

“And about you special somepony?” Golden Breeze asked with a grin in her face. “What would she think if she heard you saying that?”

“That it’s absolutely true,” a female voice said from around a corner. As the mare stepped outside, they all could see a pink alicorn smaller than Celestia, about Shining Armor’s height, and a pink-lavender-yellow colored curled mane and a matching tail, and a beautiful heart-shaped crystal as a cutie mark.

“Cadance!” Shining Armor hushed to her and nuzzled her a little. “It’s so very nice to see you. What brings you here today?”

“I would so much love to say it was to see you, my dear, however, my aunt called me for some important talk,” Cadance answered with a smile. “And who are your friends?”

“My name is Lightning Dash, Ma’am,” the pegasus said with a smile and a quick short bow. “These are my buddies in arms: Blaze, Ice Sapphire, Golden Breeze and Scarlet Boulder,” as their names were called each one gave a quick bow.

“Oh please, no need to be so formal,” Cadance called with a smile.

“Well, I invited them to some quality time for the group. If you can manage your Armor there to leave his training session earlier, you could join us,” Lightning Dash said with a smile.

“That would be very nice, thank you. However, I have to go see what Aunt Celestia wants to speak with me.”

“Wait… Celestia is your aunt?” Ice Sapphire asked a little puzzled.

“Yeah. Cadance is Celestia’s niece,” Shining Armor said with a smile. “Sure not what you truly expected of a Princess, right?”

“Stop teasing them dear, or they will start bowing to me whenever they see me! And you know how much I don’t actually like that…” Cadance said as she started to walk by the crowd of ponies. “If you excuse me…”

Everypony stood there, eyes widened at that revelation until Shining Armor started to laugh. “You should see your faces!”

Ice Sapphire was the first to recover from the shock, “You mean to say that your special somepony is a Princess?”

“Not just A Princess. Cadance’s gift is amazing. Like Celestia is the Princess of the Sun, my Cady is the Princess of Love.”

“Really?” Scarlet Boulder wondered about the implications. “You mean, she makes ponies fall in love?”

“I’m pretty sure she could, but that would be some kind of hypnotism or the sort as she tried to explain me. Her true magic works as fire: she can ignite it, but it’s up to the couples to keep it lit. It’s not much of a surprise that she’s rarely wrong about such couples in the first place.” Shining Armor chuckled.

“Has she got you on her magic?” Blaze asked.

“No, she hasn’t. That’s somepony else’s fault,” Shining Armor chuckled again. “Enough about that now. We really should be joining Twily to get her training under way. We’ll meet you at the bar as soon as we’re done.”

Lightning Dash quickly saluted as they walked away. Shining Armor and Ice Sapphire then walked a little before entering the room where Twilight Sparkle was waiting for them. The lavender mare was there, levitating a book in front of her nose and murmuring something to herself, probably words from the book.

Both Ice Sapphire and Shining Armor chuckled at that. “Your sister is so cute, Shining,”
Ice commented.

“You tell me…” he grinned, approaching his unsuspecting sister. “Hey Twily!”

“YAAAAAAAAAHHH!” the lavender mare screamed and jumped high in the air, enough to hug on the chandelier hung at the ceiling. Shining Armor and Ice Sapphire couldn’t help but to laugh their lungs out at her antics. “Haha, very funny…” looking down at them, she saw the height she was, “Err… do you mind in breaking the laughter now and helping me down?”

Shining Armor was the first to recover enough and, still chuckling, managed to envelop his sister in a light blue magic field to slowly float her down. “Sorry, little sister... I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“So why sneaking up like that?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Sneaking? Twilight! If we made any more noise, the staff would be calling us to tune it down!” Ice Sapphire countered.

“Oh…” Twilight’s cheeks quickly reddened at that. “Maybe I got a little distracted…”

“Again you wanna say, right?” Shining Armor teased. “Easy, little sister, it’s alright. So, what’s this new spell you’re trying?”

“Oh yeah! I was looking in the library when I found this really old book there with all sort of ancient spells! Many of them are insanely hard, but there’s one that is rather easy to do! Well… at least in comparison with others…”

Ice Sapphire raised an eyebrow at that, “May I see this book, Twilight?”

“Sure!” Twilight then floated the book she was reading to Ice Sapphire.

The light blue unicorn quickly closed the book, careful to mark the page Twilight was on, and looked at the cover. Her eyes then widened as she took notice of the only symbols in the cover: a large ponyshoe with a pair of wings at the back and a horn in the main view.

“Twilight, I’m sorry but this book… I must return it to Princess Celestia before you can practice any of it.” Ice Sapphire answered to a surprised Twilight.

“What? Why?” the lavender mare asked.

“This requires some sigil, Twilight. I can’t speak openly about this.”

“I’m Princess Celestia’s protégé! Why can’t you tell me?”

“Yeah, Sapphire; what’s up?” Shining Armor asked.

She sighed at their questioning. “Have you ever heard of the ancient pony civilization called Myridia?” at their nod, she continued, “This book belongs to them. A token of how advanced in magic they were: they date from an era which even Princess Celestia at her youth called ancient.” Twilight and Shining Armor gasped at that. “While training with us, Princess Celestia commented that this book was in a proper place to keep from reaching unsuspecting hooves, and she herself made sure to place that book here. She would then taught us about some of the spells in this book, spells powerful enough to create things out of magic alone.”

“What? That’s impossible!” Twilight called. “Magic can interact with the world in plenty of ways, but it can’t CREATE anything out of sheer magic! And if it does, that thing is sure to disappear as soon as your magic dispel!”

“Really, Twilight? Let me show you something then.” Ice Sapphire raised a hoof and focused her magic on it. Without any effort at all, she created a small ice crystal on it large enough both to Twilight and Shining Armor to see clearly. “This is rarely a surprise that a cryomancer can condense the water on the air to create ice crystals. But even cryomancy have its limits.”

“Yeah. That varies accordingly to the humidity of the air. It can only get too dry before causing damage on the ponies around, even the user.” Twilight showed her knowledge in the subject.

“You can do a simple analysis spell, Twilight? Check the humidity of the air of this room, please?” Ice Sapphire asked and Twilight did as she was asked. A purple magic number appeared above Twilight’s horn and then, Ice Sapphire threw the crystal up charging her magic on her horn and casting a blast on the crystal she threw. Then, plenty of other crystals began showering in the room, giving it a winter atmosphere, in perfect opposition to the spring outside the windows. The number above Twilight’s horn, though, increased instead of reduce, showing that the air was actually getting more humid rather than lesser.

“How… can that be?” Twilight’s eyes opened wide.

Ice Sapphire cast a quick glance at Shining Armor, only to receive a nod in return. He understood that the armor spells between others were in that book and Twilight couldn’t get a hold of them. The light blue unicorn then stopped her spell and the last of the snowflakes slowly danced through the air to the ground.

“You… created ice out of nowhere?” Twilight asked. Only due to the now colder air Twilight noticed that Ice Sapphire was now tired, a small cloud forming in front of her nose as she was breathless.

“It’s not… out of nowhere…” Ice Sapphire said with a smile. “I condense… my mana… into snowflakes…”

“And they…”

“They will melt… as normal… ice crystals would… But I can… unsummon… then as well…”

“Then magic CAN create objects?” Twilight asked. “With that we could create anything! Even… Even armors!”

“No, Twilight. It shouldn’t be used like this,” Shining Armor said. “This consumes an immense amount of magic that average unicorn can’t cope. “

“Not even the spell I was about to try?” Twilight asked.

Ice Sapphire looked at Shining Armor and gave a sigh before looking back at Twilight. “Let’s see about it. Cast the spell. If it’s harmless enough, I’ll overlook and not let the Princess know it. IF you promise not telling her too, at least for now.”

Twilight quickly nodded and Shining Armor and Ice Sapphire gave her some space. The lavender unicorn’s horn began to glow and it slowly intensified, as did the frown in Twilight’s face, before small magic sparkles began to erupt from her horn. Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light and Twilight was gone. Not being fooled for a moment, both Shining Armor and Ice Sapphire turned to see Twilight stopped behind them.

“Teleportation spell?” Shining Armor asked. “Interesting and harmless enough. Or so I think.”

Ice Sapphire wasn’t all that happy but nodded, “Yes, and useful as well, for she can evade troubles in future.”

“Then I can keep practicing it?” Twilight said whenever she wasn’t panting.

“Yes, Twilight, you can,” Ice Sapphire said. “But do remember how much this spell has drained you. I don’t want you using it for anything but practice before you can perform it AND keep running at least for one minute after.”

“Why?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Besides teleportation is a spell that ponies continue to use till nowadays, the one they use now is very simple compared to this. For starters, theirs are only useful for those ponies that doesn’t like wearing clothes for they only teleport the pony in question while yours could teleport whatever you’re wearing or holding physically or magically.” Opening the book again in the page Twilight was, Ice Sapphire pointed what was written there with a hoof. “See?”

The lavender mare looked at the writings and nodded, “That’s why it takes so much effort…”

“This isn’t the kind of spell you use when you’re running for your life,” Ice Sapphire said. “This is the one you should learn first,” and effortlessly, or so it seemed, Ice Sapphire disappeared from her place and reappeared at Twilight’s side. The two earrings she used were then heard falling to the ground.

“This is…” Twilight tried.

“A lot easier and simpler, but as you noticed, only works for living parts and only for you. To teleport somepony else you can use this one,” she then turned to Shining Armor, which opened his eyes wide before suddenly disappearing and appearing again at Twilight’s other side. “And, being the smart pony I know you are, you will be able to fuse both of them and create a new teleportation magic, easier on the user, and as effective as the one in the book.”

Twilight’s eyes quickly filled with pride and all three engaged in a class about teleportation magic, Shining Armor making sure he learned it as well in the eventuality he could need it.

****

After three hours, Shining Armor and Ice Sapphire had called it quit and let Twilight training alone. Instead of trotting to the bar, though, they headed towards Celestia’s private chambers.

Much for their surprise, they heard Cadance’s voice talking to Celestia inside. With the book from Myridia in her magic, Ice Sapphire knocked on the door twice. They were quickly answered with the door magically opening for them.

“Princess Celestia, where are the guards at your door?” Ice Sapphire asked as Shining Armor went to nuzzle with Cadance.

“I gave them the night out. I like to think I can protect myself just fine,” Celestia said with a smile. “Has something happened?”

“No, Princess. Well… Yeah. Twilight found this on the castle’s library,” Ice Sapphire then showed the book she had brought with her.

“What?” Celestia’s eyes widened as she saw the cover. “It’s Myridia’s spell book! This was in a session where Twilight was only allowed to enter after she managed a relatively complex spell!”

“Judging by Twilight’s age, Princess Celestia,” Ice Sapphire continued while behind her, Shining Armor was now honestly worried for his sister, “I dare say that a teleportation spell is complex enough to give her that title. She managed to learn personal, other ponies and objects teleportation.” On the inside, Celestia was still very surprised, but she managed to get a hold of herself and return to her traditional calm expression. Ice Sapphire then continued, “I start to see the potential you saw on her. She can go really far if she’s prepared good enough. But Princess, I highly recommend you from letting Twilight learn from that book anytime soon.”

“I’ll take your advice in consideration. From now, this spell book shall stay with Princess Cadance,” the announcement of Celestia made the pink alicorn jump slightly.

“SAY WHAT?” Cadance asked not truly trusting her ears.

“And Shining Armor, maybe you should try and teach Princess Cadance the spells she needs help with. And also teach her other things she needs,” Celestia said.

Shining Armor at first was puzzled but quickly understood what Celestia was talking about and nodded, “Of course, Your Highness.”

“Anything else?” Celestia asked.

“No, Princess,” Ice Sapphire and Shining Armor answered in unison.

“And since we’re finished already, Cadance, why don’t you go hang out with your special somepony?”

Cadance nodded and smiled, nuzzling more on Shining Armor, “If you say so, aunt, I shall take your advice…”

Celestia gave her a smile and floated the book to her. “Try not allowing Twilight to see you’re taking this book away.”

The pink alicorn nodded and took the book in her magic floating it at her side, as the trio turned to leave the room. Ice Sapphire, Shining Armor and Cadance then walked down the corridors of Canterlot not in much of haste, so there was plenty of time for someone to break the silence. It was Cadance’s doing.

“So… what was all that about you teaching me something, Shining?” Cadance asked.

“I have my guess, but I can’t be sure…” Shining Armor answered.

“She wants you, Princess Cadance, to join the Knights of Harmony,” Ice Sapphire said. At Shining Armor’s glance, Ice Sapphire continued. “The Knights are under the order of Equestrian princesses. Princess Cadance is one of them so it’s only normal she at least know about us.”

“Please drop the ‘Princess’ stuff, okay?” Cadance asked softly. “I’m not quite attending royal duties right now so just Cadance is fine.” Ice Sapphire nodded with a smile before Cadance continued, “And what are the Knights of Harmony?”

“To make a long history short, they are Equestrian last resort. Anything that the Royal Guard wouldn’t be effective enough or cause more harm than good befalls over the Knights of Harmony,” Ice Sapphire answered.

Cadance turned to the light blue unicorn, “And how Aunt Celestia managed to keep these Knights hidden for so long?”

“She hasn’t. In truth, the Knights of Harmony are just restarting now. But for six recruits, only Princess Celestia herself is an Amazon of Harmony.”

“Princess Celestia?” Cadance asked. Only then another question came to Cadance’s mind, “How do you know so much about it?”

Ice Sapphire smiled, “Exactly that, Cadance. You remember the group you met earlier? We all are the new Knights of Harmony in training. Even Shining Armor.”

Cadance was about to say something when Shining Armor placed a hoof on her shoulder, “Later I explain you everything and answer all questions you’re up to ask me. For now, just remember not letting that slip. Not even for Twilight.”

The pink alicorn nodded softly, “Fine. Well… There was a mention of a bar or something?” Cadance asked.

They all grinned and they all accelerated their paces a little. Shining Armor was the next to break the silence, “Thank you, Ice Sapphire, for protecting Twilight…”

“What?” Cadance asked somewhat puzzled.

“Twilight entered the session to grab that book without being authorized first,” Ice Sapphire said, casting a glance at Shining Armor. “Then I taught her the teleportation spell. I haven’t actually lied, just not put the facts chronologically.”

“And why would you do that?” Cadance asked, curiously.

“The land where I came from is at the very north, at the edge of the ice lands. In the summer, there you would think you’re at winter, so the great majority of the unicorn population, which was about 95% of my hometown’s population, worked hard to keep the oppressing cold outside. And when it’s Winter Wrap-Up time, for the citizen it was a real nightmare, since the climate didn’t quite cooperate with us. The children were always supposed to join in at an early age to help ease the load at the little tasks.

“And I hated seeing so many ponies with those sad faces. I made sure in always helping as much as I could so I could see a bit of a smile in their faces by the end of the day. The fact was that our town had to use plenty of unicorns because we didn’t have a proper cryomancer to deal with it. At one Winter Wrap-Up, though I gained my cutie mark and instead of a whole town being needed to just keep the cold out, I could easily do the work of half of the village alone, that’s what I meant to do after all.

“Since then, the town managed to bring the spring on time with my help and my magic grew only stronger with the following years. The smiles upon their faces as I helped them with what for me was an easy task always warmed my heart and I could never see enough of that. I made a promise to myself that I would do anything in my reach to see all ponies smiling as those of my village, even if that meant hiding something from the Princess herself.”

Shining Armor grinned, “Seems like you made a filly very happy. I never saw Twily so happy in my life.”

“And that’s the only reason I did that,” Ice Sapphire said.

“And about your town? You still get there for the Winter Wrap-Up?” Cadance asked.

“This is the first time I left. And the town had formally requested a couple cryomancers to help the town daily. Like some towns have a greater need for weather ponies,” Ice Sapphire answered. “But I guess that’s enough about me.”

Shining Armor grinned, “Then you earned your cutie mark upon seeing other smiles?”

Ice Sapphire’s eyes shot open wide. She had never thought about it that way. And what surprised her the most is that it was true: she really saw those faces smiling at her and her cutie mark appeared… maybe… she grinned and looked at the other two. Cadance was puzzled while Shining Armor was smiling. After all, he had understood before even her.

“Thank you, Shining Armor,” Ice Sapphire said with a smile. “Sorry you’re the last one to find that on your own.”

“I’m not. After all, I helped a friend to achieve her potential.”

“Am I’m missing something?” Princess Cadance asked.

“Kinda, love. But as I said, I’ll explain you everything soon,” Shining Armor said kissing her face. “Right now, we should hurry before they decide to go before we get there.”

Author's Note

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it's there. Chapter 09 with little less action, but with information for future plots. Listen WELL to this chapter! But anyway, I'm sorry for this chapter's delay in uploading. I had a few problems, one of them being my eyeglasses gone missing... Writing with a zoom of 190% not to force my vision too much before getting a new ~~cool~~ eyeglasses. But enough with that! Time for a little sp--

“Just shut up! I need the time to speak more than you! Our Mother is returning and soon all Equestria will tremble under her moon! And there's nothing that these... Knights of Harmony or whatever they are can stop us. Not even your frigging eyeglasses! So do not bother trying to stop... Hey! What is my cousing doing there? No... he can't be... Next chapter of Knights of Harmony is: The Nightmare Shadows”

Chapter 10: The Nightmare Shadows

“Have you found anything, Scarlet?” Blaze asked while he walked in the shadows of the cave they were sneaking into.

“Only a bunch of precious gems, nothing much,” answered Scarlet Boulder at his side. Her talent was their main source of vision in the dark caves just outside Canterlot.

“They have come this way…” Golden Breeze said a bit behind the group. “It’s not always there’s such a strong magic appearing suddenly out of nowhere…”

“The irony of the date also keeps returning to my mind…” Ice Sapphire said.

“You mean the Summer Sun Celebration in four days?” Lightning Dash asked.

“Not just the Summer Sun Celebration, but the Thousandth Summer Sun Celebration,” Shining Armor commented. “I catch the Princess reading aloud about it recently by accident. The Mare in the Moon.”

“That old ponies’ tale?” Scarlet Boulder asked.

“And if that’s not just some ponies’ tale?” Lightning Dash asked. “After all, the Knights of Harmony were supposed to be too.”

“Then what would that be?” Golden Breeze asked. “Some crazy pony to destroy the world?”

“The right name is Nightmare Moon,” said a deep male voice from behind the whole group. When they turned, there was a stallion and a mare stopped there, both of them smiling.

“She’s the rightful ruler of Equestria and she’ll take her place after Celestia try to stop her,” the mare said. Both of them wore some kind of armor which none of them could properly place as to belonging to a faction or another.

“And after she’s free, nopony will be able to stop her,” another mare said, this one from deeper down the cave which caused them to turn once again just to look at two other mares, also wearing those same armors.

“We came here to see if Celestia had any strength at all to stop our Queen, but it seems a waist of our time…” the last mare said with a giggle.

“Who are you?” Ice Sapphire demanded.

They all laughed. “You don’t need to know our names!” the stallion answered.

“A question shall always be answered,” from deeper within the cave, another mare, no, a filly by her size, walked out to greet them. “Don’t you dare to forget the teachings of our Mother or I shall remind you…”

“Oh no, thanks… Sorry ma’am…” he answered, the laugh in his voice replaced with sheer fear.

The filly, if Lightning Dash was any judge, had only about twelve years old. She was pitch black with a dark grey mane and tail, both her deep turquoise eyes almost shining as the young unicorn looked at them.

“However, it’s very rude to demand identification without presenting yourself first.”

Lightning Dash was about to say something when Blaze stepped forth, “What is this joke about, Dusk?”

The unicorn filly chuckled, “Good to see you again, cousin. I’ve heard you never lost the faith…”

“My belief is not the matter, Dusk,” Blaze said. “Anyway, you’re far too young to be there, what does it means?”

“Don’t you call me young, Blaze!” Dusk said somewhat angrier. “For I alone can end all six of you right away.”

Tense seconds split by. It was unnoticeable even to Lightning Dash himself, but the moment his eyebrow moved less than two millimeters but still more than one, the unicorn mare from behind him laughed.

“That won’t work,” she said with a chuckle after that. “Since you’re not going to present yourselves, I shall start then. My name is Night Cloud, one of the children chosen by our great Mother to protect and grant her return safely.”

“What you said?” Scarlet asked, not sure if she was following.

“Mother? You claim to be Children of the Night?” Blaze asked, not taking his eyes from Dusk Shield. Knowing that all the others would be looking at him if not for the enemies, he explained, “My mother told me that long time ago Princess Luna blessed a few ponies with some of her powers. They become known as the Children of the Night.”

“And I was gifted by our Mother with the ability to hear your thoughts!” she laughed again. “That won’t work either! I can hear every plan you start making!”

Noticing that the ponies were giving in, the aggressors stood taller and all of them grinned, “I can almost taste their fear…” said an earth pony mare.

“Don’t tease them, Night Poet,” said the still grinning stallion at Dusk’s left. “Don’t mind her, she always have some kind of poetic nature. By the way, my name is Onyx Star and the last two members of our group are Midnight Blossom and Dusk Shield.”

The two ponies that were behind the group slowly walked around the Knights of Harmony in direction to the other three of them. Night Poet took the extreme right of the group as Night Cloud took the left. They now could see the group composed of two unicorns, Dusk Shield in the center and Night Cloud at the extreme left; two earth pony mares, Midnight Blossom and Night Poet, both at the right side of Dusk Shield; and a pegasus, Onyx Star at Dusk Shield’s left. All five of them held strange black and dark blue armors, with subtle differences in their shape, very much like the Harmony Armors of Lightning Dash and the others.

Following Lightning Dash’s lead, the Knights of Harmony also lined and a staring contest had started. They haven’t summoned their armors as yet, but they would as soon as the situation called for it. Dusk Shield gave a step ahead, not much worried about what could happen to her as she smiled.

“The six of you against the five of us? This is not going to be a fair fight. We’re not in the same league.”

“And why do you say so?” Lightning Dash called, also stepping forward with all his confidence.

“For starters you don’t have your armor. And understand I’m not talking about a junk piece of metal that I can fold like paper. Second, it took you all four minutes to track and follow us down here.”

“You shouldn’t be so sure about yourself, Dusk Shield, right?” Lightning Dash said with a challenging smile. “I assure you we’re stronger that we look.”

“Oh, that I know… after all you did track us down. I only mean to say that with this level of guards, Mistress Nightmare Moon’s return will not be much of an event. If I were you, I would start saying your farewells to the sun, for when she returns, the night will be eternal!”

“We won’t let that happen,” Lightning Dash said, not lacking in confidence for a second. “We’ll stop every single one of you and then we’ll stop Nightmare Moon herself.”

Dusk Shield just looked deeply into Lightning Dash’s eyes, “Well, if you say so… Sadly, we really have to go. But I’ll leave Midnight Blossom here so you can have a taste of our true powers. Blossom, do not kill them outright. It will be fun seeing them trying to stop our Mother’s return.”

The earth pony mare at Dusk’s right nodded and smiled, “As you wish, my Captain.”

“Captain?” Blaze asked somewhat surprised.

Dusk Shield chuckled, “Yes, Captain Dusk Shield, second in charge of Nightmare Moon’s army, the Nightmare Shadows.”

And in the next second, along with four rather loud laughing, a deep dark smoke circled the whole group and in a flash of light, they were gone, all but Midnight Blossom. She still was smiling in front of them. “Sorry, but I’ll have to finish this quickly. As Dusk Shield said, we have some important missions to fulfill.”

Lightning Dash then chuckled, “Know what, Midnight Blossom? We had felt your presence straight away as you came. It took us this long to come after you because we were reporting to the Princess.”

“Bluffing will get you nowhere, pegasus.”

“Oh, but I’m not…” he then focused his mana as started doing all the others and, with a single flash of light, every single one of them were with their Harmony Armors covering their bodies. Upon seeing the armors, Midnight Blossom’s eyes shot open in surprise. “Well… We can do this the easy way or the hard way… Which one you pick?”

Midnight Blossom quickly turned and started to run deeper inside the cave. In a quick reflex, Ice Sapphire pointed her horn at deeper inside the cave and shot a single light blue beam of energy. Out of nowhere, a wall of ice blocked the runaway’s path from top to bottom. Shining Armor approached the unicorn mare.

“Haven’t you said that creating ice out of nowhere is absurdly high demanding on your mana flux?”

“It really is demanding. For average unicorns, that is, and both of us know we’re not average,” Ice Sapphire grinned. “I know your sister have the magic to spare, but would she be able to keep that spell for herself?”

“You do have a point.”

“You guys, let me take care of her,” Blaze called already walking towards Midnight Blossom. “I’ll bring her as a prisoner in no time.”

Lightning Dash nodded, “We’ll let her for you. The others, though, we still have four others to track down and arrest!”

With that, only Blaze stood and, as soon as the others were out of earshot, she glared at Midnight Blossom, “You’re damn stupid for appearing in Canterlot!”

“Okay so we underestimated you. A mistake that they will cover up once I’m not back to them!” she replied.

“Underestimating us? That’s not what the matter is. You’re dumb idiots for not waiting!” Blaze shot her an angry glare, but wasn’t menacing to hit her anymore. “You should wait for my call to strike. Our Mother is going to be back in a matter of days and I haven’t gained enough of Celestia’s trust as yet. It takes time, lots of time, and since she decided to bring the Knights of Harmony back, that has been near to impossible.”

“W-what…?” Midnight Blossom looked, now puzzled more than anything.

“You didn’t get the memo? Our Mother always had one of her children inside Celestia’s numbers. I am Cardinal Shadow Blaze, leader over the Nightmare Shadows and the pony in charge of assuring our Mother’s return. But you still may be useful out of battlefield…”

Midnight Blossom bowed at hearing Blaze’s presentation, “Yes, Cardinal. Whatever you say, I shall follow…”

****

An hour later, all six of them, all without their armors, were in front of Celestia in her throne room. The Sun Princess was wearing her typical mask while dealing with her subjects while she watched the doors to the throne room close and leaves them alone. Silently casting a privacy spell on the door and the windows, Celestia looked at them.

“I’ve heard you came back with a prisoner. What’s his or her name and objective?”

“The name, your highness, is Midnight Blossom. She was a member of a group of ponies which aims at the return of Nightmare Moon. They called themselves the ‘Nightmare Shadows’,” Shining Armor said. “The group is composed of two unicorns, two earth ponies, one of which is Midnight Blossom, and a pegasus. One of the unicorns, by the name of Dusk Shield, is the actual leader of them. They insist on calling Nightmare Moon their ‘Mother’.”

“What?” Celestia asked surprised as they never saw.

“They left open that Nightmare Moon has more followers than just the five of them,” Blaze continued, “a group that was once known as the Children of the Night.”

“I see. You’ve done well. I will interrogate this Midnight Blossom personally. Meanwhile, you take care. If these Nightmare Shadows appeared once, they can appear again.”

“Yes, your highness!” all six knights chorused to Celestia, before turning around to leave.

“Captain Shining Armor, I would like to trade a few words with you if you have the time,” Celestia called.

Leaving Shining Armor to his talk with Celestia, the other five headed out of the castle to their typical hangout, a pub where most of the Royal Guards would spend their free time and money.

Besides it wasn’t a luxurious place, they did have a nice service, the prices were fair and each table was surrounded by a privacy spell: to everypony else, even if they yelled, all they would hear was a voice among others, as if they were at the public market. After making their orders as soon as they sat down, they all stood in silence.

“The Nightmare Shadows…” Lightning Dash commented after a long time.

“Do you think they will try something?” Golden Breeze asked. “I mean… if Midnight Blossom was any indication, we can take them one on one, right?”

“Hope for the best while planning for the worse,” Blaze called. “If there’s a possibility for them to show up at the Summer Sun Celebration, we shall be ready. What information we have about it?”

“The usual,” Ice Sapphire answered. “The Princess will be publically visible in the same place as ever and at the usual time.”

“Maybe we should suggest her to change the place for the ceremony?” Scarlet Boulder asked. “I mean, it’s not like all Equestria doesn’t celebrate together, but we could set the main event somewhere else?”

“But where? Which place will be able to hold such an important decision in so little time?” Golden Breeze asked.

“Upon hearing Princess Celestia’s name, they’ll all agree, even if the time were shorter than it is,” Lightning Dash answered.

“Then we gotta pick up a place as quick as possible…” Scarlet Boulder said. “Anypony have any idea?”

“Ponyville,” Lightning Dash and Blaze called simultaneously. They then looked to one another in puzzlement. Lightning Dash was the first to speak then, “Care to explain?”

“Simple logic. Ponyville is the closest town to Canterlot. When you’re running, nopony expects you to stay that close from the original supposed place,” Blaze said. “And you?”

“Ponyville was founded originally by earth ponies, but nowadays, has about a third of its population composed by each race, alicorns excluded, of course,” Lightning Dash answered. “And that’s something that Princess Celestia valorizes above all else.”

“Then we can unite both the aspects in the same solution!” Ice Sapphire said as the situation got a bit tenser.

Blaze shot a last glance at Lightning Dash before getting up, “I’m going back to my quarters.” And without further comments, he left them without even drinking his order.

After a few seconds, Lightning Dash got up as well and left some bits over the table. “Pay mine and his.”

“Wait! Dash!” Golden Breeze tried, but the other pegasus was already crossing the doors of the bar.

In the streets, flying as fast as he could, Lightning Dash just scanned the city for the rust-red pony. Upon seeing the trace of Blaze, Lightning Dash dived and prepared to give a punch on his face. When the attack connected, Blaze was thrown sideway until he reached a wall.

“You know something you’re not sharing with us!” Lightning Dash said angry.

Blaze got on all four hooves and looked back at Lightning Dash, cleaning a bit of blood from his lips, as the other ponies around them watched both curiously.

“And hitting me in the face is a very good way of making me share what I’m hiding, if there’s something to hide,” the rust colored pony answered.

“You’ve been acting weird for quite some time now, Blaze. Since you learned that trick to be more exactly…”

“Are you suggesting I have a secret agenda?”

“Don’t you?”

The pegasus and the earth pony keep their instances, glaring at each other. None gave in any and both were ready to summon their armors at the first notice of action from the other.

“Enough!” the voice of Princess Cadance took the attention of both of them. As Lightning Dash and Blaze turned towards her, they noticed she was followed by Shining Armor. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“Princess Cadance?” Lightning Dash asked.

“Glad to see you can remember her face, Dash. But you didn’t answer her question,” Shining Armor answered.

Then both of them bowed to the Princess. “Raise you two,” Cadance said shaking her head. “And answer my question once and for all!” Cadance had to hold herself not to let slip a ‘damn question’ after the scene.

“Not here, dear. Let’s go to the bar with the others and you can have a private chat with them there,” Shining Armor said. He understood the hesitation in both of them: it was a matter common ponies shouldn’t know about.

Cadance sighed. “Alright, let’s get going,” upon seeing Blaze’s muzzle moving, she hastily added, “ALL of us.”

****

“So that’s what happened…” Shining Armor commented after they joined the others at the bar. He cast a glare on the table almost on the other side, which was actively avoided by anypony but those already inside, and those three were Lightning Dash, Blaze and Cadance.

“Well… since he got his armor, Blaze has been acting weird and all,” Golden Breeze said. “Not that it seems he’s against us but--”

“There was also his perform at the cavern when we were following the Shadows,” Ice Sapphire said. “He already knew about the group and more importantly, he knew one of them!”

“That alone doesn’t prove much, though,” Shining Armor said. “At least, the other ponies saw me and Cadance coming there, so it will take some time to reach Princess Celestia’s ears and even so, it will be already solved by then, so it’s unlikely they will have any punishment.”

“Save being lectured by Princess Cadance, of course,” Scarlet Boulder completed with a giggle.

At that isolated table, Cadance let out a heavy sigh. “Since after I accidentally run into your little secret, Aunt Celestia told me so much about you. And you can’t imagine how much she is happy with your progress. What, in the name of love, gave you reasons to doubt each other?”

“You wouldn’t understand, Princess…” Blaze said.

“Drop the ‘Princess’ thing, okay? Damn it! I’m your friend! I have beers with you; I go shopping with the girls! Hell! Don’t look at me as if I’m superior or something! And besides I am Lieutenant in the Knights of Harmony, I’m not here as an amazon right now! Tell me what kind of bug poisoned you against each other!”

One of them looked at each other angrily and back down the table before replying, together by the way, “We had the same idea…” Then they focused their death glares back at each other, grinding their teeth.

“See! That’s what I’m talking about! We never agreed before and now this happens twice?” Lightning Dash screamed, getting ready to start another fight.

Before Blaze could answer, Cadance’s horn ignited in a bluish aura and suddenly the head of both ponies flashed in the same light blue aura. Suddenly, their eyes filled with surprise, as they felt an anger that weren’t their own. Looking at Cadance, they saw her gaze disapprovingly over them.

“What happened?” Lightning Dash asked.

“I’m punishing you, in my own way, of course. If there’s one thing I do not withstand at all, that is friends fighting over nothing,” Cadance answered. “Until the Summer Sun Celebration, you will have a special link: you will share each other’s emotions. If one gets angry, you will feel that, if he’s afraid, you will feel as well. And before you ask, there’s nothing at all you can do or say to shorten this time. Until the sun rise in the Summer Sun Celebration, your link will withstand.”

“You can’t do that to us!” Blaze said.

That got a raised eyebrow from Lightning Dash. He felt… fear? Of course, he wasn’t happy with that but it seemed like Blaze have something to hide. Maybe this punishment won’t be that bad after all…

Author's Note

Now let's start with some light plot. A cliché one with some betrayal in the foreseeable future, and the true bad guys behind this first part of the series. Nightmare Moon is about to break free and her minions already started making their moves. The time for the first real big battle is about to come! And I get someone there that's quite excited about it! Lightning Dash, care to share a few words?

“Wow... When you think that things are getting better... What's this mission General Celestia is giving us? Is she really thinking we're strong enough for that? And we have so little time to prepare! I'm really thinking we'll have a hell of a time this mission... Anyway, at the very least, I got to see my sister one last time! Next chapter of Knights of Harmony is Ponyville”

Chapter 11: Ponyville

After receiving an urgent summon from Princess Celestia herself, Lightning Dash and the others stood at attention at her front in the throne room. The Sun Princess sat simply in her throne while the guards all around the room, following a simple motion of Celestia’s head, slowly left.

As soon as they were alone, Celestia started, “I hope you six are ready for your very first mission.” The six ponies in front of her nodded quickly, “Good. You all had mastered your Harmony Armors in the past days and can summon your Divine Armors almost instantly. You will need both those knowledge to the battle to come.”

“Battle, Princess?” Shining Armor asked.

“Yes, Shining Armor. I haven’t managed to track down the Nightmare Shadows you told me about, but there’s another enemy that have an even greater importance,” Celestia could read the fear in the face of every single one of them. Lightning Dash and Blaze looked at each other, feeling each other’s fear as well. “Your enemy is nopony other than Luna herself. You’ll fight my sister.”

“This… is a joke, right?” Scarlet Boulder asked, really hopping that Celestia would start laughing at them.

“I’m afraid not, Scarlet Boulder,” the Princess’s answer only increased their fear. “However, I’m not stupid. No matter how strong you have gotten in the past days, you’re no match to my sister or to me, which had millennia of training in our own arts as Amazons of Harmony. I’m not saying your mission will be easy, but surely it will be easier. I have sent someone ahead to start preparations for Luna’s return and truly defeat her. But for that to work, Luna’s Harmony Armor must be destroyed.”

“WHAT?!?” they all chorused.

“You want us to destroy a Harmony Armor?” Golden Breeze asked.

“That’s a no-do, Princess!” Scarlet Boulder continued. “Mine has taken five strong magical blasts squarely on its chest and not even scratched! And you want us to destroy an alicorn’s armor?”

“Trust a little more in yourselves, my little ponies. The blasts your armors have taken were common unicorn’s blasts. No matter how strong a unicorn is, only high-level magic, as the kind I’ve been teaching you in our trainings, can truly damage a Harmony Armor. And as you master those, your powers can grow up to and even beyond those of an alicorn.”

After a long silence and all the six of them looking at each other, Ice Sapphire turned back at Princess Celestia, “And where Night- I mean… Princess Luna will return exactly?”

****

“Answer me again… why we’re traveling outside the train?” Ice Sapphire asked over the sound of rushing wind passing around them.

“I wish I knew!” Shining Armor answered, also screaming loud enough to be heard by the close group. He had cast on the four non-pegasus members a spell to hold their hooves in place even if the train suddenly stopped.

Above them, Lighting Dash flew as fast as he loved to, a smile in his face. Blaze shot him a glance, since he could feel the genuinely happiness of the pegasus while flying that fast. “THAT YOUR WINGS SUDDENLY CRAMP, SHOW-OFF!” he yelled at the pegasus.

“Hey! Not my fault if you haven’t born with wings!” he yelled back, besides a few tones lower than him and more warmly than the words he received.

“Dash! Tunnel ahead!” Golden Breeze called.

“Crap. See ya!”

Due to security issues, the tunnels the train passed through towards Canterlot were enchanted to not allow anyone enter it flying, as long as there was a train inside. However, Golden Breeze and Lightning Dash counted with that already and simply made a sharp turn to clear out of the tunnel while getting a quicker route a bit ahead the trail so they could join precisely with their friends a bit down the line.

However, as they were alone, two pegasi out of a cloud darted towards them. Besides not exactly wearing armors, both of them had black clothes that looked like a lot with the Wonderbolts uniform. The most striking difference, though, were their bat-like wings. Not standing still, Lightning Dash and Golden Breeze opened their formation to avoid collision, only to have the bat-ponies start following them.

“DASH!” Golden Breeze called over the rushing wind.

“TALK LATER, BREEZE! IT’S SHOWTIME!” With a nod from his friend, Lightning Dash shot himself up entering in a large loop and quickly being followed by one of the enemies.

With a smile, Lighting Dash started spinning and crossed through a cloud, creating a small water funnel around him and soon enough enveloping his chaser. He only laughed and screamed at full lunges, “HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES!” And all of a sudden, the water funnel around the pegasi was conducting also Lightning Dash’s electricity, only strengthened by the friction with the wind. It took all of five seconds for the aggressor pony to get electrocuted and start falling towards the ground.

Meanwhile, a little lower, Golden Breeze dived hard, going straight towards the ground and kept going. Under her wings, she focused her wind magic as the solid floor of the ground approached. The chaser had to give in and lift up before it was too late, but with a powerful flap of her wings, Golden Breeze shot both wind bubbles from her wings to the ground. At the impact, the pressure killed her momentum and she quickly shot up, the predator now turning into prey. Whenever her wings flapped, golden feather-shaped magical blades would shower from her wings against her opponent. Soon he was weak enough to only drop his flight.

Then she saw a blurry dark streak fall not much far from her enemy’s place. Looking up, she saw that Lighting Dash was approaching her. They hovered in place for a little time. “They were expecting us there,” Golden Breeze commented. “Sorry, I never thought we would be attacked before reaching Ponyville.”

“Not your fault,” Lightning Dash answered. “I was also thinking it would be a boring trip.”

“Nightmare Shadows?”

“Probably. That only confirms we’re on the right track.”

“But they were so easily defeated…”

“None of them, though, were the same five we tracked before,” Lighting Dash commented. “They had only one pegasus and a stallion at that, and we defeated two mares there. Not counting their bat-like wings…”

Letting out a sigh, Golden Breeze looked at him, “You’re right. Let’s go, we have to warn the others.”

****

Scarlet Boulder had to jump backwards to avoid a stomp from an earth pony stallion that had all but jumped at them over the train’s roof, his hooves about half again bigger than average earth pony and looking a more sturdier as well. All along the car, the Knights of Harmony where fighting enemies which teleported themselves at the exactly right time they left the tunnel, so they were all engaging a fight each.

The red mare just waited for the next attack and gave a back-flip, hitting the stallion right in the chin, and as soon as her hindlegs touched the ground, she jumped against him, punching right into his stomach, sending him flying straight across the curve the train had just done.

Shining Armor summoned a pinkish shield in front of him to stop the blast of the unicorn mare he was fighting. Much to his surprise, the blast was enough to crack his shield, famous to be one of the strongest between common unicorns. As she charged against him, hoping the shield to power down, he barely had to do much, jumping easily above her and punching on her back against the roof they were fighting over. The mare was instantly knocked out.

Ice Sapphire jumped back, avoiding a powerful lighting strike shot against her from another unicorn, a stallion this time. Like the unicorn mare, this stallion had powerful magic and instead of the typical spiral in their horns, they had five stripes straight from the base to the tip. She already had the edge of the battle, though: unknown to her opponent, she had placed a freeze trap and as he went to charge her with his horn, his four legs were frozen solid in place, allowing for the light blue unicorn to easily punch him into his sides. With the hit, though, the ice broke and the stallion saw himself just watching the train make a curve.

Blaze hasn’t any difficult at all, almost not having to fight. As soon as he felt the pony over him, he charged his left forehoof with all his strength and even before touching the cart the enemy was flying back up at the mountain side, just to fall on the rail as the train passed through her.

As he looked back, he noticed the others already finishing their battles within the very first curve the train made after the tunnel’s entrance. In the distance, coming at full speed, Lightning Dash and Golden Breeze quickly noticed the pony held by Shining Armor’s hooves.

“And I was about to tell you we were attacked,” Golden Breeze started, “but it seems you had your share of fun as well…”

Shining Armor looked at one side of the car, “Somepony is coming. The fighting may have got them alert!”

“What we’ll do?” Scarlet Boulder asked.

“Just stay close to me!” Shining Armor focused his magic and created a magic dome around them all. Instead of being a protective shield, it was a camouflage one: whoever saw the dome would just see across it. However, they could see clearly anypony outside the dome.

Two heads popped from each end of the car and looked at both sides, looking for any abnormalities while they were at it. Not finding anything suspicious, they all returned back to inside the train car.

Releasing a deep breath, everypony finally relaxed. That was the last tunnel between Canterlot and Ponyville and the trip would take not much time longer, about an hour. After fifteen minutes, though, the trapped and properly sealed unicorn mare woke up, looking at them. Her eyes downed and she sighed.

“I was not informed thou were that tough…” she said.

“You are one of the Nightmare Shadows?” Lightning Dash asked.

“Nightmare what?” she asked. “I do not know what thou art talking about.”

“Who are you and why you attacked us?” Scarlet Boulder asked then.

“My name is Crystal Star. My brethren and I were informed the six of you would try to stop the return of our Mother…”

“Your… mother?” Ice Sapphire asked.

“Yes, our Mother, Princess Luna.”

“And you dare say to us that you’re not one of the Nightmare Shadows?” Shining Armor asked.

“Now, now, Shining Armor,” Blaze placed a hoof on his shoulder. “You’re assuming that all ponies that call themselves Children of the Night are also Nightmare Shadows. Put two and two together: my mother told me about the Children of the Night. What do you think that makes me?”

Lightning Dash looked suspiciously at Blaze, “So the somepony special you’re looking for…”

“Yes,” Blaze answered simply. “I’m waiting as well for Princess Luna’s return. However, the one coming is Nightmare Moon, right? We have to find a way to purify her. So we can have our Mother back.”

“You… You’re a brother?” the unknown mare asked.

Blaze downed his head. Lightning Dash felt shame flowing through their unwanted link. “My name… My true name is Shadow Blaze. I was afraid that if Celestia knew somepony that praised her sister was so close to her, she would unleash her wrath…”

“Come on, Blaze,” Lightning Dash chuckled. “She picks her targets better than that and you know it.”

That puzzled Blaze to no end: Lightning Dash, which until seconds later always had a hidden stash of hatred for him, simply vanished with the whole stock of his anger and fury towards the brown earth stallion and was genuinely comforting him. The other way around, Lighting Dash could feel Blaze’s puzzlement.

“Hey? What you expected? You kept your secrets, your distance, never opened to us and not even shared your full name. I just kept my guard up. And by the way, you can only have a true name if you had lied about yours. You have, though, only hid part of it.”

Golden Breeze looked to the direction where the other fights have occurred. “Now I’m feeling bad for beating them…” she commented. “Are they alright?”

Crystal Star giggled, “Don’t worry. We, Children of the Night, grew up in a rather harsh environment. We are pretty hard to kill. But even so, I’ll go and look for the others. I hope to see you again soon enough!”

All of a sudden, Crystal Star teleported from the train, and they all could see her running in the distance, following the rail towards her friends.

“New fact…” Shining Armor said. “The Nightmare Shadows are using innocent ponies to attack us. We must stay alert.”

****

The final part of the trip occurred without any more surprises and Shining Armor’s spell forbid the waiting ponies to see them as they approached the station. Whispering so to not break up the spell, Shining Armor himself asked: “What now?”

“I’ll go see my sister,” Lightning Dash said.

“We all should actually part up and spread around the town,” Scarlet Boulder suggested. “Keep your hooves in the ground and if you find anything, just tell the others!”

“Sorry, rather impossible…” Lightning Dash said with a chuckle, flapping gently his wings. “The only reason for Rainbow staying at the ground is if her wings are crippled.”

“Hey! What’s up with that rainbow?” Golden Breeze asked.

They all looked at the direction she was facing to see a rainbow streak clearing all the clouds of the sky.

“Weird… I never heard about automatic rainbow-cloud-cleaner before…” Shining Armor commented.

“Because that doesn’t exist! See ya!” and all of a sudden, Lightning Dash took off.

He was flying casually to see the town bellow him. Ponyville was really like his sister had described it, a chaotic madness of colors and forms, as if the ponies were disputing for the most… striking house. And then, there were the ponies, from all three tribes and living in perfect harmony. Not too long later, he was forced to stop since another pony stopped right in front of his flight plan.

“Sorry, mister, but you’re supposed to check-in before flying over my town!” the cyan mare said. As he looked up, the smiling face of his sister greeted him.

“Sorry, miss, but I’m doing my job as a Royal Guard and protecting Princess Celestia’s ponies,” he answered softly.

The mare gasped at those words. “No way! For real? You made it, Lightning?”

“And there was ever any doubt?” Lightning Dash chuckled as he hugged his sister strongly. “How have you been Rainbow?”

“Same old, same old…” she said hugging him back. “I mean… Entering the Wonderbolts is just a tad harder than joining the Royal Guard…”

As they parted, Lightning Dash chuckled, “I do believe that. Those show-offs are very picky…”

Rainbow Dash giggled, “That may be. However, I’m still the best flyer of all Equestria, so it’s only a matter of time!”

“You sure of that?”

“Absolutely!”

“Race you home then!”

“HA! You’re on! 3-2-1-Go!”

As if they had planned that, both took off at full speed towards Rainbow Dash’s home, leaving a rainbow and a light blue sparking trail behind. Less than half an hour later, they landed on Rainbow Dash’s cloud house above Ponyville almost together, the cyan mare touching ground less than a second before Lightning Dash.

“There! In your face!” she said with a grin, her wings still fully open.

He chuckled at that, “A show-off still, I see. You’re almost a Wonderbolt already.”

She smiled and turned inside, “So, how’s the Royal Guard training going?”

“Lots of fun and practice, but Equestria is way too peacefully for me to work all that much,” he explained. Not quite lying, it was true to a point, but it still hurt not being able to tell his own sister the whole truth either.

“Try living here in Ponyville…”

“Why you say so?”

“The damn forest at the border… The Everfree Forest sometimes let its inhabitants too close from Ponyville.”

“Are them dangerous?”

“Cockatrices, manticores, hydras… Some ponies believe there’s also a dragon living in the Everfree Forest actually.”

“Seems pretty tough…”

“Not to mention the wild weather,” Rainbow Dash said with a proud smile in her face. “If not for me as leader of the Weather Patrol of Ponyville, this town would hardly be able to fulfill the scheduled weather!”

“Which, by the way, I saw you working on. Have you been slaking off again?”

“You saw that, then?” she chuckled. “Somepony from Canterlot came to check the preparations for the celebration. She doubted say me that I wasn’t able to enter the Wonderbolts! I just had to prove her wrong, so I cleared the whole sky of Ponyville in ten seconds flat!”

“I could have done in nine,” Lightning Dash teased.

Rainbow Dash looked him in the eye and smiled, “Still thinking you can beat me?”

Actually, I can beat you easily, but I can’t say you that… Lightning Dash thought. Then he grinned back, “Instead of starting another race, there’s any good place around where we could eat?”

****

Ice Sapphire was walking casually around the town, taking in the sights. Soon enough, she saw a pinkish streak passing around her and suddenly stops. Then the pink earth pony mare holding quite a few balloons in her muzzle looked into Ice Sapphire eyes, her mouth opening wide. The unicorn quickly used her magic to hold the balloons that were slowly flying away before smiling.

“Sorry…”

“You’re new here too!” the pink mare claimed. “Now I need twice the balloons!”

The unicorn just grinned, “Well… That could really wait a little. My friends and I can’t truly stay long. We’re leaving after the Summer Sun Celebration.”

“Even so! You can’t leave Ponyville without making new friends!”

“Well, you could always be my friend!” Ice Sapphire grinned.

Upon seeing the pink mare smiles, her heart filled with joy. It was what she truly enjoyed after all. “Really? That’s great! We could be the best friends ever and we could write one another and we could trade gifts! And I need to know when you celebrates your birthday so I can send you your gift and I shall also give you mine so--”

“So I can give you a gift of my own and along with a letter to tell you how much I miss you and that I want to see you again as soon as I can!” Ice Sapphire cut her. “It has been a long time I saw somepony so full of energy as you! By the way, my name is Ice Sapphire, and can I help you with the party you’re planning?”

“My name is Pinkie Pie and of course! Here! The party is going to be this way!”

****

Golden Breeze was flying slowly above the town as well. From above, she saw a shop, called Carousel Boutique, which her eyes picked up plenty of beautiful dresses on the vitrine. With a smile, she glided down and stepped inside the shop, causing a small bell to ring.

“Coming!” a voice sang from inside the shop. Golden Breeze waited patiently until a white unicorn with curly and beautiful purple mane and tail appeared from the stairs. She grinned at the pegasus and smiled, “A new face in town, I assume. I never forget such a beautiful mane.”

“Why thank you. I do try my best.”

“My name is Rarity, Ponyville’s best dressmaker, even if I say so myself.”

“I am Golden Breeze, nice to meet you,” she smiled. “I noticed your accent is a lot more like Canterlot’s than what’s supposed to be for an interior town. Are you from there?”

“Oh goodness, no. That’s all but a dream for me,” the unicorn answered. I’ve born on Manehattan, just moved to Ponyville a few years ago because I couldn’t afford Canterlot itself, and the town is close enough to the capital that I can make visits to sell my lines there rather frequent.”

“I see. And about your dresses, I’m looking for something for a friend of mine. She’s a unicorn, not much larger than me, with a fascination for blue colors. Her birthday is in a few weeks and I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful dresses you exposed.”

“It will be a pleasure to help you find something for your friend. Or if nothing hit your fancy, you could always make an order and take it later.”

Golden Breeze smiled. Somehow, she had felt a good thing when talking with this unicorn. Maybe they could be very good friends with time.

****

Scarlet Boulder was walking towards a more wooded area, the nature around the small town being something to really catch her attention. Then she heard the sound of birds singing. Following the sound, she found out a yellow pegasus mare coordinating the birds during their singing in a beautiful song. She smiled and approached slowly not to scare the birds, but also not hiding herself either. The birds all stopped singing and looked at her. When the pegasus turned to look at Scarlet Boulder, she noticed the earth mare was sitting with her eyes closed, probably enjoying the music.

“Err… excuse me?” the pegasus called. “Are you… lost or…”

Scarlet Boulder opened her eyes and grinned. Speaking softly instead of her usual cheerful voice, she answered, “Not exactly. I was just passing by when I heard the singing. I promise to stay silent, but you mind if I hear you training?”

“I… I’m not sure…” the yellow mare kicked some of dust then.

“Are these local birds?” Scarlet Boulder approached the birds slowly and raised a hoof.

The yellow pegasus was about to say something when one of the birds flew from the branch he was and landed on Scarlet’s extended hoof. The red mare then rubbed her face against the bird’s softly.

“You… understand them too?” the surprised pegasus asked.

“Not exactly. I’ve learned what some animals say by body language. I had contact with a few of them close to where I’ve born.”

“You like animals too?”

Scarlet Boulder giggled at the question. “They’re our friends,” she answered. “By trusting in them with our hearts, they can trust in us in return. When I learned that, I discovered that animals would get closer to me for a cuddle if I wasn’t afraid of them.” The pegasus mare’s muzzle opened in a large smile as she sat closer to Scarlet Boulder. The other birds flew to sit now all over the earth pony and the pegasus. “I am Scarlet Boulder,” she said.

“I’m Fluttershy,” the mare grinned. “Err… if you don’t mind, could you help me with their practice?”

“It will be my pleasure.”

****

Shining Armor was strolling across the main square when he caught sight of a peculiar lavender coat among the crowd. Surprised at first, Shining Armor took a second to register that there could be other lavender mares in this town. However, when the purple dragon jumped on her back, he had little doubt. Another lavender mare was one thing. The chances that she would also be a unicorn were slim, but acceptable. But for her also to be friend with a green belly purple dragon, that’s impossible to be a coincidence!

“Twily?” he called.

Upon hearing her nickname, the lavender mare turned around, “Shiny?” she called back. “Shiny! What are you doing here?” she asked running and hugging her brother rather strong.

“Hi there, Spike,” the dragon answered his greeting as well. “And well… Princess Celestia sent me and a few others to make sure everything is secure,” he answered. Even if he didn’t like lying to his sister, he couldn’t tell her the true motives. It would cause Twilight to panic, and he knew what happened when she panicked. “I’m using the fact that nopony here actually knows me, so keep it down, please.”

“Oh, right.”

“I’ll be overseeing all the ceremony from a safe place. You don’t have to look for me if something goes wrong. I’ll be already over it, trust me.”

“I do, brother. Anyway, I have to go. There are a few things we must check before heading to where we’ll be staying.”

“It’s alright. You two take care.”

Both the mare and the dragon chorused: “We will!”

And then he watched his sister trotting towards somewhere else.

****

Shadow Blaze was looking for somewhere big and open, where probably would be held the celebration. After all, the Summer Sun Celebration was about seeing the sun rise, so it should be in the open with the clear sky.

His path, though, soon brought him to meet with a couple of earth ponies. One of them was a stallion about as high as himself and also as sturdier. He had a deep red coat and a light orange mane and tail, along with a work horse collar. Another feature to catch Shadow Blaze’s eyes was a sprig of wheat hanging from his muzzle. At his side was an orange mare with a cowboy hat and blond mane and tail, both tied in ponytails. They could probably be siblings due to the resemblance in their cutie mark: the stallion was a single large green apple cut in half as the mare had three small red apples.

“Horseapples! Now we got a big damn problem in our hooves!” said the mare in a strong southern accent.

“Eeyup,” the stallion answered. They were each attached to a cart, one of which now supported a broken wheel.

“How the hay are we goin’ to get to town hall now?”

“You need some help?” Shadow Blaze called, looking them over. As the mare cast her eyes over him, he had a strange feeling that somehow he wouldn’t be able to lie to her.

“Kinda. But unless you know how to fix a wheel, I doubt you could help much, pardner,” the mare called.

Shadow Blaze trotted quickly to the broken wheel and then looked at the red stallion, “I may not be able to restore the wheel, but I have another idea, unless you can afford the time to go and get someone to fix it?” As they looked to each other, he figured they hadn’t the time. So, he continued, “My idea is simple. We take off the other wheel opposite to this one and since the big one there is about my size, I guess we could work as ‘improvised wheels’ until the town hall.”

“You really think you’re up to the task?” the mare asked.

“Honestly. I’m stronger than I look.”

“Well, Big Mac… Gonna give it a try?”

“Eeyup!” said the red stallion already unharnessing himself from his cart.

“Well then…” the mare said as she saw them taking off the forward good wheel and placing it carefully inside the cart.

Then counting to three to coordinate their efforts both stallions raised and quickly got the cart half way upon their backs. Shadow Blaze never thought it would be this heavy, but sharing his load with the other stallion was going to make the work easier. Then they began walking slowly at first before picking a quick trot.

“Thank you for the help, pardner,” the mare said, smiling at the brown stallion’s side. “My name is Applejack and he’s Big McIntosh, by the way.”

“The name’s Shadow Blaze…” he said. “Why are you taking these to the town hall, though? I really thought all this was for the Summer Sun Celebration…”

“It is,” Applejack answered. “The Princess will be making her appearance in the town hall for the raising of the sun.”

“I really thought it would be somewhere more open… A farm or a park or something alike… You see, to actually watch the sunrise…”

“You weren’t informed?”

“No, I was just said to move there and get ready in the case things got bad…” he answered. Not being able to lie and not being able to tell the truth either, Shadow Blaze was walking on a sharp knife’s edge: any mistake and he was bound to cut himself badly one way or another.

“Oh so you’re also from Canterlot?” she asked. “Why ya haven’t come with that mare, Twilight?”

“Twilight? As in Twilight Sparkle?” he asked curious.

“Eeyup!” the stallion at the other side of the cart answered.

“She seems to be a good mare. She said she was sent by Princess Celestia herself to check on the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration.”

That made Shadow Blaze uses every part of his will in order to not drop the cart and not show an unexpected reaction upon his face. The weight of the cart on his shoulder helped a little as he was using a decent amount of his strength to keep it moving.

“Twilight Sparkle? No, it can’t be her… she’s too young and inexperienced… Princess Celestia would not send a common unicorn, no matter how strong, to fight against an alicorn…” he thought. However, if that was right…

Author's Note

THERE! Chapter 11 is ready for you! I'm very sorry for the delay, but you know, family comes first. Chapter 12 is already started though and it shall not take too long. And, I'm really sorry for doing this (after all I thought it was funny), but there will not be a quick spoiler of the next chapter from now on.

A quick reminder for you, though about the Nightmare Shadows:
Night Cloud - unicorn mare that read thoughts;
Onyx Star - pegasus stallion with unknown abilities;
Night Poet - earth mare with poetic streak able to use magic in some way;
Dusk Shield - unicorn mare, cousin to Blaze, with amazing powers, or so say the other Nightmare Shadows.

Chapter 12: Shadows in the Dark

A pleasant surprise got all of them reunited in a single place. Lightning Dash was dragged by Rainbow Dash, which claimed to be joining a party of somepony called Pinkie Pie, being helped by nopony other than Ice Sapphire, which was enchanted by the dress she received from Golden Breeze. Rarity, the one to make said dress, was now talking with Fluttershy, whom refused to leave Scarlet Boulder’s side, even when she was talking with Applejack, who had insisted in bringing Shadow Blaze as a form of paying him back. Shining Armor in the end was there by pure luck, as he was looking for some book to read and was greeted by a party for Twilight Sparkle being welcomed in the city.

It was a shame that Twilight Sparkle herself, after a very little time, had got upstairs and locked herself in where would be her room.

When the six Knights of Harmony joined to trade some of their information, though, Golden Breeze’s wings were tingled by a magic presence. Very faint, she judged as it being too far away or being really too small, but she quickly dismissed that one since it would never make it across so many magical presences if it was a weak magic.

“They started moving…” Golden Breeze whispered.

“So soon?” Lightning Dash said worriedly.

“Guess we have no more time to play around…” Shadow Blaze said.

Lightning Dash felt a hint of doubt in Shadow Blaze. Ice Sapphire then brought him back from his thoughts, “We better get moving then. If we take too long, Pinkie Pie will notice us missing. Better we go as soon as we can.”

They all nodded and moved outside the large tree where the library was built inside. Golden Breeze looked up and noticed the moon. “We better hurry. It’s almost time for the sunrise.”

With a nod, all the six of them dashed towards the forest surrounding the town, following Golden Breeze’s lead. However, as they set their hooves in the forest, they knew something bad was about to happen. It sent a chill down all their spines.

Not giving up to their fears, though, they marched into the dark forest ahead of them. After about ten minutes of them walking and nothing out of ordinary happening, Shadow Blaze turned to Golden Breeze, “Are you sure they started moving?”

“More likely they were inviting us,” Golden Breeze answered. “You see, like a trap or something.”

“And explain me, why are we falling for a trap?” Ice Sapphire asked.

“Because if we don’t, the ponies of Ponyville can be harmed…” Shining Armor said.

“And that’s what makes you, self-proclaimed heroes, so foreseeable…”

All six of them quickly placed themselves in a circle, looking for the owner of the voice. They all easily recognized her as Night Cloud, and the unicorn was, surprisingly, lying over the branch of a tree, without a care for the world. Suddenly, the unicorn chuckled.

“I can’t believe you forgot that I can hear your thoughts…” Night Cloud answered. Her silvery coat was mostly covered by a dark blue armor and the golden mane and tail left free. “Come to think of it, I couldn’t expect too much of you as well… However… I’m curious about how the likes of you could defeat Midnight Rose…”

“Easy when you underestimate us,” Scarlet Boulder said.

Night Cloud smiled, “I won’t let them get--”

Before she could say anything else, she felt the whole three shaking hard and Night Cloud only haven’t fall for being quick and jumping to a nearby tree. She then looked down curious, “What the!”

Scarlet Boulder looked at her from the three she just tackled and smiled, “Hard to read the mind of somepony who just reacts?”

Night Cloud snorted, “I admit that you managed to surprise me once. However, I’m now rea--” with a new shaking on her tree, Night Cloud this time haven’t reacted fast enough, falling from it and struggling to fall upon her hooves, quickly jumping out of a giggling Scarlet Boulder’s reach. “You can’t be serious! You’re not thinking before acting?”

“She tends to do that…” Lightning Dash smiled and placed a hoof on Scarlet’s shoulder. “We’ll keep moving then. Can you handle her alone?”

“Easily done, Boss!” Scarlet Boulder said with a smile saluting him quickly and seeing the other Knights of Harmony running deeper into the forest.

“I won’t let you!” Night Cloud quickly summoned his magic, and cast a simple teleportation spell.

As soon as the unicorn mare appeared in front of the group, though, she was tackled down by Scarlet Boulder, barely intertwining in the other Knights’ path. Night Cloud looked at Scarlet Boulder, now furious.

“How dare you! How could you not think and still know where I am?”

Scarlet Boulder, though, smiled, “As an earth pony, I have a deep connection with the earth. In my case, it goes deeper, as the earth becomes an extension of my body. I can feel anything in a rather large range.”

Night Cloud’s eyes widened at that, “but that’s…”

“Geomancy!” Scarlet Boulder then stomped strongly in the ground. Instead of attacking her opponent, it only made a dust cloud rise and slowly covers her body completely, only to fall and reveal a copper-colored armor with plenty of silver and dark gray spiky edges. “Yeah, I know!”

Taken aback by the armor, Night Cloud jumped back and got ready to fight, already angry with a mare that didn’t do much more than react at anything thrown at her. All of a sudden, Night Cloud darted towards Scarlet Boulder, a dark cloud of magic forming around her hoof as she punched squarely into the bright red pony’s chest.

Much to her surprise, Scarlet Boulder was pushed about a meter back, the punch being a lot stronger than she actually thought. She looked at Night Cloud curiously.

“Oh! Finally you’re thinking eh?” Night Cloud asked. “Don’t you dare go thinking that only reacting at me will give you the edge on this battle!”

Night Cloud darted at Scarlet again. The earth mare, though, jumped to her side and prepared to punch on Night Cloud's side only to have her teleport just before being hit. Slamming her hoof into the ground, Scarlet threw herself upwards, avoiding an attack from Night Cloud and with a spin, she managed to kick her in the face. As the unicorn mare took a couple steps back, Scarlet touched the ground again and darted against her.

The dark armored unicorn managed to avoid Scarlet’s next attack by ducking almost to the ground, and then she rose with a strong uppercut right into the red mare’s chest, throwing her up. Scarlet Boulder noticed from the air that the unicorn was preparing a magic blast and quickly placed her fore hooves in front of her face. When the blast hit Scarlet’s armor, Night Cloud was surprised by how easily it was deflected, flowing as water on a duck’s feathers.

Scarlet Boulder dissipated the magic opening her forelegs wide and punched strong at the ground. Night Cloud wasn’t so dumb to stay under an earth pony’s punch, much less one with as much power as this, and jumped backwards. However, Scarlet’s objective wasn’t hit Night Cloud, but the ground itself. And with that, a large amount of earth shot from around the impact area, hitting the unicorn still in mid-air, and punching her squarely in the chest.

Using the same boulder that hit her as a platform, she jumped backward and with a back-flip landed softly on all four hooves. Both mares stood there, facing each other in their defensive instances: Night Cloud full of anger and hate, Scarlet Boulder with a smile in her face, ready to the next round.

****

While they were still running inside the forest, a strong magic presence appeared out of nowhere about two hundred meters from their position. As the only one to easily see where that presence might have come from, Golden breeze took flight above the canopy of the forest and took a look around. Soon she found where that presence came from: the ruins in the middle of the forest, the old Pony Sisters’ castle. That was kinda obvious, I think… she thought. Where else they would summon back the sister of Celestia?

She started to glide back down to her friends when all of a sudden, she felt a powerful punch in the middle of her back accelerating her descend a lot more until she all but crashed against the floor.

“BREEZE!” all other called, Lightning Dash already taking his position between them and where his friend was hit.

“Damn… got my guard down…” said Golden Breeze.

“Oh? Are we alive yet?” a deep male voice echoed through the trees. When they looked in the direction of the voice, they noticed a distortion in the environment. Only after a couple seconds that this distortion slowly dissipated, revealing a pegasus in what they now knew to be a Nightmare Shadow’s armor. Onyx Star looked at them and smiled. “I have to assume you’re tougher than I thought.”

Lightning Dash was about to go at him when Golden Breeze called out, “Your destination is a castle at northwest of there. Seems like they started the ritual to bring Nightmare Moon back already…” Onyx Star’s face quickly lost its smile, looking right at Golden Breeze. “I take him.”

“You alone? How will you fight… what you can’t see?” and then he disappeared again.

Everypony there looked around, trying to identify where the attack would be coming from, but for Golden Breeze. In a blink, the yellow pegasus mare darted in front of Shadow Blaze, both hooves holding the attack of an invisible Onyx Star, which startled the male pegasus enough for him to fly backwards a bit and dissipate his magic again.

“How…”

Golden Breeze then flapped her wings and a strong gust of wind made her opponent hit strongly against a tree on his back. She never took her eyes from him while yelling, “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! GO!!”

Suddenly all other four members of the guards darted towards the direction Golden Breeze had given them. The Nightmare Shadow pegasus recovered himself and looked deep into Golden Breeze's eyes.

“You have quite a few tricks, pretty...”

“Please, I haven’t given you any intimacy,” she said serious.

“Summoning strong gusts won’t cut it though!”

He all but dashed against her again, ready to punch her in the chest, just to feel a gently breeze surround her body and suddenly she was gone. After his surprise, though, he felt Golden Breeze just behind him, ducking just quick enough to avoid a strong kick.

Flapping his wings to gain some distance between them, he looked her in the eye. “That was teleportation, right?”

“Wind variant. For now I can only use it on myself, that’s why we were running through the forest,” she answered.

“How comes a pegasus can use magic?” he asked curious.

“Ironically how is a pegasus actually asking me that…” she then closed her eyes and the wind started rushing strongly around her. As her mane lifted from the strength of wind, a bright and frail-looking armor with lime green color most evident, reddish brown lining the smooth curves at the edges and light brown randomly placed curves all over the main plates. Her four hooves covered in leaf-like plates, and her head with a reddish brown tiara supporting a lime green emerald finished the main aspects of the armor. And as Golden Breeze opened her wings, they were like plenty of autumn leaves ready to fall at any moment.

Onyx Star was taken aback by that armor, looking straight at the cutie mark in front of it. “You… can’t be serious…”

“I’m very serious!” Golden Breeze flapped her wings once again and created another gust of wind against Onyx Star.

“You fooled me once already!” he pressed himself against the tree behind him now to avoid being pushed by the wind.

“Make it twice then!” With her second flaps, though, golden shards were also thrown against Onyx Star.

Noticing his mistake, the nightmare pegasus bucked strongly on the tree to the point his hind hooves locked there and then pulled himself down against the strength of Golden Breeze’s wind. The shards she threw, though, shattered the tree where he was just now. Freeing himself, he flew straight at the pegasus mare’s side preparing a strong punch right in her face, just to have she disappear then.

Turning around to look Golden Breeze in the eye, he said dryly, “You’re gonna give me a lot of trouble…”

“Good! That was the idea from the very beginning…”

****

“River ahead!” Ice Sapphire called. Instead of reducing the speed, she, Shadow Blaze and Shining Armor ran faster to get enough impulse. Lightning Dash was to flying above the river and helps them with a gust of wind. However, movement in the water called Ice Sapphire’s attention.

As they jumped, though, Ice Sapphire’s gaze was kept down and it paid out. Three dark tendrils erupted from underwater and where about to reach them when she used her magic to control the river’s water and push all of them further towards the other side. They barely avoided the trap when, from the river, a female earth pony got out looking at them.

“That was definitely a graceful way to avoid my trap.” Only then they noticed she was still dry and wearing a Nightmare Shadow’s armor. Recognition hit Ice Sapphire then, so night Poet continued, “And judging by your manners, it must be the mare with you. Hmmm… Now that I came to think of it, wasn’t there two other mares in your group?”

“I will--” Shadow Blaze started but was cut by Ice Sapphire.

“March on! This girl’s mine. Look, there’s still Dusk Shield that I suspect have magic as powerful as Shining Armor’s. And besides, you and Lightning Dash are the most powerful of our group!”

“Oh, so the little girl is sacrificing herself so her friends could reach and stop our Mother?” Night Poet smiled at her. “That’s something that would make a very passionate history… albeit one without a too much happy end for you…”

Much to everypony’s surprise, four dark tendrils appeared from Night Poet’s back. However, they were met halfway by Ice Sapphire’s ice shield. And as if the shield wasn’t there, Ice Sapphire crossed right through it, looking straight into Night Poet’s eyes. Not able to break through the frost shield, the three stallions quickly resumed their march towards the ruins.

Night Poet watched them go for a little, “I swear I was going to kill them quickly… Our dear younger sister will not be as gently as I. I actually feel quite bad for letting such beautiful stallions go face such a sad end…” And with a smile, she added, “Specially the pegasus on--”

Before she could finish her phrase, she was hit in the face by Ice Sapphire, the mare looking her with anger not previously there. Even before she could get up, Night Poet saw the unicorn mare rushing towards her with a primal rage scream ready to punch again and, before connecting the attack, the Nightmare Shadow was enveloped in a dark shadow and suddenly disappeared.

Ice Sapphire though, turned around and punched again, this time right into her enemy’s chest. After being thrown a couple meters backwards, Night Poet smiled and looked at her with delighted eyes, “Such pain, such power, such fury…” When the poet pony raised her head again, she held a rather maniac expression, a wide smile in her face, a wish to kill in her eyes, “Yes… Now I’m even more interested in that pegasus… After I’m done with you, he will be all mine!”

Ice Sapphire’s eyes also filled with a wish to kill. The only difference between them, actually, is that she didn’t had a smile in her face, but both ponies rushed against each other, both ready to battle till death, even if for somewhat different reasons.

****

It was the final sprint, the three stallions running at their top speed towards the ruins until a large gorge appeared ahead of them. Shining Armor looked at the pegasus.

“Dash! Take Blaze and go to the ruins! I’ll take the bridge and meet you there!”

“Right! Blaze, ready?”

Without a single second of delay, Shadow Blaze jumped above the gorge so Lightning Dash could easily grab him and keep him on air as they crossed the gap in their path. Shining Armor though didn’t have that much luck. As he approached the bridge, a powerful magic blast was shot against him. Bringing up his most powerful shield, he was only thrown back a few meters before looking closely at his opponent.

“Dusk Shield,” he said seriously. “So it comes to a battle between two barrier specialists?” Shining Armor asked already charging his magic.

“So it seems.”

And without a single word more between the two of them, two powerful magical blasts met exactly halfway between them. Shining Armor’s pinkish magic found its match against Dusk Shield’s dark purple magic. Tring to take the concentration of each other, both keep shooting offenses and moving themselves in random directions. In the rare occasion something got between them, that got instantly turned into magical dust due to intensity of the blasts.

And both ponies had a lot of magic to play this for a really long time.

****

Once inside the ruins, Shadow Blaze and Lightning Dash looked everywhere for the damn ritual in order to stop Nightmare Moon’s return.

When they got to what were once the dining hall, Lightning Dash turned away in order to look at one direction, and just then Blaze noticed something else. Suddenly, the earth pony turned towards Lightning Dash and jumped against him. The pegasus, though, was still emotionally bounded to the earth pony and readily ducked the attack, flying backwards.

“Blaze! What the--” Lightning Dash’s eyes widened enough to be mistaken with two dishes. Sitting at the head of the dining table was a black alicorn, her cyan eyes had slit pupils and her smile wasn’t warm at all, maybe because the murderous intent her eyes were passing. Right then, she wore only some regalia, as a helmet, a torc and four ponyshoes, but nothing for battle. “Nightmare Moon…”

The pegasus’ attention was then brought back to Shadow Blaze, which attacked him again. With a quick spin, Lightning Dash avoided his partner’s attack and looked him in the eye. “Blaze! What are you doing?”

“It seems that my Mother and I share the same destiny of being overshadowed. However, it’s the last time such a thing will happen!”

“Overshadowed? Blaze! Listen to yourself! She’s just poisoning you!” Lightning Dash screamed.

“She is my MOTHER!” and with a burst of fire from his four hooves, Blaze jumped towards Lightning Dash, his armor forming over his dark brown coat as he tried to hit the pegasus.

Not standing idle, though, Lightning Dash used his wings to block the attack, already summoning his own armor in a burst of electricity. The attack of the earth pony made him fly a little higher, but he only back-flipped and with a flap of his wings dashed against Blaze trying for a full body tackle. The earth pony jumped over him and before the pegasus could be targeted even, he rolled aside. Both of them stopped to look eye in eye.

“That will be interesting…” Nightmare Moon said aloud, a cursed smile on her lips.

Author's Note

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND Chapter 12 is out. A preparation for the battles to come and a bit more in the feelings and personalities of our main characters. For those which were surprised, wait! There's a couple more surprises you are still to find out! Both in personalities and in relationships that affects the whole group! Well, see you nex time!

Chapter 13: Clouded Decisions

As their battle intensified, both Lightning Dash and Shadow Blaze felt somewhat a pleasant sensation. As fellow Knights of Harmony, they hardly had a chance to go full out against each other and their rivalry always kept themselves at an edge. Suddenly, hoof connected to hoof and an impressive shockwave knocked even the prepared Nightmare Moon out of her balance for an instant. Both Knights parted and looked at each other from afar, both of them not even close to become tired as yet and none ready to assume the weakest sign of defeat.

“Your skills are impressive,” said the black alicorn, her smile never fading. “Well, let’s see how you deal with unforeseen complications.”

Charging her horn with magic, the alicorn aimed it at the ceiling where a massive cloud cover started forming above the fighting duo. They then shot against each other, none of them giving a damn to the fact that the temperature had cooled about two degrees in less than a second.

****

Scarlet Boulder hid herself behind a stone wall. Her opponent, not able to foresee this, punched right at the hard stone, even if her strength was enough to break through. For Scarlet Boulder, that meant a breach and with a quick punch on the stone wall, it cracked effortlessly and parted in many smaller stones, her hoof passing through it uninterrupted and connecting right into Night Cloud’s chest.

Being thrown backwards by the strong attack, the unicorn mare looked deeply at the red earth mare, anger filling her up, “You’re giving me the nerves already…”

“I’m not giving you anything, silly! Well, maybe a punch or two…” Scarlet Boulder grinned at her.

“How can someone be so impulsive? Don’t you ever stop to listen to the world around you?”

“Of course I don’t,” Scarlet’s sincere smile surprised Night Cloud. “The world is always moving, always walking to a future. Ponies should not stop to listen or they would be left behind. The beauty of the world we live in is its ability to change and evolve and that’s what I’m always listening to. But and you? What are you listening to right now?”

Taken aback by the question, Night Cloud raised an eyebrow, “You know I’m your enemy, right?”

“You are?” Scarlet asked really surprised. “That I remember, my only enemy is Nightmare Moon. She’s an evil pony that must be stopped so Princess Luna comes back. By the way, do you know her?”

“Nightmare Moon and Luna are one and the same,” Night Cloud answered.

“Of course they are, silly,” Scarlet grinned. “But being the same doesn’t mean they aren’t different.”

“You’re not making any sense…”

“Yeah, sometimes life doesn’t make a lick of sense…” Scarlet looked up at the canopy. Among the slowly moving leaves, she could, sometimes, make the form of the moon shining softly into the night.

Night Cloud saw on that the perfect opportunity to attack… only to look at Scarlet Boulder curiously, “You’re… not worried about fighting me?”

“We were fighting?” Scarlet Boulder looked at her again, smiling. “I remember us trading a few attacks. But if it was a fight your armor wouldn’t be in such a shape, neither would mine.”

Night Cloud looked at her puzzled now, “What are you meaning with that? I’ve always been going full force on you!”

“No, you haven’t. You’re holding back, I can feel it,” Scarlet Boulder said with a smile. “Whenever you touch the ground, you’re hesitant, almost as if you don’t want to fight.”

“I-I do not!” Night Cloud yelled at Scarlet.

“Then why haven’t you attacked me when my guard was fully open?” Scarlet Boulder grinned. “The armor you use, it’s called Harmony Armor. Even if yours are a bit different, it is the same as mine.”

“What does that have to do with me holding back?”

“During trainings, my friends and I had to use our full strengths so we could get used to it…” without much of a warning, Scarlet Boulder seemed to disappear from Night Cloud’s view only to reaper at her left side, a powerful punch throwing the Nightmare Shadow a couple meters to her left and, upon touching the ground, the momentum pushed her back another half meter.

Night Cloud looked at her scared and then felt a breeze on her side. Looking there, the plates of her armor located there were completely destroyed, leaving her unprotected coat beneath it.

“All the six of us have trained on full strength for two reasons. The first, so that we could develop our powers even further, the second, so that our armors could endure stronger attacks,” Scarlet Boulder said with a smile. Night Cloud though, gave a couple of steps back.

“You’re monsters…” she said. “You… shouldn’t be that powerful! You… Y-you took too much time to find us in those caverns!”

Scarlet Boulder shook her head, “Actually, no. We noticed instantly. We were reporting to Princess Celestia before getting there.”

“Y-you’re lying…”

“Well, I could be. Honesty is Shadow Blaze’s virtue…”

Then Night Cloud’s eyes widened even more, “Shadow Blaze? You mean… one of our brothers?”

“Hmmm… he did say something about him being a Child of the Night or something…”

Night Cloud giggled then. “So… he’s as powerful as you?”

“Even stronger indeed!” Scarlet Boulder said with a smile. “Both him and Lightning Dash and Ice Sapphire are the most powerful of us all.”

“So it’s true…” Night Cloud said with a smile. “Our Mother had a spy among Celestia’s numbers…”

“A spy?” Scarlet Boulder looked at her curiously.

“Shadow Blaze… He works for our Mother… We were told that one of Mother’s children was infiltrated in Celestia’s numbers, we just never though he would be so powerful!”

“Shadow Blaze isn’t a traitor!”

“Of course he’s not. However, with whom is his loyalty? Your loved Sun Princess or Our even more loved Mother?”

“He’s loyal to us, his friends! He won’t harm us!”

“Our Mother is in good hands now! Thank you for bringing our true leader to her!” Night Cloud smiled and prepared to attack Scarlet Boulder again, “I may not be strong enough to defeat you, but I’m going to give you a lot of trouble!”

****

Lightning Dash performed a back-roll just in time to avoid a large ice stone, big enough to easily crush a full grown pony, Celestia excluded. As soon as it broke apart against the floor, though, Shadow Blaze used the mist it created to attack Lightning Dash by surprise. The strong punch of the earth pony sent the pegasus flying backwards, but Lightning Dash just turned in mid-air, placing both hindhooves on the wall behind him and shooting himself against Shadow Blaze once more.

The earth pony jumped backwards, his four hooves meeting against the cold surface of another falling ice stone, giving him impulse to go higher still. Before the stone could destroy itself with the impact against the ground, Lighting Dash got under it and, focusing his magic, sent it back up against Shadow Blaze. The earth pony, gotten by surprise, charged his attack and destroyed the incoming ice stone, only to find the same trap used against him.

However, instead of punching his enemy, Lightning Dash pressed a hoof against his neck and the whole earth pony’s body against the wall.

“Wake up, Blaze! She’s just using you! She’s not your mother yet, but Nightmare Moon!” Lightning Dash tried again.

After a cough, Shadow Blaze tried to take the hoof from his neck, “You know… nothing…”

“Then help me… Help me get Princess Luna back! Then you can tell me what really happened…”

Shadow Blaze then kneed Lightning Dash’s belly and, in that moment of surprise, the earth pony turned in a back-flip and kicked Lightning Dash’s muzzle with his hind hooves, falling back safely at the floor. The pegasus looked at him, his wings flapping strong still. Besides their strong and serious battle, both ponies could feel each other enjoying the battle. A smile crossed both their faces.

“You won’t surrender, neither will I…” Lightning Dash said as a matter of fact. “The first to lose admit he’s wrong?”

“Suits me fine.” Shadow Blaze agreed, his four hooves erupting in flames.

Electric sparks enveloped Lightning Dash’s hooves as well, “So be it!”

Shadow Blaze jumped against Lightning Dash once more. From her vantage point, Nightmare Moon had cancelled her ice storm, now just watching their fight. They were a match to the long gone Knights of Harmony. Maybe Celestia continued the order in her absence? No. Or else, her Children, specially the Nightmare Shadows, would have said to her.

****

Night Cloud shot another magical blast against Scarlet Boulder, which simply jumped to the side. Getting furious against the earth mare, the unicorn charged her horn to cast her most powerful spell. However, Scarlet Boulder looked at her still smiling. Upon seeing a dark cloud slowly growing from Night Cloud’s horn, she jumped backwards and kicked a stone against it, only to see the stone be consumed by the dark cloud.

“Surprised huh?” Night Cloud chuckled. “My Dark Matter Cloud will dissolve anything that it touches!”

The earth mare’s smile, then, faded, “So you’re fighting serious?”

“Don’t come with that bullshit of you be just playing! When you broke my armor, you got me distracted so my magic diminished!” She straightened her body and took a step forward, “What are you going to do?”

Step after step, Scarlet Boulder walked towards the cloud that surrounded her enemy completely. As her body touched it, Night Cloud firstly thought she would scream in pain, but nothing came. Not too long later, Scarlet Boulder appeared right in front of her, having crossed the whole cloud and without any damage to her armor at all. The Nightmare Shadow’s eyes widened a lot more and before she could say anything, Scarlet Boulder punched her right in the chest. The impact sent the unicorn flying backwards, her cloud slowly dispersing, and a couple trees breaking under the pressure of her body, the chest plate completely gone after the attack.

Night Cloud got up and looked at Scarlet Boulder, fear in her eyes, “That was… That was moon metal… how could you break though it?”

“So your armors aren’t magical?” Scarlet Boulder asked. “Well, that makes mine a lot more powerful than yours. As you can see, I was playing. I don’t like to hurt other ponies. I prefer to give them a chance to be happy, to make a choice for a better future. But it seems you already made yours right?”

Night Cloud slowly stepped back, “You’re a monster…”

Scarlet Boulder closed her eyes, “Monster, assassin, guardian, hero, villain… I swear I would be whatever Equestria needed me to. That’s what it means to be a Knight of Harmony. However, you can count your blessings. My General asked for prisoners, so I won’t kill you.”

“You… won’t catch me! I can teleport!”

“And I can track you. Geomancy, remember? Whenever you pop up, I’ll be there. And we’ll see who’s going to get tired first,” Scarlet Boulder said.

“You can’t be that fast!”

“I don’t actually need to,” Scarlet Boulder answered, her tone surprisingly calm.

“What?”

“Earth. It’s everywhere,” then, a small amount of earth rose from the ground and covered Scarlet Boulder’s hooves. Before Night Cloud could say anything, Scarlet Boulder disappeared from her sight, only to stand behind her. “By moving the earth around my hooves with my geomancy, I can move faster than any pony else.”

Night Cloud instinctively turned to face Scarlet Boulder and jumped backwards to get away from her, “I-i-it’s impossible! What kind of metal is your armor made of by the way? To resist my Dark Matter Cloud…”

“Metal?” Scarlet Boulder asked. “My armor is the representation of my wish to protect other ponies. It’s made by magic and enforced by my wish to protect others, different from yours.”

“Such a thing… doesn’t exist!”

Scarlet Boulder then only looked at her one more time deep into her eyes, “You can hear my thoughts. Wouldn’t you know if I was lying?”

“Dear Mother…” she said, “Please help me!”

“Oh, don’t bother her, please. She won’t be there that fast!” and then Scarlet Boulder launched herself against Night Cloud.

With her armor gone, the unicorn only closed her eyes and waited for the final blow, which never came. Opening her eyes slowly, she noticed Scarlet’s armored hoof stopped right in front of her eyes. Then, the Amazon softly placed her hoof on Night Cloud’s face and then smiled.

“Now I remember from where I know you…” Scarlet Boulder said.

“What?”

“About thirteen years ago… we were only five at Littlehorn, both going at school there…” Scarlet placed her hoof down, “I remember, your parents were royal guards, right? And you wanted to protect everypony… What happened to you?”

“What… you…” and finally Night Cloud’s ability, reading Scarlet’s thoughts, recognized her, “No… you couldn’t be…”

Scarlet Boulder giggled, “Yeah, I know, my mane wasn’t this untamed back then. I just grew tired of taking that long a care of it every day. But may I know why you decided to fight against pony kind?”

Night Cloud’s face closed in fury, “Or so you say! I wouldn’t expect anything from someone that works under that tyrant…”

“Tyrant?” Scarlet Boulder looked puzzled now.

“Celestia!” Night Cloud almost shouted in fury. “She thinks that she can choose which ponies live or die!”

“Oh? How comes?”

“You probably don’t know… but Celestia sent fifty ponies to a death trap in the Griffin Kingdom seven years ago.”

“You mean the mission to help the peace agreement between the griffin and hippogriff?” Scarlet Boulder asked, surprising Night Cloud. “It was not a death trap, silly. My parents were there and they’re not dead! Indeed there was a big fight there and many ponies lost their lives… But it was not Celestia’s fault. Some nasty griffins didn’t want peace and they attacked. As they returned, my parents left the Guards and joined my grandma’s rock farm where I grew up!”

“What? But Mother said it was Celestia’s fault…”

Scarlet Boulder closed her eyes, “It seems like you have been used, Night…”

“And I am very sorry for your loss, my little pony,” even Scarlet Boulder was taken aback by that voice’s owner. Celestia walked among the forest as if it was just a stroll by the park. “Night Cloud, is it?”

“C-C-…” Night Cloud gulped. “Princess Celestia?”

Much to the surprise of everypony, Celestia bowed to Night Cloud, “I’m really sorry for your parents, Night Cloud. That was a mission nopony suspected to take a turn to the worse. But I haven’t send ponies at my will. I asked for volunteers. Your parents were very dedicated to the Royal Guards, and their names shall be forever remembered as the heroes they were in that battle.”

“H-heroes?” she asked.

Celestia just nodded with a warm smile, “Two brave ponies that put themselves between the enemies’ spears and their targets. All the Guards mourned their pass, but when I was about to break the notice, their little child had already ran way and nopony knew where to.”

Night Cloud wanted to scream it was a lie, that Celestia was faking it all, that nopony was right only her Mother, but Celestia not even resisted her mind-reading abilities, different from her Mother that never let her listen to her thoughts. Celestia’s thoughts matched precisely what she said and Night Cloud was confused beyond words. Finally the unicorn mare couldn’t hold on any longer, broke down and cried.

Celestia softly hugged Night Cloud and turned to Scarlet Boulder, “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of her. Lightning Dash and Blaze are in the castle deep in this forest. You must join then as soon as possible.”

Scarlet Boulder only placed a hoof on Night Cloud’s shoulder, “Don’t worry, friend. That monster that lied to you will pay! I will bring a pony which you can really call your Mother! I promise!”

And then, Scarlet Boulder turned around, rushing towards the old castle.

Author's Note

Finally chapter 13! Sorry guys. Took a really long while! Got some problems to solve though and I can't promise a scheduled constant upload of stories right now. I will try though. Thanks for your patience and hope you like it!

Chapter 14: Precious

Nightmare Moon had to fly way from the chair she was sitting on. Shadow Blaze, with a strong punch, sent Lightning Dash flying right against it, reducing the chair to nothing more than splinters and the stuffing scattered everywhere and sliding a few meters on his back. Not giving up, though, Lightning Dash slammed both fore hooves on the floor and back-rolled, facing against his rival once more.

Both Knights of Harmony were smiling, despite their intentions of killing each other. The link they shared thanks to Cadance told them both were enjoying this fight and in return, they gave their most so the other also had someone to fight with all their strength. In spite of all their provoking shouts and insults, their bond was slowly increasing along the battle they fought.

From a vantage point, Nightmare Moon could see another fast and strong series of punches shared among the colts. Not wanting to be caught off guard, she had already summoned her most powerful armor. If worse came to worst, she would be ready. For the first time in millennia, Nightmare Moon felt a strange excitement for she couldn’t foresee the result of that one battle.

And with that distraction, neither could she listen to her numbers fighting against Celestia’s.

****

Golden Breeze had to summon again her wind barrier to stop another of Onyx Star’s powerful punches. Her opponent was unbelievably strong and sturdy, more like an earth pony given wings than a proper pegasus. Instead of teleporting, though, Golden Breeze preferred to block his attacks, for it more often than not opened his guard for a quick, besides seemingly useless, series of attacks.

After one of those series of attacks, Onyx Star was thrown back and he then flapped his wings, stopping above a tree’s trunk and smiling.

“You’re not half bad, I must admit…”

“Said the pony that can’t land a hit at all,” Golden Breeze said.

“That’s because you keep summoning your barrier!” he answered a bit more anger than she thought he would. “But once you run out of mana…”

“Not going to happen in your life,” Golden Breeze answered. “You think I’m wasting mana on the barriers? I barely use more than the usual amount for cloud manipulation…”

“What?”

“In the case you haven’t noticed, I use wind magic, which is part of weather magic all pegasus are born with. All I do is focusing my weather and flight magic and the result is a pressure barrier, created by the wind in front of me.”

“It can’t be that simple!” Onyx Star shouted.

“Too bad it is.”

Onyx Star then jumped and flew right against Golden Breeze, with the yellow pegasus ready to create another wind wall, but instead of doing that, though, she gave a back-roll. The Nightmare Shadow’s punch passed harmlessly over her and whit her hindlegs Golden Breeze locked him by the neck and threw his body against the forest ground, making a rather large cloud of dust rise.

“You really thought I would use that again after you learned how to pass through that?” Golden Breeze looked at him. “Or you really thought I wouldn’t feel you charging your weather magic?”

“Somehow” the voice of Onyx Star came from the thick dust cloud, “you can feel the mana around you… Well… Let me tell you something about me… When I was born…” Golden Breeze heard him flapping his wings but no magic was charging up. Useless: for the size of a pegasus, their wings had to be much longer or they have to be much stronger than their bodies can handle to fly without magical assistance.

And even so, in less than a second, Onyx Star was there, face to face with her, and her senses told her he wasn’t using magic at all, “I was born an earth pony.”

With barely any warning, Golden Breeze put up another wind barrier, but this time, Onyx Star’s punch crossed right through it with sheer strength, earth pony strength in a pegasus body probably enhanced by Nightmare Moon’s power!

Even with her armor, the punch hurt a lot on her and she was sent flying. Her wings and magic only managed to stop her a couple meters later. She looked into Onyx Star’s eyes, the pegasus stallion with an angry look in his face and an evil smile in his muzzle.

“You... What have you done?” Golden Breeze asked.

“I just give up my connection with the earth. All I ever dreamed was to be able to fly, see the world from above! But I had to be born an earth pony!” he almost spat on those last words. “There wasn’t a single moment in my life when I didn’t regret being born as a wingless piece of trash!”

“How can you say something like that about earth ponies? They are as much important part of Equestria as pegasi!”

“HA! As if! Without the pegasus to bring rain and open the sky for sun’s light, they’re as worthless as mud!”

“And without the food earth ponies produces, pegasi are worth the same. For we can’t cultivate anything on clouds and without the earth pony magic to enhance their crops, food production would be delayed beyond the limits we can think of!”

“And what? A little planning in advance and that’s covered!” Onyx Star smiled at her once more. “Earth ponies aren’t worth the dirt on their hooves! THEY ARE A WASTE OF LI--”

Before he could finish, Onyx Star was surprised by Golden Breeze connection a hoof to his face. So strong was her attack, the earth-pony-turned-pegasus was sent back to the ground. The small headpiece protection his head crumbled and now was scattered to the floor.

“Do not dare say something like that ever again,” Golden Breeze’s voice wasn’t furious, neither was it hateful. No, her voice was deadly calm. “They don’t have any inherited ability but being sturdy and resistant. However, they honed that to bring life and joy to Equestria without asking anything in return.”

“You… broke a… moon metal armor…?” Onyx Star looked at her now wide-eyed.

“There’s a reason why I decided to become a Royal Guard,” Golden Breeze commented. “All I wanted was to give others the life I didn’t have, a life they could live without worrying every second for their lives and their loved ones… And I won’t let somepony like you say anything against them!”

****

Lightning Dash dived, avoiding another of Shadow Blaze’s strong fire-infused hooves. He then punched the immense and surprisingly intact table so it lifted well above the ground, held it with his fore hooves and hit Shadow Blaze with it as if it was a club. The earth pony screamed in pain when the heavy stone table was smashed against the floor, breaking in smaller pieces.

Nightmare Moon watched their deadly match with surprise. It has been so long she has seen a fight like this. These fighters were at par with the long gone Knights of Harmony when they trained with all their strength. Maybe these two would pay to be nurtured in her army when she took over control?

Then, she noticed something. As strong as they were attacking each other, their armors weren’t even cracking in the slightest. Were they holding back? Not a chance. The first to hold back dies. Were they getting stronger? Possible, but that’s a process that, at the soonest, take dozens of years of intense training.

“What are you…” she whispered.

Suddenly, a flash of light take over the whole room.

****

Golden Breeze darted once more against Onyx Star. The scared pegasus’s armor was becoming nothing more than shards of metal scattered on the forest’s floor.

“You monster! Leave me alone!”

The golden pegasus mare just flapped her wings stronger and reached the stallion. With a somersault, one of her hind hooves hit straight on his back, sending him to the ground. She then landed at his side, looking him in the eye.

“You call me a monster. However, it’s you whom attack innocent people,” she said simply. “And also, it was you whom gave up your true self just to gain wings. You’re a spawn of a lost mind and not even a pony anymore.”

“What?” he asked fearful.

Golden Breeze raised an armored hoof.

Star Onyx’s eyes widened in fear.

“Enough,” a gently voice coming from somewhere else stopped what would happen next.

“You said… we’d do what was needed…” Golden Breeze said, not giving in her position at all.

“Even so, let’s not spit blood unless there’s no other way at all,” Celestia said. Only then the pegasus mare sighed and got off her prisoner.

Celestia focused her magic and, in a blink of eyes, Onyx Star was teleported to somewhere else. Only the white regal alicorn and the two Knights of Harmony at each of her sides continued the journey. Scarlet Boulder and Golden Breeze now walked tranquil at Celestia’s side.

****

“General Celestia…” Scarlet Boulder said after some time they were walking. “If you are there, why send us to fight Nightmare Moon? You have much more chances of breaking her armor…”

“I do have more power than you, my little ponies,” Celestia answered simply. “However, I also have something else that you don’t. Nightmare Moon, deep inside, is still Luna. I can’t fight her again…”

“Why not?” Golden Breeze asked curiously. “If you won, it could…” as she saw Celestia’s headshake the pegasus stopped mid-sentence.

“I can’t. The first time I fought with her, I couldn’t fight her full force. Time has not improved that ability any.” She then turned to face Golden Breeze, “Answer me, sincerely. If it was your sister, Golden Breeze, would you fight her with all your strength to save her?”

“I…” Golden Breeze downed her head for a moment. “I should have… I mean… If I did, maybe she would be alive today…”

“You should have all right, just as I should.” Celestia answered raising her head to look forward again. “However, would you? That was my question after all.” There was no answer. “That’s my actual dilemma, you see. I love my sister dearly, but she’s unreachable to me. I can’t fight her, I can’t even break her armor, for if I attack her stronger than I need to, she could be hurt. I just… can’t.

“You, in the other hand, have no such limitations. Nightmare Moon is somepony you had grown up to fear and avoid. Given the chance, you could destroy her with your full strength. That’s why it must be you. I’ll stay close, but for different reasons. If all go wrong, I’ll be here to protect the innocent, just like I did long ago.”

Scarlet Boulder and Golden Breeze shared a glance and nodded. They made a decision on that very moment: no matter what’s the cost, Nightmare Moon had to be stopped!

After making up their minds, both ponies looked at Celestia, which never stopped walking, and bowed quickly before taking each of her sides. Suddenly, the regal white alicorn stopped and looked at them.

“From there, my knights, our paths diverges. I have priorities that must be addressed without delay. Your destination is the Castle inside this forest--”

“I already know, General. I felt the magic signature of a powerful being coming from that Castle,” Golden Breeze commented.

“Never expected less from you,” Celestia nodded with a smile before teleporting away in a flash of light.

Scarlet Boulder and Golden Breeze nodded and trotted towards the castle in a straight line, their eyes filled with determination stronger than before.

****

Celestia appeared at the bottom of a ravine and sighed heavily. She looked straight into the dark sky, a tear crossing her face.

“I’m so very sorry, my knights, for you have to take this burden. However, I finally have the chance to undo my mistake of a thousand years ago... This chance must not slip...”

She then focused her magic. It was close to the time she should be appearing at the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville, and she was preparing herself. A small swirl of magic began to form around her body, seeming like a golden mist and, after encasing all her body, it start changing color, from bright golden to dark blue. She then opened her large wings to look at her preparations: a black coat covered her body protected by a minimal armor mostly on her head, back and chest and the four ponyshoes she wore in a dark blue color. Her flank wasn’t adorned by her stylized sun anymore, but by a crescent moon inside a purple cloud-like shape.

The disguised Celestia then charged her magic, now with an extra charge of spell to turn her magic a dark blue hue, before she transformed herself into a cloud of very dark blue mist just as like her new ethereal dark blue mane and tail.

And the disguised Celestia headed to the Ponyville’s town hall.

Chapter 15: Fading Shadows

Ice met shadow and snow dust was all that remained above the river. Ice Sapphire and Night Poet kept their deadly battle with all their strength, the hooves of the Amazon of Harmony freezing the water so she would have proper footing while the Nightmare Shadow only used the water properly as if it was solid. Punches and kicks were aimed at each other as well as their best attack magic.

With a higher and longer jump, Night Poet enveloped herself in a cloud of dark magic and vanished from sight, only to reappear at Ice Sapphire’s back. The unicorn teleported as well in a bright flash and reappeared just above her opponent, her magic fully charged and aimed.

However, the shield erected by the Nightmare Shadow was strong enough to freeze and keep holding back the attack of the falling Ice Sapphire. Kicking against the shield, she back-flipped and landed easily on the, now frozen, water again.

Night Poet then threw herself against Ice Sapphire again, her maniacal smile never fading as she attacked again and again. “You feel it don’t you?” she asked between chuckles and attacks. “The pressure of fighting somepony way stronger than yourself!”

Ice Sapphire then blocked the next attack with an ice shield and countered with a strong punch crossing effortlessly through her solid frost barrier and slamming easily on her opponent’s face. The earth pony mare splashed a large amount of water as she dived into the river. Soon enough, though, a hoof came from under the water’s surface and held on it like it was solid ground, pulling Night Poet back up to stand still over the liquid surface, still smiling and still chuckling.

“Shiny, shiny, Sapphire mare,” Night Poet began singing with her half-mad voice.
“Time has come for you to share!
Give me life and give me joy!
Give me your love to destroy!
Shiny, shiny, Sapphire mare!
You will die right now and there!”

And the mad pony jumped against her again. However, those little rhymes hit Ice Sapphire in a way she couldn’t figure. She remembered from her fillyhood, her mother singing a similar song with a much more beautiful message. That year had been the hardest on her hometown and, if not by the help of Canterlot, it was expected half of the village to die out of hunger, not to mention the cold outside their homes.

She had seen, even with those strong stallions from the royal guard helping, many a child dying in the arms of their parents or playing in their last moments together in the park with their families. Sometimes, only the children would survive to see their parents dying by the sheer cold from that particularly harsh winter.

Ice Sapphire had seen the joy being ripped apart from the hearts of innocent fillies and colts, she had seen the strongest of the adults to weaken and perish, she had seen the faith disappear and give place to despair… But throughout all that, she had been shielded by the love her mother had given her. A love she would never feel again…

Night Poet was barely two inches from touching Ice Sapphire’s face when she suddenly could move her own hoof anymore.

“You… You wanted me with all my fury out, didn’t you?” Ice Sapphire asked, her eyes still closed as her memories kept crossing her mind one after the other.

“Your telekinesis won’t hold me much you know...” Night Poet chuckled and focused her power to free her hoof... only to find it useless. “What?”

Throwing her opponent backwards as if she weighted nothing, Ice Sapphire kept ‘looking’ at Night Poet with her eyes closed. Suddenly, her whole body began to freeze. Night Poet looked at her and then at her own hoof, which now she noticed was covered in a thin ice layer.

Ice Sapphire suddenly opened her eyes and the frozen armor seemed to explode from her, covering her body in an icy mist and slowly revealing an armor of soft curves all around her body in a dark blue color, shining almost as if a sapphire armor itself. The edges were covered in soft white shades with four delicate-looking ponyshoes, the legs and shoulders protected by somewhat larger plates, a single chest plate with a shining white snow-crystal shape in the front, and a tiara that had a small tendril wrapped around her horn. A surprise even to Celestia herself when she saw it, for almost no armor envelops the horns in any way.

“You too have an armor, eh?” Night Poet asked with a chuckle.

“Don’t go thinking it’s anything like your piece of metal you call armor,” Ice Sapphire paraphrased something one of the Nightmare Shadows had told them on their first meeting.

“So you found out how to summon armor. Big deal...”

Punching against the air, Ice Sapphire lanced an ice spike almost touching Night Poet’s face. The mare now had her eyes widened.

“I am Ice Sapphire, Amazon of Harmony representing the Virtue of Laughter. And I found you guilty of disrupting peace on Equestria and threatening the life of innocent ponies.”

“I couldn’t feel your mana on that spell…” Night Poet said, still frozen in terror.

“Of course you haven’t. See my tiara? It took me long enough to figure it out. I have a subtle talent that is very rare among unicorns. I can use the ambient mana to cast my spells.”

With that, Night Poet’s eyes would get even wider if that was possible. But the implications of that statement caused her to react fast enough to jump and avoid being trapped in an ice stone that appeared out of nowhere. From her vantage point, she could see the magic focusing on Ice Sapphire’s horn and she touching it to the water. Suddenly a thick layer of ice spread under the unicorn, growing more and more in a circle around her and then, when it reached both edges of the river, walls were erected thick as the floor and upon raising above Night Poet’s actual height, it closed with an equally thick ice roof. The Nightmare Shadow landed and looked at Ice Sapphire and around inside her ice room.

“This is what I call the Crystal Palace. Unless you’re exponentially stronger than me, you won’t be able to leave these walls by any means, including teleportation, unless I’m defeated,” she said with deadly finality. “However, the same is not true for me. Enjoy your ice prison for as long as you last.”

Not caring much about Night Poet, Ice Sapphire just turned around and walked towards the wall. Desperate, the mad mare darted against Sapphire. “YOU WON’T LEAVE ME THERE!”

A thick ice wall erupted right in front of Night Poet and barred her attack. Those barriers continued to slow her down enough that Ice Sapphire reached the wall and, as if it was not there, the Amazon just walked right through it. The Nightmare Shadow screamed in outright fury as she pounded against the wall.

Outside, Ice sapphire looked back at the Crystal Palace and just nodded as it began to shrink on itself. Some would say it was impossible, but what was truly happening was that the magic was consuming itself and then the internal space would get smaller and smaller with each passing moment. What would happen once it got smaller than Night Poet’s size? She didn’t know for she has never let it happen. But for the first time ever, she wasn’t worried by the consequences.

Instead to wait and see what would happen, she began trotting towards the castle again. Her battle held her long enough, though, that soon Golden Breeze and Scarlet Boulder joined her.

“Hey Sapphy!” Scarlet started. “How does your battle ends?”

“I fought with Night Poet. She’s now trapped over the river we were fighting over,” Ice Sapphire answered simply. “Got any news?”

“Celestia herself is acting,” Golden Breeze answered. “She said she would prepare the scenery for the ponies to take over after we’ve dealt with Nightmare Moon’s armor.”

“We’re on a time table then… Let’s hurry!”

“I wonder who’s the next to be left behind to fight?” Scarlet Boulder asked.

****

Another tree accidentally got in the way of Shining Armor and Dusk Shield and another tree accidentally were turned into magic dust. Both ponies were protected by a strong personal round shield while jumping around, shooting strong magical blasts at each other. Whenever they met halfway, whatever was between them was destroyed.

Shining Armor gave a somersault and launched a quick barrage of blasts at Dusk Shield, which then jumped backwards and threw a small magic wall in front of her. Much as she suspected, that was an armor piercing spell, but that wall took that in consideration so her personal shield was unharmed when the blasts hit against it. Trotting right against her, Shining Armor readied another strong blast of magic, only to have it easily countered by Dusk Shield. Whomever this child was, she was damn good!

When the distance was enough, Shining Armor collapsed his own shield, going with his bare hooves against Dusk Shield. Much to his surprise, her shield also collapsed and she blocked his hooves with hers, also bare. Then she span around and kicked him in the face with one hind hoof. Shining Armor placed a hoof in the ground, impulses himself backwards in a back-roll and shot another blast at her. Dusk Shield summoned another barrier, but even so, that sudden blast kinda got her off-guard. Partially blinded, she haven’t noticed the bright teleportation spell he has cast to appear behind her and kick her on her side. The smaller mare rolled, placed a hoof on the ground and impulse herself back upright.

Both of them were once again face-to-face against each other. And both were ready to make it last as long as they could.

“Why allying to Nightmare Moon?” Shining Armor asked, turning the once physical-magical battle also into a mental one.

“I don’t have to “ally” to my Mother. She’ll come back and then we’ll rule over the world as it should be,” Dusk Shield answered. “I don’t believe you have to be asked why you follow your precious sun princess”, the sarcasm on her voice palpable.

“We will not allow that,” Shining Armor said, his eyes never leaving Dusk Shield’s. “After I’m done with you, I’ll join Dash and Blaze, and we’ll stop Nightmare Moon once and for all.”

“You’re having trouble to fight against me! You’ll be no threat to our mother!”

“Then why are you bothering with us?” Shining Armor smiled provokingly.

Dusk Shield got angered by that remark, racing once more towards Shining Armor. He, though, didn’t stay still, also running towards her. Both unicorns flashed their horns and the whole scenery went bright, with only the sound of clashes of hooves and the magical blasts guiding whoever passed by.

When the light died down, Shining Armor was with his back to the bridge leading towards the old castle and Dusk Shield with her back to the forest itself. It was then that Shining Armor said clear:

“The game is over, Dusk! Surrender already!”

“We’re evenly matched, Shining Armor! Why do you think it’s over?”

“Evenly matched? I don’t think so.”

Shining Armor focused his magic once more and Dusk Shield prepared to defend another attack.

However, the captain of the Royal Guard wasn’t going to attack Dusk Shield. Instead, he focused his magic on himself, covering his body on raw pinkish magic aura, slowly intensifying until a light blue armor, close in shape to a common Royal Guard’s armor, appeared protecting his body. But no Royal Guard’s armor ever had the light blue color with lines in gold and purple, also having a dark blue shield with a pink six-pointed star in its center right at the chest. No, it was Shining Armor’s Harmony Armor. Not much a surprise to anypony, really.

Dusk Shield, though, smiled and shook her head. “That’s all?” she asked.

Shining Armor also got surprised and soon enough Dusk Shield charged her horn and covered herself in a dark cloud. Slowly it began to shape right into her body’s form and, slowly, began to solidify, revealing a deep dark gray armor with small plates linked tightly by chain-like connections and a larger plate on each of her forelegs. Right in the middle of her chest, though, Shining Armor could easily notice the same light silver round shield with a dark five-point star-shaped cloud in its center. Noticing the soft curves of the armor around her whole body while still seeming hardened to battle, Shining Armor quickly deduced it was a Harmony Armor, not barely a summoned one.

“Harmony Armor?”

“This is a Nightmare Armor, dimwit,” Dusk Shield answered. “Mother said she would bring back some strong ancient spells and I was the first to have the blessing to do it. However, we did fail in noticing Celestia would also teach the Nightmare Armor spell.”

Dusk Shield was ready to start the battle once more when a voice said behind her: “No, it’s a Harmony Armor, created by the long forgotten Knights of Harmony.”

The child looked behind her and saw Ice Sapphire walking towards her followed by Scarlet Boulder and Golden Breeze. Her eyes widened.

“You… shouldn’t be there!” Dusk Shield almost yelled. “Were are my brothers and sisters?”

“Detained,” Golden Breeze answered. “As you’ll be. And please, think things through. Even with a Harmony Armor, you’re strongly outnumbered.”

Dusk Shield only sat in her place, her eyes wide not believing what she had heard. Her Mother had given them powers beyond imagination of anypony else… And these ponies defeated them?

Shining Armor noticed her shock and walked behind her, already charging his horn. As he got into range, his magic chained her legs and covered her horn, restraining her completely. As soon as her horn was sealed to not use magic, her armor turned once more in a dark cloud and disappeared in midair.

“We don’t have time to take her back to anywhere we could detain her. She comes with us,” Shining Armor said and the other three just nodded. The full group then, turned and rushed towards the castle where Lightning Dash and Shadow Blaze should be facing Nightmare Moon.

It was time for the truth.

Chapter 16: Truth or Nightmare

Nightmare Moon was so interested in the battle in front of her that the world around was blank. Nothing existed except the two ponies battling to the death. One a bright yellow pegasus and the other a deep brown earth pony, both stallions and both using armor that you couldn’t find anywhere.

Lightning Dash zigzagged at high speed, evading everything Shadow Blaze threw at him, but his punch failed miserably to make contact as the earth pony blocked effortlessly. Their techniques were indeed excellent, but too much evenly matched in battle so it wouldn’t end anytime soon. The earth pony clearly had a lot more of energy to burn, but burned it all that quicker as well while the pegasus seemed to focus on the efficiency of energy usage to save the reserves he didn’t have in abundance like his opponent. The pegasus’s attacks were faster rather than stronger, creating breaches in the earth pony’s defenses to be exploited, but he was so much stronger than the pegasus that his defenses were almost useless against the crushing blows, once more leveling them up.

However, she wasn’t that careless. Lighting Dash missed another attack, the fifth in such a short time, hitting a table that went flying right at Nightmare Moon’s face with such force that a normal pony would be hardly pressed to dodge. She wasn’t a normal pony, though, and she only moved a roof to break the wood in nothing more than splinters. Somehow, the pegasus was trying to fight against her while fighting his enemy. She laughed at that and decided that, if he wanted her to join in battle, she would fulfill his wishes. When she gave her first step, though, Shadow Blaze stopped right in front of her.

“Don’t worry, Mother. I can take care of him,” Shadow Blaze said.

“No, you can’t, Shadow Blaze,” she said in a neutral tone.

Surprised, he looked back at her and the whole scene changed in a fraction of second. With one wing, Nightmare Moon has pushed Shadow Blaze against her chest and with the other; she pressed the sharp blades at her wings’ edges to his neck. A drop of blood crossed her blades and, needless to say, Lightning Dash just stopped, looking at Nightmare Moon with much more fury than before.

“You shall surrender, or else your friend will pay for your crime,” Nightmare Moon said clearly.

“You can’t be serious!” Lightning Dash yelled, while Shadow Blaze stood still, astonished at the turn of events. Her mother was just using her opponent’s emotions to affirm her victory… right? “Isn’t he one of yours? How could you try and kill him?”

“I don’t want to, but I can. Soldiers can always be trained.” The cold voice on which she said that made Shadow Blaze’s eyes widen in fear for his life. However, the blade on his neck kept him still. “I really would prefer not killing someone as strong as Shadow Blaze here, but it’s a sacrifice I’ll do if I have to.”

“He looked at you as his Mother!”

“And that’s why it pains me we had to reach this point. You’ll surrender, pegasus, or else.”

A tense half minute passed before Lightning Dash sighed and said, “Fine”, his armor disappearing in a burst of electricity. In the following second, though, he was hit in the chest by a blast of magic and thrown against a wall on the other side of the room, making a deep crack on it with his body. Nightmare Moon laughed at the scene.

However, her senses kicked in and she noticed what truly happened. It wasn’t the pegasus that crashed against the wall. It was an earth pony mare wearing a ridiculously large armor that, if she wasn’t mistaken, was shaped to form a shield. The pegasus was harmlessly nested on her arms. Harmless would be a very relative term of course, if that magic blast had connected at all. Since among the newcomers there were two unicorns, also wearing what, for now, she was sure were harmony armors. And all of a sudden, her eyes widened and she teleported herself, evading for very little an attack from behind from a pegasus mare, as silent as the wind itself. The four newcomers were, also, bringing a prisoner of their own: Dusk Shield was just outside the dinning room, her horn covered in what would be a spell-blocker enchantment.

“Dash… you’re alright?” Scarlet Boulder asked.

“I’m fine. Our unicorns saved me just in time,” he got up and looked back at Nightmare Moon. “However, she got a hostage.”

“There’s no one out there to be held hostage!” Ice Sapphire called out.

The dust then settled, revealing a very pissed Nightmare Moon holding tightly a surprised and now fearful Shadow Blaze in her paws and wings. All of them let out a gasp of shock.

That included Dusk Shield.

“I’VE TOLERATED TOO MUCH FOOLISHNESS ALREADY!” Nightmare Moon yelled at them. “As I told that pegasus, you’ll all surrender, unless you’re not afraid of endangering your friend’s life!”

They all tensed in place, looking at Lightning Dash. If they tried to use anything, they knew she would feel it, so that meant Scarlet Boulder couldn’t use her ability to allow them to communicate. Also there was the major fact that Lightning Dash have surrendered. Celestia named him the leader. So if he decided…

One by one, the Knights of Harmony allowed their armors to collapse. One vanishing as magic, one breaking apart as ice, another as dust, and the last one just vaporizing with the breeze. Nightmare Moon smiled at them.

“So foolish. You were supposed to pay any price to protect Equestria. That is, if you were Knights of Harmony…” she laughed. A malicious laugh echoed through the empty corridors of the empty decayed castle. Dusk Shield’s eyes were as wide as Shadow Blaze’s once were. However, he wasn’t feeling shocked anymore. A turmoil of emotions overtook him. He couldn’t focus at all in anything.

“Mother! What are you doing?” Dusk Shield asked. She was still tied and her magic blocked.

Nightmare Moon looked at her, a cold stare right into Dusk Shield’s eyes sent a chill down her spine. Then the alicorn began: “You of all persons here have no right to ask me my methods. You’ve lost to them after all the training I gave you. I thought you and the other Shadows were powerful enough to at least defeat some ridiculous ponies like these. But not even that you could accomplish.” And if those words weren’t enough to Dusk Shield’s ears, Nightmare Moon shoot the last ones intending to kill all her hopes: “You’re too weak for me to call a daughter.”

Dusk Shield’s world fell. All her strength, all her conviction, all her dedication… It would only be ‘good enough’ while she kept winning… was that it? There was no light in that darkness? No star in the clouded night sky ahead of her?

Shining Armor’s enchantments keeping her bond simply vanished. Set to stand strong against Dusk Shield’s escaping attempts, now that she was utterly powerless mentally and spiritually, the enchantment was so weak it broke on itself. And the filly just stood there, laying, her eyes wide… and crying, calling a Mother that wouldn’t answer her, her voice nothing more than a whisper, if that loud.

“Anyway, we have matters to attend now,” Nightmare Moon called their attention back, all five of them ready for whatever Nightmare Moon would throw at them.

However, even she was surprised when Lightning Dash smiled. “Finally!”

With a warcry, Lightning Dash threw himself forward, a burst of static creating once more his armor. He was so abrupt and so unexpected that even nightmare Moon couldn’t react in time… and when she tried, she felt a hoof strongly against her belly and a fire ball took place of the pony once her hostage. In an impulse, she got rid of the fireball, just to have Lightning Dash connect a blinding series of punches right at her face. After the last was delivered, the pegasus flapped his wings out of the way so a burning hoof could hit her right in the chest, sending her flying against the opposing wall.

Lightning Dash and Shadow Blaze stood there, side by side, their armors summoned and both in battle instances.

The other four Knights of Harmony smiled, didn’t question anything and quickly entered battle instance alongside their partners, also summoning their armors. Lightning Dash was the first to talk.

“I thought we had lost you.”

“What she told Dusk Shield broke my shock. Then your emotions hit me as the friendship express,” Shadow Blaze answered with a smile. “And you all were right. This monster isn’t my Mother. My Mother is Princess Luna!”

Dusk Shield’s ears twitched at that. But… Mother Luna and Mother Nightmare Moon… they are the same…

“Our mission is to break Nightmare Moon’s armor!” Lightning Dash reminded them. “We’ll free Princess Luna after we deal with that!”

Free… Mother Luna? Dusk Shield’s thoughts were clouded. But she’s free… She will bring… eternal night…

“ENOUGH!” the stones erupted and Nightmare Moon revealed herself once more. “Break my armor? Free Princess Luna? That’s bullshit! My name is now, and forever, Nightmare Moon! QUEEN[/n] Nightmare Moon! And you’ll treat me with my due respect!”

She threw herself at them at impossible speed. Her movements were much faster than they could follow, so Scarlet Boulder was the first to receive a strong attack and be sent flying towards the ceiling with an uppercut. It was barely half a second for them to understand what happened and Nightmare Moon wasn’t there anymore. One by one, she attacked the other Knights of Harmony: Shadow Blaze hit a pillar, Ice Sapphire was imprinted to the floor, Shining Armor hit Golden Breeze head on and Lightning Dash was sent right at the door’s frame, his back bending so much that, if it wasn’t for his armor, it would be already broken in half.

When they all connected the floor about the same time, except Ice Sapphire, of course, their armors were all cracked with a single attack each. The difference of powers were far too much for them. They only managed to hit Nightmare Moon because they were able to catch her off-guard once.

That will never happen again now that she engaged fighting.

Even so, they got up. All six of them got up and looked at Nightmare Moon. Why… Dusk Shield asked in her mind. It’s clear they can’t win… Why they are trying? Why they get up again?

“Okay…” Lightning Dash nodded. “Plan E!”

Lightning Dash and Shadow Blaze threw themselves forward against Nightmare Moon while the others began to run around, Ice Sapphire and Shining Armor throwing magical blasts at her and Golden Breeze forcing the wind into pressure to throw a blade-like wind against the evil alicorn. Nightmare Moon blocked easily all those magical attacks with a single bubble shield, which she promptly changed to hold back the devastating kinetic power of the two ponies leading the charge. Then she just teleported away before another series of magical attacks hit where she was, flapped her wings and with a back-roll, she allowed for Scarlet Boulder pass right under her, then she span in midair and hit the earth mare right in the side, sending her sideways against a wall.

“So you wish to keep the child-play? So be it!” Nightmare Moon said with a smile. “I’ll enjoy bringing terror to your souls!”

The black alicorn shot herself against Golden Breeze. Then she was surprised when the pegasus disappeared in thin air. Looking around, she found her target standing right at Scarlet Boulder’s side, the red earth mare smiling.

“I figured you out! We can’t break your armor because you’ll soon understand what I’m doing…” Scarlet Boulder said simple. “But we’ll give you a lot of trouble, Nightmare Moon!”

“It was a lucky shot!” the night queen pointed her horn at them… only to sudden shift instances and block a punch from Shining Armor whom teleported right at her, he also was smiling. His mistake though, since she wouldn’t miss at this range! A punch from Nightmare Moon was aimed at Shining Armor’s head… but hit air only as he teleported exactly in time. “What?”

“Time dilatation…” Lightning Dash said with a smile. “You’re not really that much faster than us. You could be but you have just come back, so you’re not at your apex. We are, though. And we easily understood that you’re using a time dilatation spell so you can confuse our senses. You’re making us go slower.”

“Understanding my trick doesn’t help you!”

“It does,” Shadow Blaze answered. “We have more than one set of eyes and you would have to focus on a very wide area in order to affect all of us now that were spread. Keeping that and enough power to fight six Knights of Harmony would be taxing, so you just focus in one: your target.”

“That allows all the others to actually see you in your speed,” Ice Sapphire continued. “You’re still faster than us but we can easily manage that speed of yours as we’ve proven two times now. All we have to do is to thrust in our friends and we’ll win!”

Nightmare Moon got furious at that and dashed right at Ice Sapphire. As predicted, the mare teleported with almost no time left, but that gave Nightmare Moon a hint to what was happening. She looked around and flapped her wings, giving another back-roll and, this time, diving hoof-first into the floor. The whole building began to shake for some time but it soon got under control thanks to Scarlet Boulder’s geomancy. However, that was a bait, and they’ve took it. Nightmare Moon could also teleport and soon she was punching the earth mare right in the chest, taking out all of her air and then pushing her in a punch against the floor. The harmony armor protecting Scarlet Boulder was gone instantly. She was about to give the final blow when ice walls formed around the mare with points growing at Nightmare Moon.

Flapping her wings, the evil alicorn flew out of the way and looked around curiously, just to see Ice Sapphire’s horn glowing, but she wasn’t using magic. Then a large ice stone hit Nightmare Moon from behind. Although that hurt, it wasn’t all that bad, and with a quick turn, she punched the stone and turned it to ice dust, which evaporated just as quickly. Her gaze returned to Ice Sapphire.

“Mana Synthesist…” Nightmare Moon said. “Never thought I would see a pony one. You’re dangerous, even if not fully trained.” A blink later, Ice Sapphire jumped to the side, trying to avoid Nightmare Moon’s attack, but didn’t count on a magic blast, which sent her flying against the wall, shattering and dispersing her armor. Nightmare Moon looked to the others and smiled, “Two down, four to go…”

Golden Breeze and Shining Armor prepared themselves to fight when Lightning Dash threw himself forward towards Nightmare Moon. As no surprise, Nightmare Moon evaded easily and was about to attack… when Lightning Dash turned, blocked her hoof with one of his and, with a strong beat of wings, span sideways and hit strongly Nightmare Moon’s face with a hind hoof. The evil mare was sent flying as Lightning Dash landed exactly where she was.

“Breeze and Armor, you two grab Scarlet and Sapphire and get the hell out of here. Blaze and I can take care of her alone,” Lightning Dash said seriously.

“But we didn’t have a chance as a full team and you want to attack them by the two of you alone?” Golden Breeze asked.

“We have ways to fight her,” Shadow Blaze said simple. “Don’t worry with us. She may eventually defeat us, but her armor will be gone by then.”

“Celestia plans on using the Elements of Harmony again, eh?” Nightmare Moon said getting up and looking at Lightning Dash and Shadow Blaze. “I bet she figured out why they didn’t work properly last time, then.”

“That’s none of your business,” Lightning Dash said. “Get ready, Nightmare Moon. Blaze and I will show you why we’re the leaders of our group. The play time is over.”

Upon hearing that, Nightmare Moon let out a laugh at them. Even not believing they could do it, Golden Breeze and Shining Armor took their friends to a safer place. Before they left though, Shining Armor turned to Dusk Shield.

“You’re coming with us?” he asked.

“You… are worried with me?” Dusk Shield asked.

“Shouldn’t we?” Golden Breeze asked. “You’ve been betrayed by Nightmare Moon just like Shadow Blaze was. He’s fighting against that but you’re still frozen in place. You either fight that with them or run away with us.”

“You’ll leave them alone?”

“They’re not alone. They have each other,” Shining Armor said with a smile. “When they fight together, they’re much stronger than their powers summed.”

Dusk Shield looked at the two ponies in front of her and then to the other two fighting the world’s nemesis: whichever choice she made, it would be with her for the rest of her life, and she knew it.

Chapter 17: Final Showdown

Lightning Dash was looking right at Nightmare Moon’s face. So was Shadow Blaze. Both stallions were prepared to face their biggest challenge yet and there was only a minor pressure of the world coming to an end if they failed. A walk in the park.

“You sent your friends away and say you can take me down?” Nightmare Moon asked. “That’s a joke right?”

“Less than a meter,” Shadow Blaze said. “That’s how long you can stretch your Time Dilatation spell. Even with only two to focus, that limit doesn’t stretch too far from it.”

“And we didn’t send them away so you couldn’t attack them. We sent they away so we wouldn’t hurt them,” Lightning Dash finished.

“What?”

Shadow Blaze led the charge this time, his four hooves ablaze with fire as he jumped to strike Nightmare Moon’s chest. The alicorn tried to avoid and counterattack, only to feel a sudden pain on her right side and being thrown away across the room. Once she got her bearings together, she looked at where she was and another wave of pain hit her hard, along with an explosion sound and a cloud of dust.

What really happened was that the timing between Shadow Blaze and Lightning Dash was so perfect that the earth pony attracted the alicorn’s attention and focused her spell, allowing Lightning Dash to use one of his own abilities and tackle Nightmare Moon’s side full force with his body propelled even faster with his flight and lightning magic. The impact sent the alicorn flying, but it was predictable and, with his momentum cut by the impact, Lightning Dash flapped his wings and span sideways, grabbing Shadow Blaze’s hoof and sending him towards their enemy, the earth pony’s strength, the pressure of the attack and his innate fire magic causing the explosion, which also made the earth stallion be propelled backwards towards his partner. Lightning Dash then jumped to his right side as Shadow Blaze did the same to his left side, they being at least three meters far away from the other.

Nightmare Moon got up, as expected, and looked at them furiously. However, The Knights of Harmony’s hopes were higher once more: the right side of Nightmare Moon’s armor laid in shatters at the floor. “How are you doing this! There’s no way you’re using telepathy and your friend with geomancy is knocked out to send your thoughts to each other!”

“We’re not about to tell you our secrets any more than you’re willing to tell yours,” Shadow Blaze said.

“Whatever. I just have to destroy you!” Focusing her magic, Nightmare Moon created a vortex just above her, which opened up to the space. From the vortex, plenty of small stars began to fly against them. Although this spell was fast and highly unpredictable, Shadow Blaze and Lightning Dash seemed to be locating patterns to avoid putting themselves in the line of danger from another star. Behind them, the wall was being punctured with small holes as if hit by plenty of small stones. In the end, Lightning Dash made a lunge forward against Nightmare Moon. The evil alicorn looked at Shadow Blaze instead, knowing that they would be baiting her once more.

Then Lightning Dash gave her plenty of strong and extremely fast lightning-like punches on her left side. They weren’t strong enough to sent her flying, but the damage along with the electricity on the attacks got her stunned enough to stop her spell, allowing Shadow Blaze come hot and punch right on her face with a blazing hoof. Sent backwards again, the alicorn opened her wings wide and flapped them, flying away from the duo, the chest plate of her armor and the helmet completely shattered by the impacts.

Looking furiously at the duo in front of her, Nightmare Moon bared her fangs. “Fine! No more games!”

Both Lightning Dash and Shadow Blaze smiled and nodded, “About time!”

The three of them dashed forwards, ready to clash in the middle of the way… only for Lighting Dash and Shadow Blaze feel a strong hoof punching right on their bellies. Sent backwards a few steps, they then saw that Nightmare Moon was still advancing and connected first at Lightning Dash, one of her hind legs hitting his face, in a long arc and hitting Shadow Blaze’s face barely two seconds later, the strong kicks sending them flying against the wall. Then, she landed on all fours, kicking strongly with her hind legs and opening her wings to dash forward against them once more.

Lightning Dash jumped to his left side and Shadow Blaze jumped to the right, trying to be apart, but Nightmare Moon all but materialized in front of Shadow Blaze, punching on his chest and sending him towards Lightning Dash. Both stallions hit strongly against the wall their armors almost completely shattered now, only the boots and some parts of the torso were on. They looked at Nightmare Moon, trying to understand what was happening when she just vanished…

Only to reappear a little later in front of them, moving in slow motion, much to her own surprise even. Not missing the chance, Lightning Dash and Shadow Blaze attacked together and, with the last of their strength, they attacked from both sides, causing a huge fire and lightning explosion that shattered what was left from both Nightmare Moon and their own armors, and causing the two stallions to be shot back towards the wall on their backs.

They struggled to get on their hooves, trembling and shaking, before looking at their opponent. Nightmare Moon was laying down, also badly damaged, however, her horn glowed and slowly the cuts and damages on her body were healed much to Lightning Dash and Shadow Blaze’s despair. She then summoned a different armor, one that was made of, probably, the same metal of the Nightmare Soldiers’ armors.

“You… I’LL KILL YOU!” her horn charged heavily and pointed at Lightning Dash first. Suddenly, before she could shot, she felt an immense surge of power. It was a teleportation spell. A short time later, she felt another one that made her look away. “Seems like your friends are trying to distract me…”

“No, Nightmare Moon…” Shadow Blaze chuckled. “I can… feel them…, they’re half… the way to… Ponyville. That must be… the ones that… will defeat you.”

“What?”

“Celestia was… gathering… ponies able to… use the… Elements of Harmony… to defeat you…. They must be… trying to find… the Elements… right now…”

Nightmare Moon’s eyes widened in fear. Not even thinking straight, she focused her magic and teleported at the spot the last teleportation spell was directed at, or so they thought. Lightning Dash and Shadow Blaze, then, collapsed.

“BLAZE!” a young voice called and rushed towards the earth pony stallion. Dusk Shield has been watching the whole fight from the outside and now rushed in. “Blaze… are you alright?”

“I’ll… live… Thank you… Dusk…”

“It was… you, right?” Lightning Dash asked with a smile. “Nightmare Moon… was using a… time constriction spell… on herself… in the end…. You used a… time dilatation… spell on her… right?”

Dusk Shield blushed and nodded. Then, before anything else was said, saw a huge flash of light coming from the windows. Not knowing what has happened, Dusk Shield put herself in defensive mode, summoning her own Harmony Armor, before they could finally see that, although it was still night, the sun was raising. Then there was a bang of teleportation and Celestia appeared along with all of their friends.

Celestia smiled and nodded. “You two have done well, Shadow Blaze and Lightning Dash,” she said. “I’ll leave you there for now, but I’ll be back soon. I have someone that I want you to talk with.” Then, with another bang, Celestia disappeared.

Ice Sapphire trotted towards Lightning Dash, looking him all over, “Dash… are you alright?” Without even waiting, she began to cast a healing spell on him, while Shining Armor did the same to Shadow Blaze.

Somewhat revitalized, Lightning Dash smiled at her, “Don’t worry. As said Shadow Blaze, I’ll leave.”

“And what about her?” Golden Breeze asked, pointing to Dusk Shield.

The young filly felt a cold shiver run down her spine. Then Lightning Dash shook his head, “She’s a vital part of defeating Nightmare Moon. Without her, we would probably be dead. I believe that she’ll be a fine Knight of Harmony if so she wishes.”

“ME?” Dusk Shield asked not hiding her surprise. “But I’m… way too young to be a guard!”

“Not a problem, you won’t be joining the guards,” Ice Sapphire smiled. “The Knights of Harmony are a separated force. We fight in the backstage, protecting Equestria from those dangers ponies don’t even know to exist. Words of Celestia: we are to be the heroes, the villains or even the monsters in order to protect Equestria from harm…” As she said the word ‘monster’, she gave an almost unnoticeable pause. Those that noticed, decided not to talk about it.”

“Those were not words of Celestia,” a new voice called from a different room. They all turned to the voice and were surprised to see a much smaller alicorn, pale blue in color with soft curled blue hair and a crescent moon as a cute mark inside a black cloud. They all entered in defensive instance as they noticed who she was. However, the alicorn just shook her head. “Those were Ours. We do not blame you for your reactions. Indeed, We caused a great deal of pain for you all. However, We came to thank you for your efforts. It was thanks to your determination that Miss Sparkle could have the time to find and discover the truth of the Elements of Harmony and free Us from the terror of the Nightmare.”

Shadow Blaze looked at her and tried, not keeping his hopes too high, “Mother Luna?”

A faint smile parted Luna’s lips. “That is a title We are not worth anymore, along with the title of princess,” she said.

Lightning Dash eased then, and nodded, they all slowly breaking their defensive instance. “So you’re reformed? For real?”

Luna only nodded. “Although, it came with a cost. We are too weak for now to use any spells, even telekinesis. We are waiting for the return of Tia so We can go home… wherever that is now. This castle is hardly livable as it is and We doubt that it shall be rebuilt.”

“Mother!” Dusk Shield rushed and hugged Luna, much to the alicorn’s surprise. Luna looked down at her and smiled, hugging her back.

“We told you, We are not worth the title of ‘mother’ anymore. Not after what we did.”

“We don’t care about what you think,” Shadow Blaze smiled and approached her as well. “We are, and will forever be, your Children of the Night.”

Luna looked at them, admiration in her eyes, as her smile grew wider. She opened her forelegs more and Shadow Blaze joined Dusk Shield in an awkward hug, since Luna was about the same size as he was right now. The other could see a small tear slowly leaving the side of Luna’s eyes as she hugged them strongly, yet caringly. Lightning Dash smiled along with the others and nodded softly.

After a while, and drying her eyes, Luna parted the hug and looked at Lightning Dash. “Celestia choose you as team leader, We guess. However, Celestia have no say over you anymore, or over the other pegasus as well.” That caused all of them to widen their eyes. Then Luna continued, “We are the Amazon of Harmony from the pegasi tribe. From now on, after I recover my powers, I’ll be teaching you the techniques that I never taught Celestia. Also, to relieve the burden on her, and keep the tradition of every Master having three Apprentices, we shall also take one of the earth ponies too.”

“But what about me?” Dusk Shield asked.

Luna smiled and kissed her forehead. “You’re assuming I’ll take Shadow Blaze as well. His talent is fire, much better at the control of Celestia than my own. No, I’ll be taking on the big mare over there.”

Scarlet Boulder smiled and nodded. “Will be my honor, Princess Luna.”

There was another bang and a flash of teleport as Celestia returned to her sister. Noticing that Luna was hugging both Shadow Blaze and Dusk Shield, Celestia raised an eyebrow. “I take it you noticed Luna was reformed?”

“Yes. It was quite easy to notice, actually,” Lightning Dash smiled.

“After all, the children always recognize their mother,” Shadow Blaze said.

Celestia just smiled and nodded. “I had a few things to take care off so I couldn’t return immediately. I hope you’re alright, all of you?”

“Probably some severe internal injuries and need for therapy in the future years, but we’ll live. That’s what we’re here for, anyway,” Lightning Dash said with a smile. Then he felt Ice Sapphire poking his side with quite a bit of strength, causing him to shudder on a particularly tender spot.

Luna, though, seemed to understand what happened and just giggled softly. Shadow Blaze, in other hand, noticed he hadn’t known that his partner would say that…

“Dash…”

“Yeah… I noticed it too…” Lightning Dash only nodded.

“What?” Luna asked curiously.

“They were both ‘cursed’ by Cadance with a spell that caused them to feel each other’s emotions,” Celestia explained.

Luna’s eyes widened at that, “That was how you could counterattack Our time dilatation spell!”

“How so?” Dusk Shield asked.

“They had learned to use that link as a weapon during the battle. As We attacked, they would ‘feel’ how the other reacted and did exactly that in a fraction of a second.”

All other Knights there looked at them surprised. “Is that true?”

Luna finally released Shadow Blaze and Dusk Shield, the earth pony walked towards Lightning Dash and hoof-bumped. Celestia just smiled.

“Well, we shall return to Canterlot right now. Are you ready?” As if on cue, three chariots entered through one of the holes opened during the fight, “Let’s get in and go home.”

“Any chance that we can see the girls before we leave?” Lightning Dash asked.

“Sorry, but no,” Celestia answered, “We have to go immediately.”

The knights and Dusk Shield looked between themselves. They knew this was the price they had do pay.