“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”